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Needless to say, things aren’t going well for Texas through the first nine weeks of the season.
Needless to say, things aren’t going well for Texas through the first nine weeks of the season. Continue reading “WATCH: Baylor fans chant “S-E-C!” during win over Texas”
Here are five thoughts on the Big 12’s latest round of expansion that includes BYU, UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati.
The Big 12 conference has seen a big shakeup over the last couple of months. Arguably, no conference has been hit harder by realignment than the Big 12. Before the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns made their joint announcement that they’d be leaving the conference for the SEC, the Big 12 had already been robbed of four of their programs.
Amidst the last round of realignment, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas A&M, and Missouri left for the Pac-12, Big 10, and SEC. Two major brands in college football walked out the door and the Big 12 was left struggling for answers.
With just eight schools left, they decided expanding to 10 was the only move that made sense at the time and added TCU and West Virginia to their ranks. It was a move they had to make, but in light of who left, the Big 12 certainly took a net loss.
And here we are a decade later and the Big 12 is looking at the loss of their two premier programs, but are getting a bit more proactive at expansion to replace Oklahoma and Texas.
According to a report from The Athletic (subscription required), the Big 12 is looking at adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF to their ranks.
They’re moving swiftly to respond to the loss of OU and Texas and here are five thoughts on the latest talks of Big 12 expansion.
Speaking to the media, Eric Gray discussed a variety of things from his decision to come to Norman and acclimating to OU and the offense.
As the 2021 season inches closer, there isn’t a more anticipated debut than that of Eric Gray’s for the Oklahoma Sooners. After putting on an impressive display of athleticism and big-play ability at Tennessee and in the Oklahoma Sooners’ spring game, the buzz around Eric Gray has crescendoed over the last six months.
Soon, all of the hype will give way to what he does on the field. In a loaded backfield with Kennedy Brooks, Marcus Major and Tre Bradford, Gray and the Sooners will have opportunities for big plays out of the running back position.
Ahead of fall camp, Eric Gray was one of 10 players to meet with the media via Zoom, and he was asked about a host of things including his time in the SEC and the players he faced that are now teammates.
Despite speculation that the Sooners could move to the SEC as early as 2022, television contracts for the SEC and Big 12 could slow it down.
Since the initial report broke that the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns were exploring a move to the Southeastern Conference, speculation has run rampant about when a move might occur for the Big 12’s premier programs.
Many believe the Sooners could be on the move as early as 2022 despite being bound to the Big 12 through their media rights agreement through 2024. The two schools would first have to get out of their current media rights agreements. That could result in a penalty for breaking the contract, or other legal ramifications were the two schools to break their agreement early.
Pete Thamel, who covers college football for Yahoo Sports!, provided further details into the SEC’s media rights agreement.
A few things to ponder when waiting to find out when Texas and OU start in the SEC. The current SEC TV deal with CBS runs out after the 2023 football season. (That deal is a terrible deal for the SEC, excellent for CBS at around $55 million for best games and SEC title game) 1/5
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 2, 2021
While the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns will be big draws in the SEC’s next media rights negotiations, the SEC is locked in through 2023. ESPN won’t have full broadcast rights for the SEC until the 2024 season, which happens to be the final year that the Sooners and Longhorns are contractually obligated to the Big 12.
As Thamel notes, the exit fees for the two exiting Big 12 schools is $150 million combined. That’s an amount of money that would make it very difficult for either University to justify giving the Big 12 to leave. Even with the promise of bigger revenues with the SEC, could they sell their boards and fans on the idea that in the long-term, they’ll make more?
That’s a difficult proposition.
Contracts can be renegotiated, though, again as Thamel notes, CBS, the current broadcast partner of the SEC, hasn’t shown a willingness to pay extra for big games in the past. So there’s a bit of uncertainty as to whether or not they’d give an expanded SEC more money to broadcast Oklahoma and Texas games. So the current 14-team SEC would have to be willing to share the money in their current agreement. It’s possible, but it would mean a smaller cut for each school in the short term.
