Tag: Southeastern Conference

Where do the ‘Palace on the Prairie’ and Darrell K. Royal rank among SEC Stadium Capacities?

The Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns have stadium capacities that will fit right in with the SEC.

Part of the allure of college football is the environment in which it’s played.  A college football team’s stadium can bring as much to the sport as what happens on the field. You can’t think of Oklahoma Sooners football without hearing the great Toby Rowland’s voice booming the “Palace on the Prairie” in a pre-game hype video.

If there’s one thing that stands out about the Southeastern Conference, it’s the grandeur that comes with a Saturday in the SEC. The University of Oklahoma and the Texas Longhorns can match the environments that the SEC puts on display every Saturday, but nothing else in the Big 12 comes close to the atmosphere that’s created at an SEC School.

From a capacity perspective, they’ve got some of the biggest stadiums in the world and several venues that dwarf many of the Big 12 schools. The Big 12’s current members have an average capacity of 61,536.5. If you were to take Oklahoma’s Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium out of the equation, the conference’s average capacity drops to 53,651. No other school carries a capacity more than Iowa State’s 61,500 at Jack Trice Stadium.

The SEC’s current members boast an average capacity of 80,262. They have four schools with more than 100,000 seat stadiums led by Texas A&M’s Kyle Field. 11 of the 14 SEC schools have a stadium capacity greater than everyone other than OU and Texas in the Big 12. And while Vanderbilt Stadium’s 40,350-seat capacity would rank last in the Big 12, 13 of the 14 SEC stadiums have a higher capacity than every other school not named Oklahoma, Texas, and Iowa State.

As far as stadium size, the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns are a much better fit in the SEC than the Big 12.

While size isn’t everything, with it, the SEC brings some of the cooler stadium nicknames in all of college football. From Florida’s “The Swamp” in Gainesville to “Between the Hedges” in Athens to Death Valley in Baton Rouge, the SEC venues are just awesome.

While some of those Big 12 matchups will be missed, namely Bedlam, the Longhorns and the Sooners appear to be a better fit as two of college football’s “blue bloods.” The traditions, atmospheres, and stadium capacities you find in Norman and Austin will fit right in among the SEC’s hallowed football stadiums.

Let’s take a look at where Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial and Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial stadiums fit in the SEC capacity rankings.

‘SEC gave Oklahoma a gauntlet in 2024’: Tim Tebow excited to welcome Sooners to SEC

Speaking in reaction to the 2024 SEC opponents reveal, Tim Tebow said the conference “gave Oklahoma a gauntlet.”

We’re still more than a year from the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns officially joining the SEC. However, that move has created so much anticipation that the conference was able to take advantage of the addition of the Big 12 blue bloods with a reveal of the Red River Rivals’ 2024 SEC opponents in a special on the SEC Network.

It had the college football world buzzing and for good reason. It’s a monumental move that sets up the SEC to have a number of incredible matchups throughout the 2024 season and beyond that it can promote to further enhance its brand.

Oklahoma’s SEC schedule has a great many intriguing matchups. And that intrigue is fueled by the strength of the schedule.

“I’m so excited to watch these teams play week in and week out in the SEC,” Tim Tebow told SEC Network’s Peter Burns. “But I gotta tell you, Peter, dang, the SEC gave Oklahoma a gauntlet in 2024. … They got to play Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU, Auburn, Ole Miss and Mizzou. Come on man. Like, what a gauntlet Year 1. Hey, that’s like, you know, giving someone a hug and a spanking at the same time.”

The Oklahoma Sooners SEC opponents for 2024, no doubt, are daunting. But that was kind of the point of the SEC move. To get into the best conference in the country and compete week in and week out.

As Ric Flair so poignantly put it, “to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

There’s no doubt the SEC has been at the top of the mountain for some time. Their teams have dominated the national championships landscape for much of the last two decades. Among Georgia, Alabama, LSU and Florida, they’ve won 14 of the last 17 national titles. An absolutely ridiculous run.

Aside from maybe getting Vanderbilt on the schedule, there wasn’t going to be anything about Oklahoma’s 2024 conference schedule. But the Sooners wouldn’t want it any other way.

