Where’d we leave off in the Big 12 realignment epic? Oh right, nobody really loves being there. After the 2017 NFL draft made the league look like a pile of wet laundry being dragged along by Oklahoma (an impression backed up by recent on-field performance), rumor people started rumoring that the Sooners would like to leave for the SEC.
The Oklahoma Sooners should just join every conference
If we’re gonna have these OU rumors annually, let’s go ahead and have all of them at once.
Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
On some level, that’s without a doubt true. As native Oklahoman Bill Connelly explains on Podcast Ain’t Played Nobody:
OU is unhappy. Yes. They are unhappy. This is one of those things where you can kind of tell it bleeds over into the fan base. OU fans are definitely to the stage where it just takes a little piece of information for an avalanche of ‘WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE.’ To the extent that I have any real OU sources, they have long been to that stage. They are tired of the Big 12 being terrible.
I’m assuming the original radio dude’s sourcing was actually not terrible. We know that, while [school president] David Boren is the most self-serving, wants-to-feel-important-on-camera person, there are a hundred more behind the scenes who don’t care about being on camera, but will talk. I believe it’s one of these Oklahoma people who wants to point out how important OU is.
Nothing significant has changed on the OU front over the last near-decade. Boren has always been the loudest advocate for conference change, primarily via expansion. The Sooners have now been connected by one rumor or another to three other power conferences.
So! Here’s why the Sooners should just put us all out of our misery and join every conference at once in 2025, when the current Big 12 deal expires.
- Pac-12: Remember how this almost happened in 2010 and then almost happened again? The Pac-12 doesn’t seem quite as forward-thinking as it did at the time, but there’s the argument that the conference is setting itself up well for the post-cable revenue era. Either way, it makes about as much money per school as the Big 12 does, but with more stability and equality. And better football lately. And don’t you miss your two-time Big 12 title game opponent Colorado?
- Big Ten: If OU leaves, “don’t sleep on the Big Ten,” writes local columnist Berry Tramel. A lot to offer: money; academic whatever; money; a reunion with rival Nebraska; way more money; accompaniment by some combination of Texas, Kansas, or an East Coast school; so much more money; bigger-name opponents; cash paper; an even less numerically accurate conference name; and buckets of money. Might be harder to recruit Texas, but at least there’s money.
- A mid-major conference: If Boren wants to play Cincinnati and whoever so badly, this is one way to do it.
- ACC: Per one 2011 rumor, the ACC was willing to let Texas keep its Longhorn Network setup. The Pac-12 wasn’t. Any realignment daydream involving either UT or OU could be expanded to also involve the other. So what I’m trying to sell you on is Boston College-Oklahoma on the Sooner Network in 2026. A dream come true!
- Independence: If BYU can make it work, Oklahoma certainly can. It’s not like Oklahoma carrying all the weight around here would be anything new.
- SEC: Pretty much the same thing as the B1G argument, except more people believe you mean serious business if you threaten to join the Power 2 conference that’s more open about the money part and less concerned with the academic-whatever part.
Anyway, many Big 12 member officials remain unsatisfied. Let’s do this again next year!
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