Once the SEC’s current media deal is complete and the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns are officially a part of the SEC, it’s a whole new ball game. The future earnings in media rights deals will be astronomical. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to broadcast Oklahoma vs. Alabama or Texas vs. Alabama every single year? That in addition to the already mammoth games the SEC puts on television on an annual basis. Then you throw in arguably the biggest rivalry in all of college football in the Red River Rivalry, and the SEC is going to be able to get whatever they want from the networks to broadcast their games.
Unfortunately, there’s no telling when this will all take place. There’s a lot of negotiating that will take place behind the scenes to make an Oklahoma and Texas exit more amenable for both the schools and the Big 12. But even after they come to an agreement that works for both sides, the SEC’s own media rights deal could prevent an OU-Texas migration to the Southeastern Conference.
With the Oklahoma Sooners move to the SEC, the team should see a bump in recruiting.
The future move to the Southeastern Conference will bring several benefits to the Oklahoma Sooners. There will be a big financial windfall and the SEC with great matchups nearly every week on the schedule. While the competition will be even greater in the SEC, there will be greater intrigue on the schedule when the Sooners line up their new conference opponents.
Another aspect where the Oklahoma Sooners will get a competitive bump is on the recruiting trail. The SEC’s brand and competitive nature is a draw for the top recruits in the southeast, Texas, and on the west coast. Oklahoma has always done a good job recruiting on a national scale. As they prepare to move to the SEC, the Sooners will benefit from recruiting under the SEC’s brand.
For better or worse, the SEC has become a breeding ground for future NFL talent at schools across the conference. As recruiting analyst for OUInsider.com and 247Sports, Parker Thune noted on the Locked On Sooners Podcast that even schools like South Carolina produced first-round NFL talent in a down year.
Thune believes that the Sooners are already well-positioned to have one of the top recruiting classes for 2023. With the move to the SEC, it’s possible Oklahoma ends up with the number one recruiting class.
As high school kids look at potential colleges to attend, part of their decision-making process involves which school can help them reach the next level. For better or worse, the Big 12 hasn’t had the same level of success at putting players into the NFL as the SEC.
12 of the players selected in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft were drafted out of the SEC. 22 of the first 64 players selected hailed from the Southeastern Conference.
By comparison, the Big 12 had just three players selected in the first two rounds of last year’s draft, and all three of them were selected in the second round.
That’s an incredibly huge difference in the level of respect the Big 12 receives compared to the SEC. Players like Ronnie Perkins and Creed Humphrey should have been considered in the first round or at least in the top 50, but for some reason, Humphrey wasn’t taken until the last pick of the second round. Perkins wasn’t drafted until late in the third.
Even schools like Vanderbilt and Kentucky had players selected higher than the Oklahoma Sooners did in last year’s draft.
That’s a level of respect for the talent that the Oklahoma Sooners and the Big 12 just aren’t getting at this point. With success in the NFL draft brings something you can show to your recruits. Now the Sooners have had success in recent years with their top quarterbacks and wide receiver talent, but the Big 12 as a whole isn’t providing the same level of respect for the talent amongst its schools as the SEC does.
Though it will be years before we see the SEC’s overall impact on the Oklahoma Sooners recruiting efforts, it’s safe to say that the SEC puts players into the first round of the NFL draft at a higher rate than the Big 12.
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Ranking the most intriguing SEC matchups now that the Oklahoma Sooners have formally been invited to the conference.
On Thursday it all came to a head as expected, the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns were both given an invitation. The SEC presidents voted 14-0 in favor of the top two schools in the Big 12 coming over in 2025.
While no one expects it to take that long, the worst-case scenario would be for OU to join in time for the 2025 season. On Friday, they are expected to officially accept the invitation. The Oklahoma Board of Regents will make that decision during their meeting.
With that much behind us, there is the subject of SEC football to discuss. Thoughts of future matchups are already on the mind of many. What games will stand out? The return of Missouri-Oklahoma is on that list. Perhaps a return series for Oklahoma against Texas A&M?
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John Williams ranks the most intriguing matchups in the SEC for the Oklahoma Sooners.