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Oklahoma expected to host Alabama in 2024 per ESPN report

With the 2024 SEC schedule set to be released, ESPN’s Chris Low is reporting the Oklahoma Sooners will host the Alabama Crimson Tide.

A new era of college football is set to be revealed during a special on the SEC Network Wednesday night at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network. The show will air from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

We knew Texas will be on the schedule on an annual basis. However, a report from Chris Low of ESPN gives us the second opponent on the eight-game conference schedule for the Sooners.

According to Low’s report, the Sooners will play host to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2024 season.

All 14 existing SEC schools will play either Oklahoma or Texas in 2024, with sources telling ESPN that Georgia will visit Texas and Alabama will travel to face Oklahoma. – Low, ESPN

The SEC is expected to schedule each of their 14 members against Oklahoma or Texas during the 2024 season, which will create a great many interesting matchups throughout the schedule.

Alabama hasn’t made the trip to Norman since 2002, a 37-27 win for the Oklahoma Sooners. OU holds a slight edge in the all-time series, 3-2-1.

The Crimson Tide won the first matchup in the series, 17-0, in the Orange Bowl to end the 1962 season. Alabama’s win in the 2018 College Football Playoff was its first over the Sooners since that 1962 matchup.

Now with Oklahoma joining the SEC, the two teams will become much more familiar with each other, playing twice in a four-year span.

We’re still waiting to find out when the two sides will play during the season, but whichever Saturday the matchup falls, it will create an incredible buzz in Norman.

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‘Growing sentiment’: Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC could come as early as 2024

According to a report from Brett McMurphy of Action Network, there’s “growing sentiment” for an early exit for the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns.

When the news first hit that the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns were moving to the SEC, the next question was, “when?”

From Brett Yormark to the networks that broadcast Big 12 games to the universities, all of the invested parties have maintained that 2025 would be when the move would take place. The Big 12’s current grant of rights agreement expires July 1, 2025. Yormark has also indicated that he’s open to a scenario that allows Oklahoma and Texas to leave early, given it’s a win-win scenario.

According to a report from Brett McMurphy of Action Network, “that timetable has since been accelerated and could even get completed by next month, sources said.”

Apparently, there is growing interest from all sides to work out an early exit agreement that would bring down what Oklahoma and Texas would have to pay in order to get out of the conference and their current media rights deal.

With the SEC’s new media rights deal with ESPN set to start in 2024, there’s an incentive for Oklahoma’s new home in the Southeast Conference and for ESPN, to get the Sooners and Longhorns in the conference earlier than anticipated.

The matchups that the “Worldwide Leader” could promote would bring huge advertising revenue for the media giant. Why wouldn’t they, or the SEC, want to make it happen as soon as possible? The big sticking point is Fox.

Fox is part of the Big 12’s current media rights deal and would hate to lose out on the revenue that Oklahoma and Texas bring to the table. According to McMurphy, the negotiations that will take place to allow OU and Texas to leave early will center on how to make all sides “whole” in the exit.

With the College Football Playoff set to expand in 2024, there’s less concern about expanded super conferences. The Big Ten and the SEC will still have the opportunity to get multiple teams into the playoff despite enhanced competition. For Oklahoma and Texas, they can move early, knowing that there’s a door to the playoff despite the step up in competition.

Last month, the Big 12 worked out a new grant of rights package that will pay them $2.3 billion from 2025 to 2030. A significant increase in revenue for their member institutions.

Playoff expansion, the Big 12’s new media rights deal, the conference’s success in 2022 without OU and Texas leading the way, along with the additions of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF may have opened the door for movement at the negotiating table.

As McMurphy notes, an agreement could be reached as early as next month with “growing sentiment” and “momentum” to come to a resolution.

And if the businessmen are motivated enough, they’ll reach an agreement. Which means Sooners fans better begin planning for some travel to the southeast in 2024.

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Bedlam no more: Athletic Directors cite scheduling as reason for lost rivalry game

Per The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are not planning a nonconference schedule that include Bedlam once OU moves to the SEC.

