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OU/Texas & The SEC


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On 7/29/2021 at 10:13 AM, EnjoyLife said:

Yeah...I expect Tx and Ou to be playing in the sec in 2022. Ou probably goes 9-3 or maybe 10-2...Texas more like 6-6...unless Sark turns out to be better than I expect. One thing is for sure...Texas will not run the show in the sec like they are used to doing in the B12.

I think things just got more difficult for every team in the SEC, including the newcomers. Texas and/or OU at some point in every season will ruin some team's dreams and Texas and OU will not win as much as they're used to.

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Wonder how Bob Bowlsby feels about Joe Castiglione now:
https://tulsaworld.com/sports/college/ou/guerin-teed-it-was-quite-a-week-wonder-how-bob-bowlsby-feels-about-joe-castiglione/article_a0a44a90-f2ff-11eb-8def-f31d6514d0b4.html

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You know who may never get over the Sooners’ stealth? Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

OU athletic director Joe Castiglione has been among the Big 12’s strongest, loudest advocates since the conference held together 10 years ago.

Last Wednesday when Bowlsby accused ESPN of orchestrating the Big 12’s demise, he told the Associated Press, “This whole thing has been a complete articulation of deception.”

Here's one thing I know about Don Castiglione (and any college AD worth his salt): he will always do what's best for his program, first and foremost. 

Of all people, Bowlsby is the last person in any position to claim moral outrage. The Big XII has been on borrowed time since the last tv deal was struck. Bowlsby and the Big XII brass have had ample warning and opportunity to make things happen.

If nothing else, the departure of Colorado/Nebraska/Missouri/Texas A&M should've jostled him to action. Surely they didn't think adding West Virginia and TCU in 2012 was gonna fix everything. 

Castiglione did his part. He said the right things and toe'd the party line for long enough, maybe longer than necessary. Whether or not ESPN did any tampering is irrelevant. Bowlsby (and the Big XII) have no one to blame but themselves. 

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35 minutes ago, LOL said:

Wonder how Bob Bowlsby feels about Joe Castiglione now:
https://tulsaworld.com/sports/college/ou/guerin-teed-it-was-quite-a-week-wonder-how-bob-bowlsby-feels-about-joe-castiglione/article_a0a44a90-f2ff-11eb-8def-f31d6514d0b4.html

Here's one thing I know about Don Castiglione (and any college AD worth his salt): he will always do what's best for his program, first and foremost. 

Of all people, Bowlsby is the last person in any position to claim moral outrage. The Big XII has been on borrowed time since the last tv deal was struck. Bowlsby and the Big XII brass have had ample warning and opportunity to make things happen.

If nothing else, the departure of Colorado/Nebraska/Missouri/Texas A&M should've jostled him to action. Surely they didn't think adding West Virginia and TCU in 2012 was gonna fix everything. 

Castiglione did his part. He said the right things and toe'd the party line for long enough, maybe longer than necessary. Whether or not ESPN did any tampering is irrelevant. Bowlsby (and the Big XII) have no one to blame but themselves. 

Last sentence is the truth of the Big12

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4 hours ago, LOL said:

Wonder how Bob Bowlsby feels about Joe Castiglione now:
https://tulsaworld.com/sports/college/ou/guerin-teed-it-was-quite-a-week-wonder-how-bob-bowlsby-feels-about-joe-castiglione/article_a0a44a90-f2ff-11eb-8def-f31d6514d0b4.html

Here's one thing I know about Don Castiglione (and any college AD worth his salt): he will always do what's best for his program, first and foremost. 

Of all people, Bowlsby is the last person in any position to claim moral outrage. The Big XII has been on borrowed time since the last tv deal was struck. Bowlsby and the Big XII brass have had ample warning and opportunity to make things happen.

If nothing else, the departure of Colorado/Nebraska/Missouri/Texas A&M should've jostled him to action. Surely they didn't think adding West Virginia and TCU in 2012 was gonna fix everything. 

Castiglione did his part. He said the right things and toe'd the party line for long enough, maybe longer than necessary. Whether or not ESPN did any tampering is irrelevant. Bowlsby (and the Big XII) have no one to blame but themselves. 

A couple interesting points I've read on reddit this morning, both from non-OU or UT supporters:

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The Big 12 is almost completely at fault for their situation, Texas and Oklahoma are in the right to leave and to work together to do so. The Big 12 has been raided by 3 power conferences. Resisted adding new schools, resisted adding a conference title game, etc. I think it says a lot that anybody semi-relevant in football leaves this conference, often times to be average or worse in other conferences. I’ve read that UT/OU contribute roughly 75% of the revenue. Who in their right minds stays there?

While we’re at it, please stop blaming the Big Ten and SEC for not wanting the other schools. The remaining schools, save maybe Kansas, don’t really add much in terms of revenue, are in either small recruiting grounds or live in the shadow of the main recruiters of their state, and in the Big Ten’s case are mostly not AAU members.