A move to the SEC may make challenging for a conference title more difficult, but doesn’t change their College Football Playoff prospects.
The ever-evolving landscape of college football continues to provide the top storyline in the country. Today, the Southeastern Conference Presidents will meet to discuss and vote on admission petitions from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas to be the 15th and 16th members of the conference.
It’s expected that the vote will be unanimous despite early objections from Texas A&M officials. Though it will only require 11 “yes” votes for the measures to pass, it now appears like all 14 schools will welcome the Sooners and Longhorns with open arms.
One of the many talking points about the pending move for the Oklahoma Sooners is what this does to their college football playoff or national championship aspirations. That’s at the forefront now as the Sooners head into 2021 as one of the favorites to win the national championship. While the road to the conference championship gets rockier in the SEC, the Sooners’ prospects of making the College Football Playoff doesn’t change much.
It wasn’t long ago that the powers that be in college football came up with and released a proposal that would expand the playoff system from four to 12 teams. In a 12 team system, which could go into effect as early as 2022, the Oklahoma Sooners would have just as good a shot as anyone to make the College Football Playoff.
In the proposal, the top four seeds would go to the highest-ranked conference champions. The Group of Five would finally get representation with the highest-ranked conference champion getting admitted to the playoff. Six of the seeds would go to the highest-ranked conference champion, but the Power Five conference champions would not be guaranteed a spot in the playoff.
For example, the 2020 Oregon Ducks won the PAC 12 championship but remained unranked after toppling USC. Though they won their championship, there were six other conference champions that were ranked higher in the last USA Today Coaches Poll before bowl season kicked off.
Looking at that final poll from an SEC perspective, nothing changes much for the Sooners.
In that final poll, the SEC had four teams in the top 10: Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia, and Florida. Were there a college football playoff in 2020, it’s likely at least three SEC schools are admitted to the playoff. It’s not outside the realm of possibility to think as many as four SEC schools could have made the playoff last season.
Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, and Coastal Carolina represent the six highest-ranked conference champions. Because Notre Dame was relevant in 2020, ranked fourth in the country at the end of the season, they’d get a spot. That leaves five more spots to provide at-large bids to the rest of the country.
Texas A&M and Georgia would have been admitted to a 12-team playoff format and then there are three more spots that could have gone to Iowa State, Florida, Indiana, Northwestern, North Carolina, BYU, Iowa, Louisiana-Lafayette, or Miami.
Iowa State and Indiana probably get two of those at-large bids as the runner-ups in the Big 12 and Big 10. Then that final spot is a free for all but it would be difficult to argue against Florida. Even as the second-best team in the SEC East, there’s certainly an argument that those other options listed above aren’t as good a team as Florida was.
Even from a conservative analysis, the Oklahoma Sooners would enter the SEC as one of the top four or five teams in the conference. At best, they’re the second or third best team in the SEC.
In an SEC that has dominated the college football landscape, getting three teams in the college football playoff seems all but certain and in most seasons, they’ll get a fourth. That’s just how the conference is viewed from a national perspective.
Oklahoma missed out on their first college football playoff in 2020 after a 8-2 season that culminated with a sixth Big 12 Championship and a Cotton Bowl win over the Florida Gators. in a 12-team format, the Sooners are all but guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. Even though the conference schedule gets tougher in the SEC and they’ll be less likely to dominate the conference championship scene the way they have in the Big 12, they’ll still be one of the favorites in the conference. Even if they finish third or fourth in the conference, they’ll still have an inside track at getting into the college football playoff.
And in the playoffs, anything can happen.
Former Alabama Crimson Tide and current Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs provided his thoughts on the Oklahoma Sooners’ SEC interest
Everyone in the sports world has been talking about college football realignment in the last several days. Ever since the report came out from the Houston Chronicle, the sports world has been captivated by what’s going to happen with the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns.
Even after a meeting with the Big 12, the schools made their intentions official when they announced yesterday that they would not be renewing their grant of rights agreement with the Big 12 when they expire in 2025.
Even at Dallas Cowboys training camp, the subject came up as The Athletic’s Jon Machota was talking with former Alabama Crimson Tide Cornerback Trevon Diggs.
