Are Texas and Oklahoma all set for the SEC?

• Chris Low, ESPN Senior WriterJul 1, 2024, 07:40 AM ET

• Close College football reporter Joined ESPN.com in 2007
• Graduate of the University of Tennessee

Alabama was currently on Steve Sarkisian’s mind. So were LSU and Georgia.But not necessarily within the framework of the SEC.During the process of being hired as Texas coach three and a half years earlier, Sarkisian laid out his vision of what it would require to make the Longhorns a nationwide power again to the school’s administration– university president Jay Hartzell, board of regents chair Kevin Eltife and athletic director Chris Del Conte. Sarkisian cut straight to the point.He ‘d spent the previous two seasons(2019 and 2020) as Alabama’s offending coordinator. The Crimson Tide won the national championship in 2020, and LSU won it the year before, both completing their title seasons undefeated.”We need to develop a group that come January can beat Alabama, LSU and Georgia, and I ‘d throw in Ohio State and Clemson, too, since those are the teams that in some shape or type remain in the playoff almost every year,”Sarkisian informed his brand-new employers on the Forty Acres.”We can’t get enamored with just constructing a team to win the Huge 12. We’re going to have to construct a team that can remove Alabama in January. I’m not talking September, however in January be geared up to beat those groups you’re going to have to beat to win a championship game. “Little did Sarkisian understand at the time that more modification was on the horizon for Texas, the SEC and the college sports landscape in general.”

Shoot, it wasn’t five months later they concern me and inform me,’ We’re transferring to the SEC, ‘”Sarkisian said with a laugh.His just response:”When?” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian and Oklahoma’s Brent Venables anticipate the difficulties of playing in the SEC. ESPN That”when”is Monday, July 1, when Texas and Oklahoma officially end up being the newest members of the SEC in all sports. But the real “when”comes this fall when the Longhorns and Sooners join the country’s toughest, deepest and most effective football conference, a league that has actually produced 13 of the previous 20 nationwide champs– 14 if you consist of Texas’title in 2005 when the Longhorns were in the Huge 12. And when you include Oklahoma, which won everything in 2000, 8 groups that will play in the SEC this fall have won national championships over the previous 3 decades.While the enjoyment about the relocation has actually been developing for 3 years

, both schools recognize it includes substantial difficulties, not that they’re pulling back from them.The word Sooners coach Brent Venables uses to explain the SEC is “unforgiving.

“As Clemson’s protective planner from 2012 to 2021, Venables had success against SEC offenses. The Tigers were 16-7 against SEC opponents throughout that span, and in 11 of those games, Venables’defense held the opposing offense to less than 20 points.Entering his 3rd year at OU, Venables has actually been studying SEC groups since the 2023 season concluded. What has actually stood out to him is how many of the league’s games are decided late in the 4th quarter.” Everything matters. There’s a very little margin for error,”Venables stated.” There are many things that decide

games in this league, and you much better be all set for all of them. How ready are we? We’re going to discover. Up until you’re in the middle of it, you do not really genuinely know. So it would simply be conjecture on my part. As I stated, we’ll discover. “What I do know is the obstacle of it all, the depth of the teams in that conference, and what I feel best about is the depth of the investment that we have from our players, numerous of them going on their 3rd year here.”Among those players who are all-in is linebacker Danny Stutsman, a leader of the defense who is entering his fourth year with the Sooners.

“We’re starving, guy,” he said.”Hearing all that, the discuss the SEC, it gets brought up every single day. At some time, you recognize that the best is the standard for us. That does not change.”The SEC is simply 3 letters. It doesn’t truly alter our state of mind of how we approach things. We’re going to prepare every single game the exact very same method no matter who the opponent is.

Certainly, it’s much better competition in some ways, but when you consider yourself the best, you prepare like that every week.” Even before Texas entered the conference, Steve Sarkisian sought to construct a team that could take on the best of the SEC. Sara Diggins-USA Today Sports via American Statesman PRACTICALLY anybody who has actually ever coached or played in the SEC recommendations a comparable theme when asked what makes the league various: the capability to recruit and develop quality depth in the line of skirmish and develop the kind of competitors on the practice field that makes games almost seem simple.” I think back to that offending line we had at Alabama in 2020,” Sarkisian said.”We had fantastic ability individuals, too, however having the guys we had up front, the variety of them, was something you simply do

