SEC’s no savior, just Sooners’ new league
Perhaps it’s just me.
I mean, it could be me.
It’s probably me.
Nonetheless, excuse me if I can’t embrace all of Monday’s hoopla surrounding Oklahoma’s long-awaited official joining of the Southeastern Conference.
Because so much of it reads condescending. So much of it reads like Sooner fans should be so excited to finally sit at the cool kids’ table.
Like, if the programs in the new SEC were characters in The Breakfast Club, Alabama, LSU and Georgia would be Emelio Estevez without the overbearing and impossible father and OU, thanks to its new conference, would be overcoming being Ally Sheedy.
Like Sooner fans may have thought they understood college football and college sports, but they never really did because they couldn’t possibly until now, until finally becoming one with with the Georgias, Floridas, Alabamas, Tennessees and Mississippis.
As though Bud Wilkinson didn’t win three national championships and 47 straight games.
As though Barry Switzer didn’t win three more national championships, a bajillion conference crowns, all the while breaking down doors on behalf of the Black athlete, which is decidedly not a part of SEC history.
As though Sooner football itself, just since 2000, had not played in four BCS national championship games and four more College Football Playoffs, which is still more than everybody but Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, sitting alongside Sooner athletic director Joe Castiglione and university president Joe Harroz in Norman on Monday, was asked what adding OU to the conference he administrates means.
By his fourth sentence, he’d mentioned two legendary SEC coaches, neither one of them Nick Saban.
Here are his first two sentences.
“I noted the attention to detail here, so you got that one out of the way early,” he said. “Obviously, a 12th state, so new geography.”
Here are his third and fourth:
[Oklahoma has] 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,” he said. “Setting the expectations in our league that Pat Summit established in women’s basketball years ago, Skip Bertman and his impact on baseball, and you look at the achievements here, noting that those can be brought over.”
I guess he’s trying to salute Sooner history, and yet all it felt like he was doing was namedropping legendary SEC coaches because he could.
It’s enough to make one wonder if he woke up Tuesday mad at himself for not mentioning Billy Donovan’s back-to-back hoops titles at Florida.
Harroz tried painting some grandiose picture about the power and momentum of sports.
“This is the moment …” he began, after which he mentioned “we know what MAPS has done for Oklahoma City,” and “we’ve got a big vote coming up on the city council on whether they’re going to approve the entertainment district in Norman,” which includes an arena in which OU plans to be the primary tenant. Before he was done he’d also mentioned, “the components of the Olympics being here,” by which he means softball and canoeing in Oklahoma City, as though they’re all tied together.
All I can say about that is, man, does he want that arena.
Of course the great irony may be, given SEC excitement, hoops attendance could spike next season, proving Lloyd Noble Center works just fine when it’s got fans to fill it.
Castiglione, hearkening back to the decision to depart the Big 12, had something smart to say.
“When we were looking at the world going forward, it wasn’t about where we were that day or where we might be two or three years from that point forward, it was where we were going to be in ’25 when television contracts would change,” he said. “Where were we going to be when people realized we’re going to have to share some revenue with athletes? Where were we going to be then, and where were we going to be with more and more investment across a lot of other sports?”
I thought OU could remain rich staying in the Big 12, continue dominating the conference, play for national championships and hang on to its history by not departing for the condescending empire and still do … though Castiglione paints a compelling case.
Still, it’s not like Sooner Nation’s been saved by its destination, like it risked becoming an orphan.
ESPN broadcasters Dusty Dvoracek and Dari Nowkhah, both former Sooners, though Nowkhah was never a famous athlete, also took media questions on Monday.
One of those queries asked if Sooner fans were “ready” and if they “fit into the culture of the SEC.”
But for Missouri and Kentucky, it’s the old Confederacy, so let’s hope they don’t fit in too well; however, yes, Sooner fans know very well how to root for their team.
Were I still the 8-, 10-, 12-, 14-, 16- and 18-year-old Sooner maniac I was before beginning this whole writing thing, I’d lament joining them, but look very forward to beating them.
Whether OU belongs in the SEC or not, now there, it’s going to be just fine.
Harroz had to get his “new arena” plug in during OU’s WCWS celebration at Love’s Field too.