A move southeast

Many major life-changing decisions present with little if any warning and are often made with a minimum of deliberation and sometimes in outright haste. Some of the most lifestyle-altering selections are made by parties far removed and above and beyond control of most of those affected by them. Some choices may seem impromtu on their face, but have actually been a long time intention. For better or worse, they can set in motion a course direction that can ultimately deliver ubiquitous benefit, universal detriment or perhaps a little or a lot of each. Such is the case for two major college sports collectives that are definitely changing their conference affiliations. One is not far off the beaten path of the Mother Road in Norman, OK and the other is a healthy drive south on Interstate 35 in Austin, TX.

Along this stretch of Old Route 66 we live and die by Oklahoma and Oklahoma State football. For all my life up to 1995, this was undisputedly Big 8 Conference country. I along with so many other OU alumni felt a boost of pride and surging sense of hope for the future of our beloved home state when it was announced in 1994 that a new superconference was forming. The membership included ALL the old Big 8 Conference and the upper tier of the dying Southwest Conference under the banner of the Big XII Conference. It was projected at the time that the two-division league would garner some 15% of the overall sports media market. It was a good thing for the two Oklahoma programs because their traditional rivalies remained pretty much or at least partially intact. One thing that turned out to be a true negative was the burden of playing a conference championship game that despite being a wonderful showcase of division excellence bestowed no real benefit with regard to polling and national ranking. All seemingly went well in the Big XII until year 2011, when there was a huge conference realignment. Texas A&M and Missouri left the league for the Southeastern Conference, Nebraska left for the Big 10 and Colorado departed for what became the Pac 12. To recoup some lost numbers, the Big XII invited in Texas Christian University and West Virginia for a total of ten members. It was never the same, especially with a member so far outside the region, but the name never changed.

Since long before I was an alumini of the University of Oklahoma and a season ticket holder, Sooner Football has been the one attraction that commands the most attention in the state on autumn Saturdays. Up until two years ago, I made it a point to make it to every home game that I possibly could. Once in a while I would even follow the Team on the road to places like Stillwater, Lubbock, Tulsa (literally just a block and a half up the street from my old house) and when I was in the Navy I even made it to places like Ames, IA, Columbia, MO, Syracuse, NY, San Diego and Berkeley, CA. To say the Sooners have a Top 10 caliber fan base in an understatement. In the past two decades the OU Athletic Department has made maximum use of all football revenues and donor monies. The OUAD has built a conditioning center that will match any professional football team’s, an indoor practice complex that outclasses most lower tier school’s gameday facilities and a world class stadium with amenities that makes it live up to its media moniker,”Palace on the Prairie.”

The unique characteristic of professional football in the United States is that it has no real minor leagues as do other major big money sports such as baseball. College football IS the minor leagues of the Pros. In every NCAA institution, football is the economic engine that pulls the rest of the athletic department train, so to speak. I do realize Title IX is the law of the land and this is in no way shape or form intended as a slight or a slam on women’s athletics, but sports like lacrosse, women’s golf and volleyball just do not rake in the money the way football does. I will vouch because my football season tickets (six home games) for two bleacher bench seats have gone from $450 in 1999 to over $1000 this year. Tickets to games with headliner opponents usually sell for $85 apiece or higher. There is also big money in coaching college football. The public record shows that OU Head Coach Lincoln Riley is the highest paid state employee in all of Oklahoma.

About a month ago, the NCAA adopted a policy change that removes all pretense of amateurism and the veneer of the title”student athlete” from college football. Under this new Name-Image-Likeness policy, college players will be able to receive direct payment for the use of their name, image and likeness. It remains to be determined how that will affect their scholarship privileges but with the cash flow expected, it will likely matter little if at all. Much like the coaching ranks, college students will now be able to rack up the big bucks while still officially a “student.” I would not doubt this policy change factored in to some degree to the decision for OU and Texas to step up to a more competitive conference with even greater visibility.

As was stated in the opening paragraph, many life-changing decisions present with little or no warning and are often made in haste. Being a follower of Oklahoma Football, I heard the first murmurings of this move to the SEC as they were spit out of the rumor mill last Monday. It is official as of this Monday via joint statement that Oklahoma and Texas intend to move to the Southeastern Conference, timeframe on the move still to be determined. My initial impression was that it made much more sense in terms of regional proximity than The Big XII bringing in West Virginia. It will bode well for OU to step up recruiting and compete in what many sports pundits claim to be the NCAA’s top tier premier conference.

This major lifestyle change is still a very new concept and we Sooner fans are taking our time making the adjustment. Much is being said and hashed out among the remaining members of the Big XII, particularly Oklahoma State, who has not been stingy with their disdain for OU’s decision to leave. The future of the conference has all of a sudden become uncertain and the two programs moving to the SEC may not be the only ones leaving, according to the rumors floating around this week. I will believe that when I see it, but it would not be a bad idea to invite two more or better yet, four other programs to join the Big XII for a return to a real 12-team conference. At the end of the day there is most certainly a completely new lay of the land for college football. Make no mistake though, as with any other business decision it was made based on the dictates of the bottom line and was probably in negotiation long before anyone heard about it. All anyone wearing crimson & cream can say is Boomer Sooner and let’s play ball!

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