Lincoln Riley wanted no part of SEC West (or whatever Oklahoma is put in)

Former Arkansas defensive coordinator and interim coach Joe Kines is famously quoted as saying “in the (Southeastern Conference) they slit your throat and drink your blood.”

This quote originated with the Razorbacks joining the conference for the 1991-92 season, but the football team didn’t start league competition until the fall of 1992.

Thirty years later, Oklahoma and its southern rival Texas are preparing to make the move to the conference as well.

Lincoln Riley wasn’t prepared to make that move. He was likely more than aware that two schools in the division (Auburn and LSU) had fired head coaches just two years removed from national championships in the last decade.

Oklahoma hasn’t won a national championship since 2000, and that was with now-interim coach Bob Stoops.

Riley made the College Football Playoff three times in his five seasons in Norman, losing in the semifinals in all three instances. He lost to Georgia, Alabama and LSU in all three of those games, while getting blown out by the Tide and Tigers.

If Oklahoma and Texas were added to the SEC West, let’s say, and Alabama and Auburn were moved to the East, the Sooners would still have to play Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri, Texas A&M and Texas every year.

That isn’t easy, even if the Sooners continue to recruit at the level they have been.

At USC, Riley can recruit just the city of Los Angeles, or southern California, and win 9-10 games a year.

The South Division usually only has two nationally competitive teams besides the Trojans, UCLA and Utah.

Winning PAC-12 titles shouldn’t be difficult.

Winning the SEC West? Yeah, that was going to be a challenge.

Have fun out west, Lincoln.