n’t see very typically. I know that’s where we have worked so diligently here. It wasn’t a lot the protective line when I got here, but the offending line. We needed to do a total remodeling. “Another aspect regularly discussed is the grind of playing in the SEC and the requirement to make it to November and December with the core of your group undamaged while also having second-team players capable of stepping up when beginners go down.In April, the SEC led all conferences in NFL draft picks(59 )for the 18th straight year. Thirteen of the league’s 14 groups had at least one player picked by an NFL group.”When I discuss beating those groups late in the year, that’s why I say it,” stated Sarkisian, who led Texas to

its very first College Football Playoff appearance last season. “You’re going to have to hold up against the grind of a season and then beat those teams when it counts if you wish to win a championship game.”The good thing for us is that the strategy to develop this roster actually didn’t have to change from what the initial strategy was. We understood the roadway to winning a championship game was going to go through Alabama, Georgia and those teams.”Now you might have to go through them more than as soon as. “Editor’s Picks 2 Associated History recommends that championships could be rare for the 2 SEC newbies, although the playoff moving from four to 12 groups this season should make chances more plentiful. Under the new format, the SEC might be in position to get 4 teams– or even more– into the postseason every year.The four schools to join the SEC in its previous 2 growths– Arkansas and South Carolina in 1992 and Missouri and Texas A&M in 2012– are still searching for their first conference championship, although none came to the league with the current success and pedigree of Texas and Oklahoma. None of the four have actually played in the BCS

national championship game or made

the playoff since signing up with the league. And while there were some rocky beginnings, there also have actually been some breakthroughs.Missouri played in the SEC national championship in its second and third years in the league under Gary Pinkel. Texas A&M has actually had the most consistent success amongst the 4, with 11 winning seasons in 12 years, however only 3 winning records in SEC play.Since that initially growth in 1992, only six schools have actually won an SEC title– Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee. Alabama has won 10 of the last 25 titles, LSU five, Georgia 4, Florida 3 and Auburn three.Even so, it’s difficult to discover a school in the league, with possibly a number of exceptions, that does not believe it should a minimum of be flirting with double-digit wins every season.As Venables surveyed the SEC, now from within the league, he used Auburn’s team from last season as an example of how narrow the margin

can be between playing for a championship and simply playing to have a winning season.”You take a look at a team like Auburn, and they were 6-7 last year, but they take a No. 1 Georgia team to the last drive of the game and rush for more than 200 lawns, and after that late

in the year, Alabama tosses a Hail Mary in the end zone to beat them,” he stated.”Those are two games that sort of inform you what the SEC is. Auburn played truly close games versus the two groups that played for the SEC championship, and Alabama made the playoff. Auburn ended up someplace in the middle of the conference. “I’ve never been in a league where you’ve got to play the depth of the groups we will every single week.

You don’t concede anything, however in the same breath, you have remarkable respect for what it’s going to take to be effective.” For OU athletic director Joe Castiglione, that consists of Venables. Oklahoma has been working on methods to make the shift as seamless as possible, consisting of offering the coach a brand-new six-year, $51.6 million contract last month that will pay him approximately$ 8.6 million each year, a move that Castiglione stated belonged to being” SEC prepared.” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables is most amazed by the depth of quality teams in his group’s brand-new conference. Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports AS AN ATHLETIC director, Del Conte has to consider all of his program’s sports, and he is quick to mention that Texas has won 15 championship games in the previous 3 years. “I think we’re equipped in every way when you look at our total athletic program

, and I understand our fans are excited, “Del Conte stated. “There’s been an overwhelming marriage.”And, yes, Del Conte is prepared for the unavoidable “Horns Down “gestures each time Texas walks into an opposing SEC arena for the very first time, a relocation mocking the”Hook ’em” signs flashed by Texas fans.Del Conte states to bring it on.”I love all that, by the method, the Horns Down stuff. I believe it’s funny,”he said.On the field, Del Conte said he has regularly informed his professional athletes that” whoever you play, it’s their Super Bowl. It’s the power of the brand.””That will not change in the SEC,”he added.One of the numerous features of transferring to the SEC

that was so enticing to Texas, according to Del Conte, was being able to renew competitions with Arkansas and Texas A&M. Plus, the Longhorns didn’t lose their yearly showdown with Oklahoma.The Sooners, nevertheless, will lose their Bedlam rivalry game with Oklahoma State for the foreseeable future. Castiglione stated there are still discussions in between the schools, but that the very first realistic chance for them to play again in football(because of signed contracts on both sides with other nonconference opponents)would be at some point in the 2030s. Conference breakdowns< img data-src="https://a.espncdn.com/photo/2024/0607/r1342937_608x342_16-9.jpg"

src =”https://a.espncdn.com/photo/2024/0607/r1342937_608x342_16-9.jpg”/ > To assist you prepare yourself for the 2024 season, Bill Connelly is previewing every conference and breaking down the leading players and postseason contenders.< img src=" https://a.espncdn.com/redesign/assets/img/logos/espnplus/espnplus-editorial_v2@2x.png" width="49