The announcement of Oklahoma’s future move to the SEC sent shockwaves throughout college football. From a local perspective, it not only surprised Oklahomans but created a sense of animosity from the Sooners’ in-state rival, Oklahoma State.

In the aftermath of Oklahoma’s acceptance into the SEC, Oklahoma State President Kayse Shrum shared her thoughts on the move.

We are disappointed by the lack of engagement and transparency from our colleagues at OU over the past months on a matter with serious ramifications for our state. We have historically worked together to advance our state and address issues based on a partnership built on trust. To that end, we will continue to work with purpose to the advancement of our state and the betterment of our fellow Oklahomans. In the ever-changing college athletic landscape, we will honor our values and ethics as we consider the next steps. Our commitment to our student-athletes is top of mind, and their best interests will be represented prominently. We enjoy a proud athletic heritage with more national championships than any other Big 12 university, and we will aggressively pursue the opportunities ahead. Additionally, our university enjoys a great brand known for education, research, and service, and we will move forward with strength. — Shrum

No mincing words there with her thoughts on the University of Oklahoma. Mike Gundy didn’t hold back either when asked about the future of Bedlam.

I don’t think it will. I just don’t think there’s a business side of it that…I don’t make that decision. I guess Dr. Shrum and Chad Weiberg, they could do whatever they wanted or the board. I don’t know who’s involved in this. I don’t think it’s a realistic thing that it’s going to happen based on the business side of power-five conference football in the Big 12 or the SEC. That’s just my opinion on it. – Gundy

We’ve known Oklahoma State’s thoughts on the matter for some time. OU President Joseph Harroz and Athletic Director Joe Castiglione have maintained that they’d like the game to continue. According to Brett McMurphy of Action Sports, the two sides don’t see a way forward for Bedlam due to scheduling.

McMurphy spoke with the athletic directors of both schools. Chad Weiberg of Oklahoma State and Castiglione of Oklahoma. Oklahoma State’s lack of interest, combined with the reality that nonconference scheduling is planned out so far ahead that both schools are pretty well full, makes it challenging to see a path forward for Bedlam in the next decade.

Oklahoma has planned home and home matchups with SMU, Michigan, Nebraska, and Clemson. Oklahoma State has Arizona State, Arkansas, Nebraska, Alabama, Oregon, and Colorado on the books for future nonconference matchups.

According to McMurphy, OU and OSU prefer to schedule just one Power Five opponent in nonconference. So that provides little room for Bedlam.

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will lock up in mid-November in a game that will have Big 12 title and College Football Playoff implications. It could also be the last Bedlam game for the foreseeable future. While the move to the SEC isn’t expected until 2025, there’s a chance it could come earlier if OU and Texas are willing to pay the price.

While the SEC is exciting, it is a shame that Bedlams won’t be a part of the regular schedule. Hopefully, a time comes when the two schools can come together and make the game happen. It may be a lopsided rivalry, but it’s one that means a lot for both schools and for the state of Oklahoma.

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Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns 2023 recruiting classes compared to future SEC opponents

With the move to the SEC right around the corner, the Sooners’ 2023 recruiting class could be pivotal for their first few years in their new conference.

Sitting atop the Big 12 conference team recruiting rankings midway through July, the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners aren’t simply recruiting for the Big 12. With the impending move to the SEC a year or two away, the Sooners and Longhorns are preparing for their foray into the toughest conference in the country.

Oklahoma and Texas are contractually bound to the Big 12 through the 2024 season because of their current media rights agreement. However, there’s the possibility that the two departing schools and the Big 12 could come to an agreement on a buy-out that’s mutually beneficial.

So if the first year in the SEC becomes 2023 or 2024, the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes will be pivotal to the Oklahoma Sooners’ move to their new conference.

In 2022, the Sooners finished No. 8 in the country in team recruiting rankings and the Texas Longhorns were No. 5. Including OU and Texas with SEC teams, the Sooners were No. 5 and the Longhorns No. 4. The two Big 12 schools have been great recruiters for some time, but the move to the SEC will help solidify their place on the national recruiting scene and more than likely give it a bump as kids look to play against the best competition in the country.

