Oklahoma Angling for SEC Expansion Invite?
Posted on June 30, 2015 by Chadd Scott -- http://www.sportsdaynow.com/oklahoma-angling-for-sec-expansion-invite/
Could University of Oklahoma President David Boren be angling for his school to receive a future invite to SEC expansion? Stay with me here.
Boren was outspoken a week ago about his belief in the Big 12’s need to expand. Boren’s opinion flies directly in the face of his conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby. The University of Texas, the only other player which matters in Big 12 politics, also prefers the league stay at 10 members for the foreseeable future.
Boren is not the only Big 12 power-broker who would like to see the conference expand, but he’s in for a grueling battle and ultimate defeat, in my opinion, if he chooses to pursue this.
Which may be exactly what he wants.
Huh?
Boren wants to lose his “Big 12 should expand to 12” fight because it gives him a public grievance to hold over the Big 12. It gives him a reason to quietly seek a different conference affiliation for his school should the time come.
I simply can’t believe that David Boren actually believes Cincinnati or UCF or Houston or USF or BYU adds enough value to his conference to stick his neck out to this degree. Oklahoma hasn’t spent billions building itself in to an athletic powerhouse only to then expend major political capital by championing the admission of obvious “lesser-thans” into its league.
It doesn’t make sense.
What does make sense is that when the Big 12’s grant of TV rights expires in 2025, the Sooners would be a highly desirable target for any conference looking to grow. Oklahoma represents beach-front property on the college athletics’ real estate market and if the Sooners were unhappy with membership in the Big 12 – as Boren is establishing by “losing” his Big 12 expansion fight – they’d be a natural for admission into the SEC.
It’s a “long play” for a 73-year-old.
I floated this admittedly wild scenario on Twitter and was surprised by how “un-wildly” it was received.
Dan Wolken, Mark Ennis and Allen Kenney are three college football commentators whose perspectives I value. I have followed each of them for years and find their opinions on conference realignment consistently thoughtful, measured, and well-informed. Their not poo-pooing my idea emboldens my belief in it.
I have long predicted that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State would be the next two additions to the SEC if/when the league chooses to expand. With the brand value the SEC has created, only blue-bloods will be considered.
Oklahoma represents one of only a handful of schools nationally with a brand prestigious enough for the SEC to consider for membership. In my scenario, Oklahoma State tags along primarily in anticipation of political pressure inside of Oklahoma being too great for the Sooners to be allowed to leave OSU behind in what would be a further neutered Big 12.
Culturally, OU and OSU fit the football and athletics-crazed SEC. Their academic profiles fall within SEC standards although OSU would be in the bottom quarter. Both of their athletic departments have robust and broad-based support and success. They’re both large, public universities geographically contiguous to the SEC.
Need more evidence? After completing this blog, I was reminded of an ESPN story by my friend Tony Agolini which quotes David Boren as saying OU received an invitation in 2010 to join the SEC.
I don’t think another round of SEC expansion is inevitable, although history has shown us that it is. I think disruptive technological advances and major changes to NCAA governance, the sort of which we’ve seen the last five years, could alter the course of future conference expansion beyond what any of us are presently able to consider. I don’t even consider Oklahoma and Oklahoma State eventually becoming members of the SEC to be likely, but if I had to guess who the next two members of the league might be, that’s who I’m going with.
Allen Kenney blogs about Oklahoma athletics with great authority. I put my OU-to-SEC theory to the test with him in the following podcast. https://soundcloud.com/1010xl-92-5-fm-jax/could-oklahoma-join-the-sec
Posted on June 30, 2015 by Chadd Scott -- http://www.sportsdaynow.com/oklahoma-angling-for-sec-expansion-invite/
Could University of Oklahoma President David Boren be angling for his school to receive a future invite to SEC expansion? Stay with me here.
Boren was outspoken a week ago about his belief in the Big 12’s need to expand. Boren’s opinion flies directly in the face of his conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby. The University of Texas, the only other player which matters in Big 12 politics, also prefers the league stay at 10 members for the foreseeable future.
Boren is not the only Big 12 power-broker who would like to see the conference expand, but he’s in for a grueling battle and ultimate defeat, in my opinion, if he chooses to pursue this.
Which may be exactly what he wants.
Huh?
Boren wants to lose his “Big 12 should expand to 12” fight because it gives him a public grievance to hold over the Big 12. It gives him a reason to quietly seek a different conference affiliation for his school should the time come.
I simply can’t believe that David Boren actually believes Cincinnati or UCF or Houston or USF or BYU adds enough value to his conference to stick his neck out to this degree. Oklahoma hasn’t spent billions building itself in to an athletic powerhouse only to then expend major political capital by championing the admission of obvious “lesser-thans” into its league.
It doesn’t make sense.
What does make sense is that when the Big 12’s grant of TV rights expires in 2025, the Sooners would be a highly desirable target for any conference looking to grow. Oklahoma represents beach-front property on the college athletics’ real estate market and if the Sooners were unhappy with membership in the Big 12 – as Boren is establishing by “losing” his Big 12 expansion fight – they’d be a natural for admission into the SEC.
It’s a “long play” for a 73-year-old.
I floated this admittedly wild scenario on Twitter and was surprised by how “un-wildly” it was received.
Dan Wolken, Mark Ennis and Allen Kenney are three college football commentators whose perspectives I value. I have followed each of them for years and find their opinions on conference realignment consistently thoughtful, measured, and well-informed. Their not poo-pooing my idea emboldens my belief in it.
I have long predicted that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State would be the next two additions to the SEC if/when the league chooses to expand. With the brand value the SEC has created, only blue-bloods will be considered.
Oklahoma represents one of only a handful of schools nationally with a brand prestigious enough for the SEC to consider for membership. In my scenario, Oklahoma State tags along primarily in anticipation of political pressure inside of Oklahoma being too great for the Sooners to be allowed to leave OSU behind in what would be a further neutered Big 12.
Culturally, OU and OSU fit the football and athletics-crazed SEC. Their academic profiles fall within SEC standards although OSU would be in the bottom quarter. Both of their athletic departments have robust and broad-based support and success. They’re both large, public universities geographically contiguous to the SEC.
Need more evidence? After completing this blog, I was reminded of an ESPN story by my friend Tony Agolini which quotes David Boren as saying OU received an invitation in 2010 to join the SEC.
I don’t think another round of SEC expansion is inevitable, although history has shown us that it is. I think disruptive technological advances and major changes to NCAA governance, the sort of which we’ve seen the last five years, could alter the course of future conference expansion beyond what any of us are presently able to consider. I don’t even consider Oklahoma and Oklahoma State eventually becoming members of the SEC to be likely, but if I had to guess who the next two members of the league might be, that’s who I’m going with.
Allen Kenney blogs about Oklahoma athletics with great authority. I put my OU-to-SEC theory to the test with him in the following podcast. https://soundcloud.com/1010xl-92-5-fm-jax/could-oklahoma-join-the-sec