Former Bama star Trevon Diggs on Oklahoma joining the SEC: "They should've been there. They've rolled thru everybody in the league they're in, so they can come play some big boy ball now. … They'll definitely be up there (in the SEC). They'll be one of those teams after Bama."
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) July 25, 2021
The Oklahoma Sooners have won six straight Big 12 Championships. They’re the favorite to win a seventh straight. As Diggs says, they’ve been rolling through the Big 12. At some point, a new challenge is needed. And by all accounts, the Southeastern Conference is where they’ll find it.
Trevon Diggs is no stranger to Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners, facing the Sooners in the 2018 Orange Bowl, a matchup the Crimson Tide won.
Based on our projections of how the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns would stack up in a newly realigned SEC, Diggs has it pegged pretty accurately.
The SEC has dominated the national championship landscape. Since Texas won the Big 12’s last national championship in 2005, the SEC has won 11 of the last 15 national championships spanning the Bowl Championship Series and College Football Playoff.
Though the Big 12 has been a strong conference during its time, it lost a bit of luster after the last round of realignment. The losses of Nebraska, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Colorado hurt the conference though those schools have had mixed results since leaving. The reality is the Big 12 lost some of its brand power and depth with that last realignment.
The SEC presidents will meet this Thursday and it’s expected they’ll vote on adding Oklahoma and Texas to their membership. Universities hoping for admission require 11 of the 14 schools to vote “yes.”
After months of leg work out in by Oklahoma, Texas, and the SEC, it seems inevitable that the two Big 12 schools will be headed that direction.
Though there’s no telling at the moment exactly win a move to the SEC could occur, there’s some speculation it could come as early as 2022. Whenever it comes, new matchups and new rivalries are on the horizon for the Sooners.
After reports surfaced Wednesday afternoon, the Sooners and Longhorns made their grant of rights plans official in joint statement.
What has been expected since Wednesday has come to pass. The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns are on their way out of the Big 12.
After several days of reports, the University of Oklahoma officially announced in a joint statement with the University of Texas that the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will break with the Big 12 when their grant of media rights expires in 2025.
Though the Sooners “intend to honor their existing grant of rights agreement,” they believe that providing notice at this juncture was important “in advance of the expiration of the conference’s current media rights agreement.”
Oklahoma officially joins Texas in sending letter to the Big 12 on intentions of leaving: pic.twitter.com/y8KdNQ7SQS
— Patrick (@PatSportsGuy) July 26, 2021
While both universities intend to honor the existing agreements, they did leave space for that to change as they “continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate landscape.”
College football as we know it has been upended over the last couple of months. Just as the name, image and likeness era has begun, two of the Big 12’s premier college football teams will be migrating to a new conference, presumably the Southeastern Conference.
Though nothing’s official at this stage, it’s expected the Sooners and the Longhorns will land in the SEC when it comes time to announce their new conference affiliation.
After reports surfaced Wednesday afternoon, the Sooners and Longhorns made their grant of rights plans official in joint statement.
What has been expected since Wednesday has come to pass. The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns are on their way out of the Big 12.
After several days of reports, the University of Oklahoma officially announced in a joint statement with the University of Texas that the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will break with the Big 12 when their grant of media rights expires in 2025.
Though the Sooners “intend to honor their existing grant of rights agreement,” they believe that providing notice at this juncture was important “in advance of the expiration of the conference’s current media rights agreement.”
Oklahoma officially joins Texas in sending letter to the Big 12 on intentions of leaving: pic.twitter.com/y8KdNQ7SQS
— Patrick (@PatSportsGuy) July 26, 2021
While both universities intend to honor the existing agreements, they did leave space for that to change as they “continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate landscape.”
College football as we know it has been upended over the last couple of months. Just as the name, image and likeness era has begun, two of the Big 12’s premier college football teams will be migrating to a new conference, presumably the Southeastern Conference.
Though nothing’s official at this stage, it’s expected the Sooners and the Longhorns will land in the SEC when it comes time to announce their new conference affiliation.