...and: 

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The OG Big-12 was explicitly formed for TV money when two conferences that wouldn’t make it alone jettisoned the bottom half and made a go of it. It lasted less than 20 years before bickering about that distribution of TV money gutted it, and shockingly two more members left for better TV money!

Who could have guessed???

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As Oklahoma heads to the SEC to control its destiny, it lives with leaving Bedlam rival behind (The Athletic)
https://archive.ph/4zz1f

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s Board of Regents unanimously accepted the SEC’s invitation to join the league during a special meeting Friday, a move that will, according to university leaders, secure OU’s financial future as well as its place as a major player in the world of college athletics.
 
Texas’ board did the same earlier Friday.

One might think such an occasion — potentially among the most transformative in the history of college athletics — would be celebratory. Oklahoma and Texas are joining what is arguably the most stable and successful athletic conference in America, bringing the SEC’s membership to 16 teams as it prepares for a newly negotiated $3 billion media rights deal with ESPN, set to commence in 2024.

But there were no SEC banners hanging behind the regents as they spoke. No “S-E-C” chants, champagne, no spiking of the football. Friday’s board meeting at the OU Health Sciences Center was more somber and deliberative than triumphant, displaying the complicated and fraught impending divorce between OU and the Big 12 that unexpectedly burst into public view last week. OU acknowledged the feelings of betrayal expressed by some of the Big 12 members being left behind — most notably, the Sooners’ in-state rival, Oklahoma State.

Before the board voted on the motion to accept the SEC’s invitation, OU president Joseph Harroz Jr. spoke for more than 25 minutes, painstakingly detailing the reasons behind this decision.

“What changed between 2012 and today?” Harroz said. “And the answer is everything.”

He cited a world of college athletics that is rapidly transforming, as well as the Big 12’s diminished position in the media rights pecking order that made deals less lucrative and forced OU into a frustrating number of 11 a.m. CT kickoffs. Athletic director Joe Castiglione and coach Lincoln Riley have fought that battle publicly for years, with it coming to a head this summer after Fox announced that the long-awaited renewal of the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry, set for Sept. 18, will have a morning kickoff. Castiglione issued a statement saying he was “bitterly disappointed.” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby responded earlier this month at the league’s media days by saying, “We all signed the TV contract.”

“What does all of this tell us?” Harroz asked rhetorically. “It tells us the importance of the conference you are in.”

Castiglione, who also spoke before the board voted, put it like this: “Standing pat would mean falling behind.”

Castiglione and Harroz, who did not take questions from reporters after the meeting, emphasized the value of their relationships with Big 12 counterparts and tacitly acknowledged the position in which this move puts them.

Castiglione was Missouri’s athletic director from 1993 until 1998, when he took the OU job. He’s spent his entire career as an athletic director working within the Big 12. Harroz, meanwhile, first became OU’s general counsel in 1994, around the time of the Big 12’s formation. These are two men with extensive ties and relationships around the conference, making the way this all played out less than ideal.

Since the Houston Chronicle made Oklahoma and Texas’ flirtation with the SEC known nine days ago, things have moved quickly. Oklahoma and Texas each issued non-denial denial statements, then a few days later, formally announced they wouldn’t extend the Big 12’s media rights deal beyond its 2025 expiration and sent a letter to the SEC seeking membership. On Thursday, the SEC presidents formally voted to extend invitations to both schools.

The remaining Big 12 schools reacted with anger, indignation and disappointment. Oklahoma State president Kayse Shrum released a statement chastising OU for plotting this move in secret, saying OU had broken longstanding trust between the schools and calling it “detrimental to the state.”

“Last week’s timing was not of our choosing,” Castiglione said Friday. “We would have preferred to have an opportunity to provide calls or contacts to many of our colleagues throughout this conference, throughout this state and elsewhere. … There are relationships that are very meaningful to me. Our peers matter a great deal to not only me but to our institution. Even though our path has changed, those relationships are important.

“This was not a decision any of us made lightly. But we’re charged with making choices that are in the best interests of our institution, our programs, and oftentimes those are very complicated. And I take that responsibility very seriously.”

Harroz mentioned four goals that have guided OU’s thinking: Maintain OU’s position as a top-tier national brand in college athletics; keep OU as one of the few collegiate athletic departments that don’t rely on tuition or student fees for operating expenses; remain in the same conference as Oklahoma State; and continue to play an annual football game against Texas in Dallas.

“Regrettably, the landscape that we’re looking at right now, those changes that we talked about, don’t allow for all four of those to occur,” Harroz said.
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have played every season in football since 1914, and they have shared a conference since 1961. During 2011 conference realignment talks — when several Big 12 teams considered a move west to form the conceptual Pac-16 — OU and Oklahoma State were always connected, as former OU president David Boren made that a priority.

Thirty-four Oklahoma legislators sent a letter Wednesday to Harroz expressing disappointment in the move, writing, in part, “You have chosen to advance the interests of the University of Texas as a partner instead of working collaboratively with your in-state partner at Oklahoma State University.”

