At Oklahoma, the standard of excellence just means more

On July 29, 2021, the Southeastern Conference presidents and chancellors voted to extend an invitation to membership to the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas.

The vote — which was unanimous despite a tidal wave of trepidation from College Station, Texas — eventually led to the greatest chain of conference realignment that college athletics has ever seen.

This seismic move from the nation’s premier athletic conference started something of an arms race between the SEC and the Big Ten, and now, nearly three years later, we will see the fruits of their labors go into effect.

As Oklahoma and Texas cross the threshold of the SEC's front door this morning, there’s a sense of mystery and wonder from college football fans and pundits across the nation.

To this point, folks in SEC country seem to believe that Texas is the big-ticket item in this realignment plunder and that the Sooners were little more than a bargain add-on that sweetens the deal just enough to make it worth mentioning.

Fans from all over the South are seeing the Longhorns' talent-laden roster as the opposition for the first time. It's causing quite a stir among those fanbases, too — and for good reason. After all, UT is coming off its first conference title since 2009 and its first-ever College Football Playoff appearance.

There's plenty of reason for Texas to be feared in the new-look SEC, but let's get one thing straight: The team that dominated the Big 12 over the last three decades is found just north of the Red River, not south of it.

While it might be true that the team down in Austin is drawing most of the attention, it's really that Norman bunch that threatens to shake the foundations of the conference for both the immediate and unforeseeable future.

It's true — the path ahead for conference title No. 51 gets a lot tougher for Oklahoma as it enters the SEC. However, the road to the SEC title, which runs through Tuscaloosa and Athens more often than not, will now have to come through Norman, too.

Contrary to popular opinion, that's bad news for everyone in the nation's toughest conference — but don't just take our word for it.

As Oklahoma steps into its home of the future, many questions — from those familiar and unfamiliar — have been raised about how seriously Oklahoma should be considered among the SEC contenders.

By examining some of the sport's most important statistical indicators, we hope to clearly show where OU stands in the pecking order of its new group of peers.

The first metric we'll use to stack up the historical significance of the SEC's football traditions against one another is all-time winning percentage. The Alabama Crimson Tide lead the SEC with .733, going 965-337-43 all-time — also good enough for third nationally.

The Sooners are No. 2 here, having won 72.5% of their games all-time and having a record of 944-341-53. Oklahoma's winning tradition dates back generations, but it's been most successful in the modern era of college football.

Since World War II, the Sooners have paced the sport with 700 wins and a winning percentage of .759. When it comes to winning football games, there just aren't many teams in the country that do it like the one in Norman.

Oklahoma's travel companion, Texas, comes in third among all SEC teams with a .702 winning percentage, while Tennessee (.672) and Georgia (.666) round out the conference's top five.

Strictly in terms of total wins, Oklahoma is No. 3 among the SEC's 16 programs with 944 wins (6th nationally), trailing only Alabama (965) and Texas (948).

The Tide (No. 2), Longhorns (No. 5), and Sooners (No. 6) are three of the six winningest programs in college football history, and now share a conference with one another.

The gap between Oklahoma and the league's fourth-winningest team — Georgia — is quite large, spanning 63 games and .059 in terms of winning percentage. Just behind the Bulldogs is Tennessee, with 876 all-time victories, placing them 10th nationally.

With Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC, five of the nation's winningest programs now reside in the SEC, with the Big Ten having four such teams (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Nebraska) and Notre Dame standing alone as an independent.

While there's quite a debate about the number of national championships that Alabama claims (18), the Crimson Tide still lead the nation with 13 AP-recognized national championships, leaving little room for dispute that the program in Tuscaloosa is the standard of excellence.

Oklahoma's seven national titles rank second among SEC programs and place them just ahead of Tennessee, which claims six championships.

Georgia, LSU, and Texas are tied for fourth place with four national championships each, while Florida, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss are tied for seventh with three each.

Sixteen of the 24 national titles that have been won since 2000 now reside in the SEC.

The rest of the SEC — and country, for that matter — pales in comparison to Oklahoma's success in winning conference championships.

The Sooners' 50 conference crowns rank first nationally and dwarfs programs like Alabama (34) and Texas (31), who rank second and third in the SEC.

Texas A&M, who last won a conference title under R.C. Slocum in 1998, comes in fourth with 18 conference titles, while LSU and Tennessee are tied for fifth with 16 a piece.

Oklahoma won 14 of the 28 Big 12 Championships during its time in the league, with Texas' four titles ranking second among all teams in the league at the time of their departure.

Winning titles take special players; Oklahoma's had no shortage of those over the years. Alabama paces the SEC (4th nationally) with 86 consensus All-Americans over the years, but again, it's Oklahoma right behind them with 82 over its own — good for sixth all-time.

Texas checks in at No. 3 in this metric with 63 consensus All-Americans, while the trio of Georgia, LSU, and Tennessee all come in with 41 — ironically, just half of what the Sooners boast walking into this season.

It's worth noting that four of the other top five teams had All-American selections in 2023, but Oklahoma's in a bit of a drought on that front, dating back to 2019, without a consensus selection since CeeDee Lamb in 2019.

OU also has the second-most unanimous All-Americans in college football history, with 35, just behind Alabama with 41.

One of the best indicators of a college football program's success is how well their players perform at the next level. That's another feather in Oklahoma's cap, as the Sooners have the most all-time draft selections of any team in the SEC with 417.

Alabama checks in just six picks behind the Sooners at 411 total, but has an astounding 82 first-round selections, 32 more than Oklahoma's 51 all-time.

LSU (381), Georgia (379), and Florida (374) round out the SEC's top five, with Texas' 368 draft selections coming in at No. 6.

One interesting distinction for Oklahoma on this topic is what happened in the 2010 NFL Draft. That April, OU became the first and only team in history to have three of the first four selections in the draft come from the same school.

St. Louis Rams (No. 1): Sam Bradford, QB

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (No. 3): Gerald McCoy, DT

Washington Redskins (No. 4): Trent Williams, OT

Oklahoma becomes the standard for Heisman Trophies in the SEC, carrying seven of them into the league as they join.

Alabama ranks second on the list with four, while Florida, LSU, and Auburn all check in with three each.

The Sooners own seven of the SEC's 27 Heisman Trophies, giving them 25.9% of the league's total entering 2024, and with them now members of the SEC, the league has claimed six of the last seven Heismans.

Many programs have never had the honor of being ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll, but for some, it's been a regular occurrence over the years.

It seems that during the Nick Saban era, Alabama was atop the AP Poll more often than it wasn't. As a result, Alabama ranks first among all SEC teams with 140 weeks at No. 1.

Oklahoma is the only other program in the league to cross the 100-week threshold at 101 weeks, 50 more than the next team, Georgia, at 51 weeks. Texas checks in fourth here with 45 weeks atop the polls, while Florida rounds out the top five with 41 weeks.

The Sooners lead all SEC teams and rank third nationally with 898 weeks in the AP Poll all-time, with Alabama (873) and Texas (773) being the only two teams within 150 weeks of Oklahoma's pace.

When it comes to college football, there's no other program like Oklahoma.

Norman is home to the nation's longest win streak in college football history — a 47-game stretch from 1953-57. Interestingly, the Sooners also own the nation's fourth-longest winning streak, spanning 31 games from 1948 to 1950.

Both of those incredible streaks came under head coach Bud Wilkinson, who became the second head coach in Oklahoma history to eclipse the 100-win mark, following in the footsteps of Bennie Owen before him.

Now, the Sooners have the distinction of being the only school in the country to have four head coaches with 100+ wins in their tenure.

Bennie Owen (1905-26): 122-54-16

Bud Wilkinson (1947-63): 145-29-4

Barry Switzer (1973-88): 157-29-4

Bob Stoops (1999-2016): 191-48

The Sooners are also one of two teams to record over 40 10+ win seasons, with 42 all-time and 27 11-win seasons.

The standard at Oklahoma is as high as any program in America, and even with the move to the SEC, the Sooners are still right atop the pile when it comes to the biggest brands in their league.

While it appears that the rest of the country hasn't seemed to catch on yet, the truth is there's a behemoth joining the SEC today, and it ain't Texas.

So, here's a message to you — Sooner Nation — on this historic Monday.

As you walk into this new world of revelry, do so with pride.

There are only a handful of programs in the country that can match Oklahoma's winning tradition, and that doesn't change just because the Sooners' company looks different.

Make no mistake: The move to the SEC elevates the level of difficulty that OU will face on a weekly basis. The expectations, however, remain the same.

Oklahoma's standard of winning 10 games and competing for conference crowns and national championships isn't going anywhere.

Outside of the fans in Tuscaloosa, there's a chance that your new peers won't understand that expectation, and that's okay. They don't have to understand it right now, but at some point, they will.

It's Heisman Park and the Walk of Champions on Saturdays.

It's the Palace on the Prairie and "Play Like a Champion Today."

It's Bennie, Bud, Barry, and Bob.

It's 47-straight and the home of seven national championships.

It's the winningest program in the modern era of college football.

There's only one Oklahoma, and here, it just means more.

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