Playing in the SEC is significant on the recruiting trail. In the 2022 cycle, all 14 teams in the conference finished inside the top 32. Even the lowly Vanderbilt Commodores had a top 32 recruiting class, which would have finished fourth in Big 12 recruiting for 2022.

For 2023, the Sooners have made significant progress in the last few weeks to strengthen their recruiting class. They’re the No. 10 team in the country after a July that’s earned them seven commitments. Given that the move to the SEC is right around the corner let’s take a look at how Oklahoma and Texas stack up against their future SEC foes using 247Sports composite team recruiting rankings.

What would life be like for Clemson, its fans, in the SEC?

Shockwaves went through the college sports landscape this month when news broke that Southern Cal and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten starting in 2024. With Oklahoma and Texas already moving to the SEC by 2025 at the latest, the …

Shockwaves went through the college sports landscape this month when news broke that Southern Cal and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten starting in 2024.

With Oklahoma and Texas already moving to the SEC by 2025 at the latest, the aforementioned Pac-12 rivals bolting to the Big Ten only further fueled the chatter that college football could be headed toward super conferences sooner rather than later. With their most recent additions, the Big Ten and SEC are up to 16 football members apiece.

It’s certainly possible that those conferences could continue to expand, and should they, Clemson would clearly be an appealing potential addition for either considering the big-time brand that the Tigers have built.

Hypothetically, what would life be like for Clemson — and its fans — if the Tigers joined the SEC?

While we’re not saying that is going to happen, TCI thought it would be interesting to think about some of the implications that moving to the Southeastern Conference could have.

Of course, instead of watching ACC Network, Clemson fans might be more inclined to tune in to SEC Network and hear what the network’s analysts have to say about the Tigers.

Paul Finebaum has made taking shots at the Tigers a recurring theme and would surely have plenty more negative commentary about Clemson on SEC Network’s The Paul Finebaum Show in the future if Dabo Swinney’s program was to join the SEC.

Aside from that, a Clemson move to the SEC would figure to only further enhance the dynamics of the rivalry with South Carolina.

There is obviously no love lost between the Tigers, Gamecocks and the two fan bases, and if the two schools shared the same conference, it would certainly bring even more juice to the rivalry.

But the rivalry wouldn’t just be fueled by disdain for one another and Palmetto State bragging rights — the outcomes of games between Clemson and South Carolina would have an impact on the SEC standings as well and add another element in that regard.

Clemson heading to the SEC would intensify the rivalry with Georgia, too. Prior to the two teams’ season-opening meeting in Charlotte last year, the Tigers and Bulldogs had met just four times in the 2000s and four times in the ’90s after playing every year from 1962-87, with the exception of 1966 and 1972.

Bouts between the two teams would once again become a more regular occurrence if Clemson joined the SEC, and you’d expect those games to not only be meaningful in the conference title race but in the bigger, College Football Playoff picture as well.

And while some folks seem to think Clemson wouldn’t fare too well against the competition the SEC has to offer, it’s worth mentioning that in his career as the Tigers’ head coach, Swinney is 19-11 against SEC opponents.

With a 30-0 win over South Carolina this past season, Swinney improved to 8-5 against the Gamecocks. And even with a loss to the eventual National Champions to kick off last year’s regular-season slate in Charlotte, Swinney has compiled an 11-6 record against SEC teams not named South Carolina.

Overall, competing in the SEC would figure to improve Clemson’s strength of schedule, as well, and allow the Tigers to more frequently play teams they battle a lot on the recruiting trail.

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In the new-look SEC how could the conference align its ‘permanent rivals?’

With discussions of a 3-6 model for the SEC, what could the permanent rivals look like for the future of the conference?

With the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns set to make the move for the SEC potentially as early as the 2023 season, SEC leadership has been in discussions about how to put together the conference schedule.

With 16 teams, there have been considerations of going to divisions or pods, but it seems the system that’s gotten the most traction is one where the teams in the conference play three or four permanent rivals and then five or six games against the remainder of the SEC on a rotating basis.

Another part of the discussion is how many conference games to play. If the SEC plays nine conference games, that potentially eliminates a nonconference game. Last season, each member of the SEC played four nonconference games. They played seven SEC games to give them 11 total regular season games in 2021.

