NORMAN — Nearly three years to the day since voting to join the Southeastern Conference, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione, OU president Joseph Harroz and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sat down for their long-awaited press conference.
They made one thing clear: it was a day of celebration.
Monday marked the Sooners' first day as a full-fledged member of the SEC, marking their official transition from the Big 12 to the SEC. The day officially marked the end of the Sooners' 26-year run as a member of the Big 12 Conference.
It's a historic day for the Sooners and one that was years in the making. The Sooners, along with the University of Texas, voted to join the SEC back in July 2021. Now, they enter a new conference with a new path forward.
For Castiglione, the move to the SEC was the result of a big-picture vision that started nearly a decade ago.
"That’s where we were trying to evaluate not just what was happening right then, but how was the world going to change and where Oklahoma was going to be," Castiglione said. "Whether it was going to be following along or playing a role in taking the opportunity to lead our program. That’s where I go back to the great leadership here at the university. They’re willing to step back and think and be bold about the future."
It'd be hard not to argue that the Sooners have solidified themselves in a solid position amid a changing college landscape. The Sooners already experienced that as members of the Big 12, when Nebraska and Colorado left for the PAC 12 in 2011 followed by Texas A&M and Missouri departing for the SEC in 2012.
The landscape of college athletics has rapidly changed in recent years. Name, image and likeness and the significant growth of the NCAA Transfer Portal have made things more unpredictable. Conference realignment continues to shake things up, too — 10 of the members of the PAC 12 will depart the conference in August, while the Big 12 and the Big Ten will see several new universities join their respective conferences.
Meanwhile, with the additions of OU and Texas, the SEC has established itself as a new 16-team conference with powerhouse programs that has a media rights agreement with ESPN and ABC through 2034.
That stability was the key component for the Sooners in joining the SEC.
"We’re very, very excited about what that will mean for our program moving forward and understanding some way, shape or form those things we saw 8-10 years ago are happening before our eyes," Castiglione said. "They’re complex. We still have to find the right way forward and we will, but now we’ve created a model for stability by partnering with the SEC and being a member for what we can do to help make the SEC itself stronger.”
Of course, the SEC benefits greatly from adding the Sooners, too. Sankey mentioned Oklahoma becoming the 12th state to be represented in the SEC, as well as the unprecedented success in sports like football and softball, which just won its fourth national championship while finishing construction on Love's Field, the program's new stadium. Harroz and Sankey both also touted the university's growing student enrollment.
But there were other factors, too.
"They have a clear expectation of excellence that I think complements our current members — the national championship achievements and the notion that a rising tide lifts all ships," Sankey said. "... The fanbase was an important part, and in our athletics directors conversation, one of our (athletic directors) observed that as we think about expansion, we should apply the ‘It Just Means More’ filter; I don’t mean to be trite, but there’s no objective data. It’s the subjective analysis of, ‘Does the integration of that athletics program, that university, that fanbase fit seamlessly with our current 14 members?’ I think clearly it does, and so all of those elements are brought.
“I’ll also note that when I thought strategically about expansion, what President Harroz commented on student enrollment and the changing demographic role is important across all our campuses. I think bringing in both Oklahoma and Texas helped build that, bringing in that level of interest across all of our campuses as we all compete for student population and as we sit here in an athletic building and think about athletic things, I don’t think it can be understated that the ability for us to position ourselves to be a national brand with a regional footprint that’s easily accessibly has meaning and is a platform for how we recruit students, how we recruit faculty, how we recruit people to our campuses.”
Joining the SEC checked a lot of boxes for the Sooners. But Monday was just the first early step in what will be a new world in the SEC.
Sankey is confident that adjustment will happen quickly.
"We don't have 14 members plus two," Sankey said. "We have 16 members. And the University of Oklahoma will stand on its own and will compete successfully and will create those moments soon and those will become memories here and memories across our conference."
It'll only cost you a few dollars a month to get unparalleled access to exclusive team and recruiting information at OUInsider.com. Join the vibrant message-board community, get the scoop from the market's most reliable insiders and unlock plenty of exclusive content by joining today!
