College football is a far cry from what it was the last time the Oklahoma Sooners won a national championship. Shoot, it’s vastly different from the last time the Sooners won a conference title in 2020.
Conference realignment, the transfer portal, and name, image, and likeness have created a vastly different sport than the one many of us grew up on. And it’s a sport that sits on a foundation of shifting sands. We haven’t seen the last of the changes in the game we love as networks, conference commissioners, and the playoff committee continue to evolve the sport.
But over the last couple of seasons, things have begun to shift in the sport. For much of the last decade and a half, the SEC had run the sport. Since 2003, the SEC had won 14 of the 21 national championships awarded. Georgia, Alabama, LSU, and Florida each won multiple national titles, and Auburn earned one for good measure.
From 2006 through 2023, the SEC won 13 of the 18 national championships. Over the years, a talent disparity grew between the SEC and the rest of the nation. Whether you look at recruiting rankings or the number of players selected in the NFL draft by conference, the SEC had created a gap in talent.
But over the last two years of the College Football Playoff, we’re seeing the gap is closing according to Dan Wolken of USA TODAY Sports.
A cynic might say that once it became legal to pay players, the SEC no longer had an advantage in, um, talent acquisition. But a more generous interpretation of the current climate doesn’t even need to invoke tales of nefariousness. It’s simply a fact that stockpiling talent is harder now, and recruits who might have been ticketed for the SEC in past years are organically landing at a wider group of programs. – Wolken, USA TODAY Sports
Michigan beat Alabama last year in the championship game. This year, Tennessee lost to Ohio State and Georgia lost to Notre Dame. Both SEC squads opened the playoff with a loss. Texas, a team that fell in the semifinals of last year’s CFP are the only SEC team remaining after surviving a scare from Arizona State.
The NFL experienced something similar when they introduced free agency and then the salary cap. Player movement created more parity in the sport. Even programs that appear to have unlimited resources don’t really. It’s not like Oregon, Tennessee, or Texas have the resources of the New York Yankees or Dallas Cowboys. Do they have a lot of financial backing, sure, but those programs are still losing talented players. Whether it’s Texas losing Johntay Cook to the portal or Oregon losing 2025 five-star quarterback signee Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele, teams can’t hang onto everyone. Donors are throwing a ton of money into collectives, and you’re still not seeing 100% player retention.
Add to that the reduction in scholarships and roster space and programs are forced to watch talent walk out the door.
The SEC’s hold on college football has weakened. Even for a program like Oklahoma that struggled in year on in the SEC. The reality is they aren’t as far off from contending for a playoff spot as one might think. Alabama isn’t Alabama of the past. They’re really good, but they’ve proven susceptible to less talented teams. Georgia, who dominated for two years en route to back-to-back national titles, were beaten at their own game by the Fighting Irish.
Oklahoma is a functional offense away from being in the mix with the top programs in the SEC, given the strides the defense has made under Brent Venables.
The Sooners made sweeping changes on the offensive side of the ball, only really keeping the running back and offensive line rooms intact. They have a lot of pieces to pull together to make the offense more effective in 2025. But if they can, Oklahoma will better next season.
College football is as wide open as it has been in 20 years. Even though it’s been a minute since the Sooners made the playoff, what’s happened to the SEC over the last two seasons opens the door for the Sooners to ascend the conference hierarchy.
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