To stay at 11 games and play nine SEC games, the conference would have to cut two of their nonconference games. Not much of an issue for the top of the conference who are going to make bowl games, but the middle of the conference might want that extra non-conference

Nick Saban recently spoke on the idea of scheduling and he favors dropping a non-conference game.

He brings up a valid question. Will other conferences play more games inside the conference as the SEC will? At the same time, the SEC’s been notorious for scheduling FCS schools as part of their nonconference schedule.

If the SEC ends up settling on three permanent opponents and nine total games in the conference, there are a lot of interesting possibilities that could come together as the permanent opponents for each of the 16 members of the new-look SEC.

There isn’t a perfect model and it’ll be a struggle to keep every annual matchup together but after several attempts and discussions with analysts who cover teams in the SEC, this could be how the future of the SEC looks in regards to permanent opponents.

I’m sure there are fans out there that won’t love the permanent opponents that were listed for their team, but this is the undertaking that Greg Sankey and the SEC are working through. After countless hours of discussion and brainstorming, this is a pretty good look at what the permanent opponents in the SEC could look like.

I fully anticipate being roasted a bit for this, but it was fun working through the process.

‘SEC only’ playoff part of the discussion for the future of the conference

As the SEC met this week, it was revealed that one option they’re discussing for the future of the conference was an SEC-only playoff.

Now, this would be fun.

As a fanbase, we can stop beating around the bush and say this: SEC Football is better than anything else in college football. If it was possible, the SEC could probably send at least three teams to the College Football Playoff every year, and it would be no worse of a product.

Alabama, Georgia, and Texas A&M all would have been worthy participants in the playoff last year, but that’s not something the fans would ever get under the current format of the college football postseason.

With college football planning to stick with the current playoff format through the 2025 season, an SEC playoff would be a fun way to add a bit more flavor to the end of football season for the schools not named Alabama and Georgia.

After SEC commissioner Greg Sankey worked with Bob Bowlsby and other commissioners to develop an expansion plan that made sense for everyone, “The Alliance” of Big 10, ACC, and Pac-12 conferences backed out at the last minute, citing “more pressing issues” at the time.

Sankey hasn’t held back in vocalizing his disappointment as the playoff expansion talks fell apart.

“People apparently didn’t take me seriously when I said we can leave it at four,” Sankey shared with the media a few weeks ago. “So I sat there watching that (Alabama-Georgia) game, thinking they just thought I wasn’t serious.”

The SEC seems to be weighing its options, and nothing is set in stone yet with so much in play. ESPN had more on this with some words from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.

Sankey stressed that no seismic change is imminent. But he did mention that an SEC-only playoff, in a variety of forms, was among the nearly 40 different models that SEC officials discussed at their recent meetings.

“As we think as a conference,” he said via Pete Thamel of ESPN on Monday, “it’s vitally important we think about the range of possibilities.”

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin echoed that notion to ESPN:

“We have an incredibly strong league, one that will be even stronger once Oklahoma and Texas join.” Stricklin shared with Thamel. “The focus should be on how we as a league use that strength to further position the SEC as we face new realities. Commissioner Sankey has encouraged our athletic directors to think creatively, and an SEC-only playoff is a different idea that we should absolutely consider an option.”

Sankey is dead on here. There are so many strong programs in the SEC, and at least one more is on the way when the Sooners and Longhorns join.

This is something to watch over the next few years, as many things could push these ideas forward or backward. Is this posturing by Sankey and the SEC? Could they be using their leverage as the strongest conference brand in college football to put pressure on the rest of the Power Five, namely “The Alliance?” Could he be testing the waters on this idea to see how schools and fanbases feel about an SEC playoff that could be worth big-time money in their next media rights negotiations?

The SEC hasn’t committed to what the schedule will look like with OU and Texas as they might stick with divisions, or they could go with four-team pods. Adding Texas and Oklahoma to the big-time brands the SEC already boasts gives them incredible drawing power.

I like the three and six schedule with three games against permanent rivals annually and rotating through the other six. Coincidentally, I designed my own four-team pods for the SEC, and this is what I came up with: