Opening up another preseason football camp is enough reason for Oklahoma and its fans to be excited, but this year brings about a new development with the university headed to the Southeastern Conference in the near future.

Head coach Lincoln Riley addressed the situation Thursday afternoon at OU media day and said that would be the only time the coaches or players would talk about the news that became official last week of OU and Texas leaving the Big 12 and heading to the SEC.

“I had some general knowledge, but like a lot of you guys, things like this, you never know that they're gonna happen until they become official,” Riley said.

The landscape of college sports has never been changing as fast as it is right now. Between free transfers, name, image, likeness coming into play, streaming changing TV rights contracts, COVID-19 making everybody take a step back and pause, it’s been intense.

Riley is pumped for what it means in the future, but he’s pumping the brakes for 2021 because that’s not the now. The reality is OU is aiming for its seventh consecutive Big 12 championship this season, and that’s the focus.

“My reaction to it? I think for the future it's gonna be exciting. I think it's gonna be a positive thing for this university, a positive thing for our athletic department, our athletes, our coaches, everybody,” Riley said. “I think it's exciting to think about, but I guess for me, it's tempered because the task at hand right now.

“It's like scheduling... I get it's bigger than this, but in the same vein, it's almost like scheduling a really exciting non-conference matchup years down the road. Sure, it'll be great when it happens, but it doesn't matter for right now… We all have a job to do right now.”

That job might become a little more intense this season when it comes to road trips. It’s hard to predict exactly how volatile and nasty things might get, but you know everybody has circled Bedlam at Oklahoma State this season.

For one thing, it could potentially be the last Bedlam in Stillwater for a long, long time, depending on how everything shakes out.

Riley, echoing the thoughts of president Joe Harroz and athletic director Joe Castiglione from last week, said he hopes Bedlam remains after the conference shakeup.

“Certainly, respect the history of that game and it's been a lot of fun to compete against those guys, to play a game that means so much to this state,” Riley said. “And certainly, I think everybody here, it's our hope that we can continue that because it has been a great game, a great matchup, a university, a program that we've got a lot of respect for and a lot of respect for the history of it as well, what it means to the state.”

Again, the focus is on the 2021 season, but it’s hard to not be fired up about the move as it happens. And it’s hard to not present those facts to recruits. Whether it’s for the 2022, 2023 or 2024 classes, it’s definitely something OU will be emphasizing going forward.

The Sooners have had some success in the Southeast part of the country, and Riley said it remains to be seen if this will expand the OU brand and give it an even bigger foothold in that area.

“It's still out in the distance a little bit for us, so I think it'll be a very positive thing when the time comes and we'll certainly be part of conversation with recruits that will and could potentially impact their careers,” Riley said. “But again, at the same time, there's still so much right here in front of us right now. I think all projections forward are very positive, but they're projections and they're down the line.

“Are we gonna have that conversation? Yes, we're gonna have that conversation, but there's still a lot here right now, a lot that this team's about and we're always pretty careful that we don't wanna have two different messages with our team and with our recruits.”

You couldn’t avoid the news in the last couple of weeks, but as Riley said, talking season is just about over. The focus is on the 2021 season, and Riley doesn’t anticipate there being any issues at all in terms of concentration or letting any sort of SEC talk become a distraction.

“These guys are getting ready to go into camp. These guys are getting ready to play and try to win position battles and win games and championships,” Riley said. “I think for them, it's news. It's certainly something they're aware of. You can't avoid it, but at the same time, it's not reality for us right now.

“That's not gonna change things for a lot of those guys in the locker room right now. I think our leadership has done a good job of setting the tone for that, making sure all of our players, our young players, understand that if any talk about conferences and what's gonna happen in the future takes away, takes away even the smallest bit from this season, then that's a shame.”

OU officially begins practice Friday.