“Why not Oklahoma State?” Harroz said Friday. “We’ve analyzed this landscape deeply, lots of conversations about how we do this. We’ve looked at solutions for us to move together, but that is simply not what the market that we’re pursuing allows.

“Make no mistake: We want the Bedlam rivalry to continue.”

The resulting feelings from their Big 12 bedfellows have essentially been anger at Texas and disappointment in Oklahoma.

UT and OU began board meetings at 9 a.m. CT, but the Texas regents approved the move to the SEC and adjourned before OU’s regents had even emerged from a 90-minute executive session. Texas administrators spent little time justifying or explaining the move, showing in sharp relief the difference between the Longhorns, more comfortable playing the role some view as the villain, and Oklahoma, which isn’t used to being viewed that way.

Finally, after all the speeches and reasoning, OU regent Natalie Shirley offered the motion, “I move that the University of Oklahoma accept the Southeastern Conference’s invitation to join that conference … in 2025.”

The move was approved by a unanimous voice vote, at which point, board chair Michael Cawley said, “The motion carries. Welcome to the Southeastern Conference.”

Ah, but it isn’t quite that simple.

Although all parties involved have cited July 1, 2025, as the date that Oklahoma and Texas will officially become SEC members, it is widely expected that the move will ultimately happen sooner. But it will be messy. Bowlsby has publicly accused ESPN of encouraging another conference to poach the remaining Big 12 members.

He also suggested that perhaps the powerful network’s mechanisms are an effort to relieve OU and Texas of financial penalty — expected to be roughly $80 million per school — if they were to leave the Big 12 before the current grant-of-rights agreement expires. If the other eight schools find new homes and the Big 12 dissolves, there would be no exit fees for OU and Texas to pay. ESPN said the claims have no merit.

“I want everyone to know that we look forward to being a contributing member of the Big 12 through our remaining time in our conference,” Castiglione said.

“One of the greatest obligations of any leader is to keep a watchful eye on what the future holds and how to be in the best position for it. We would have been remiss if we hadn’t always been looking for the best opportunities to control our own destiny.”
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5 hours ago, LOL said:

I think every College Football fan wants historical rivalries to continue, and I think that the media wants them to continue for viewership.  People would have continued to watch A&M vs. Texas across the country, and I think we all want the OU vs. OSU and Nebraska rivalries to continue.  They are important to college football fans, and they should realize that.  

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1 hour ago, DaveTV1 said:

I think every College Football fan wants historical rivalries to continue, and I think that the media wants them to continue for viewership.  People would have continued to watch A&M vs. Texas across the country, and I think we all want the OU vs. OSU and Nebraska rivalries to continue.  They are important to college football fans, and they should realize that.  

I don’t think the national Population really cares about Bedlam.

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1 hour ago, DaveTV1 said:

Where did I say national population ?  I stated College Football fans.  I still watch the Egg Bowl, and I'm glad it's back to a Thanksgiving Game as it was intended, instead of Black Friday.  

I don’t think National Fans feel like Bedlam is a can’t miss rivalry.

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11 hours ago, Valhalla said:

I don’t think the national Population really cares about Bedlam.

10 hours ago, Valhalla said:

I don’t think National Fans feel like Bedlam is a can’t miss rivalry.

Is it really a "rivalry" when one team wins 90+ percent of the time? 

Wrestling, baseball, basketball? Sure. There's a rivalry there. 

But just because Okie State manages to win a game once every 20 years or so doesn't make it a rivalry. 

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1 hour ago, AllGoodNamesRGone said:

Like Longview vs Marshall sure been a traditional matchup but.... do you know the series matchup with Ou/okie ?

No...  actually it's nothing like that at all.

Longview-Marshall was an intense rivalry for decades, with both school having runs of success and not a few upsets between them over the years. It's only in the last couple decades that Longview has pulled away. 

 

But the Bedlam matchup is far, far more lopsided. OU leads the Bedlam Series 90-18-7. That's a winning percentage of .813 all-time.

The Cowboys went 4-14 against Bob Stoops, and are yet to win a game against Lincoln Riley (0-4).

Currently, OU has a 6-game winning streak from 2015 through now. The longest OU winning streak coming from 1946-1964 when OU win 19 straight. 

Kansas and Kansas State both have better winning percentages against OU than Okie State does. 

So...  yeah, not really a football rivalry.  

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9 hours ago, AllGoodNamesRGone said:

Neither was A&M /Texas but they made sure if was to happen by any means necessary lol. Sure was in the state but I told they weren’t rivals.

UT/A&M was a nationally, must-watch game on thanksgiving ever year. Not sure why you think that it wasn't a cant miss.

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On 7/28/2021 at 10:33 PM, HearEmaGrowlin said:

I personally don’t like a super toxic rivalry. 
 

I love going to Carthage games and talking to opposing teams’ fans before and after the game. 

I feel the same way about college football, I want a good healthy rivalry, but I don’t want to get shot at over it, ha!

Same. Rivalries are fantastic when they're not taken too far.

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