“/ > Sneak peeks”Castiglione, who has actually been OU’s athletic director given that 1998 and was Missouri’s AD for 5 1/2 years before that, said the relocate to the SEC became more practical as the landscape around the sport shifted.”I would not have imagined it 20 years ago. But 10 years back? Yes, “Castiglione stated.”That’s not to sound cavalier like I might forecast it, but you might see how whatever was establishing.”For Texas, the move might have come much sooner. Harvey Schiller, the SEC commissioner from 1986 to 1989, informed ESPN last month that Texas would have become part of the SEC’s very first wave of expansion, in addition to Arkansas, in 1992 had it not been for the Texas state legislature mandating that the SEC likewise add Texas A&M if it were to bring the Longhorns aboard. Schiller delegated become executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee and was replaced as SEC commissioner in January 1990 by Roy Kramer, who moved SEC expansion throughout the surface line.Asked if Texas signing up with the SEC was a done deal had the political leaders not gotten involved, Schiller said emphatically, “The response is yes. The conference wanted it. Texas wanted it. “Schiller said the SEC wasn’t as thinking about Texas A&M at the time which A&M

authorities also had some concerns with a relocate to the SEC.” Surprisingly enough, Texas A&M wound up being the first of the two schools [in Texas] to sign up with the SEC in 2012,”

Schiller stated.” Now, some 30 years later on, I guess they finally got it right. “Venables might have currently been in the SEC, however he passed on taking the Auburn head job after Gus Malzahn was fired following the 2020 season. He wasn’t convinced the positioning at Auburn was what it required to be to navigate the SEC at an elite level. Sarkisian handed down the Mississippi State task following the 2019 season.Oklahoma makes its SEC launching Sept. 21 at home against Tennessee. Texas doesn’t wade into SEC play until Sept. 28 in your home versus Mississippi State. The competitors play each other in Dallas on Oct. 12.

Of the 2, Oklahoma wants to have the more treacherous schedule within the league. The Sooners play six teams in ESPN’s most current preseason Top 25 rankings, with 4 of those games away from home.Texas deals with Georgia in your home Oct. 19

, the week after playing Oklahoma. Georgia hasn’t lost a regular-season game since the 2020 COVID season, when the SEC played a 10-game, all-SEC schedule.The Longhorns went to Tuscaloosa in Week 2 last season and beat Alabama 34-24, snapping the Crimson Tide’s 21-game home winning streak.The move from the Huge 12 plainly is an action up for the schools, however one Oklahoma and Texas fans, players and administrators are ready to embrace– both on and off the field.”We’re at the University of Texas. People do not like us. You find out to embrace the hate,”Texas senior protective back Jahdae Barron stated. “It’s a brand-new day for us in the SEC. We’re the first team to do it at Texas. It’s always something you want, to be in those history books, which’s what we’re working toward right now, to get in those history books.”We wish to be remembered permanently.”Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold lived the very first part of his childhood simply outside Atlanta in Suwanee, Georgia, before moving to Texas. “I grew up a Georgia fan. All my pals were either Georgia or Tennessee fans, “said Arnold, a sophomore.” I grew up around the SEC and watched all those games.” Aaron Murray was Arnold’s favorite quarterback, and Arnold remembers seeing Murray engineer a fourth-quarter return with three goal passes in 2013, just to see Auburn break Georgia’s hearts(

and his)on Nick Marshall’s incredible 73-yard tipped touchdown pass to Ricardo Louis on fourth-and-18 with 25 seconds left.”It resembled that every week it

appeared,” Arnold stated.” There’s something special about playing in a conference you matured dreaming of playing in. I understand how incredibly hard and hard-nosed the SEC is, however we’re all set to develop our own existence. You need to if you’re going to prosper in the SEC.”