Texas, Oklahoma Enter SEC Wars

By Jim Gazzolo

With the new month came a new look for the Southeastern Conference.

LSU’s road to league championships got a little tougher and longer Monday when both Oklahoma and Texas officially joined the SEC.

It is the latest move toward megaconferences, as the two powers entered the world of college sports’ toughest of leagues.

And both come in firing.

The two met for the national softball championship just recently with Oklahoma winning its third straight title. Texas, all it did was steal now fellow SEC foe and state rival Texas A&M’s head baseball coach moments after he took the Aggies to the championship series.

The hiring of Jim Schlossnagle proved just how competitive and wild the SEC is going to be now. It will be even crazier than ever before.

Texas alone ups the ante when it comes to the national branding of the league. You could easily argue that the Longhorns are the top athletic program in all the land, especially when it comes to spending money and exposure.

But they have not really won anything nationally lately. Always good but not elite, that’s Texas.

With Oklahoma though, they will bring a lot of interesting new blood into play for SEC fans to battle with. They will no doubt be in the race for football titles, which could really put pressure on coaching staffs around the league. LSU will no doubt be one of those interested.

The same is taking place in the Big Ten, where USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon also joined on Monday. The two conferences are in an arms race to be the biggest, baddest, and most financially greatest of leagues.

The SEC has been hanging on to that last one for a few years, but with the new television deals starting that will change.

Texas and Oklahoma will help give relief to any losses. They will bring big fan bases to the SEC.

If you don’t think that was a part of all this, just look at where the SEC is holding its media days, deep in the heart of Texas. The league will showcase the new upcoming football season this month in Dallas, which is between the campuses of Texas and Oklahoma.

Don’t think every fan group in the league didn’t notice as the league’s biggest summer event is now a long way away from Florida and Georgia and more importantly out of Alabama.

Fans from all over the SEC are already worried about the attention Oklahoma and Texas are getting. Now comes the fun stuff, they will get to see them in person and up-close moving forward.

This, of course, will not end with just this week’s moves. There will be more each summer as the shifting power of college athletics continues. And the SEC will be right in the middle.

Whatever the future is for the SEC, the present appears to be wild.

Adding Texas and Oklahoma just makes it more fun.