Blatant Homerism: It just means more – still
The offseason between the 2012 and 2013 campaigns wasn’t a fun one for the Oklahoma Sooners.
OU had enjoyed a 10-3 season with some high points, including a 63-21 drubbing of Texas. The Sooners even won a purported share of the Big 12 championship, although a head-to-head loss to co-champion Kansas State made the title feel hollow.
However, things ended on a sour note. While OU and UT had affirmed their allegiance to the Big 12, the league as originally constituted was crumbling around them. Four of its founding schools had flown the coop, and the Texas A&M Aggies, in particular, were reveling in their new status as members of the illustrious SEC. The Ags had whooped OU in their postseason meeting in the Cotton Bowl, 41-13, and they were thriving on the recruiting trail at the Sooners’ expense.
With Alabama winning the seventh consecutive national championship by an SEC team, the conference was sucking the air out of every conversation on the airwaves – and apparently in recruits’ living rooms, too. By the time talking season rolled around, OU coach Bob Stoops had clearly heard enough. When asked at a summer event for fans about the conference’s superiority to other leagues, Stoops went on a pointed diatribe about the media and public getting snowed by SEC “propaganda.” Clickbaiters and content makers rejoiced.
The recent decision by Oklahoma and Texas to leave the Big 12 for the SEC makes Stoops’ rant all kinds of ironic in retrospect, especially given his willingness to champion the move publicly. However, Stoops circa 2013 would probably delight in the current look of college football’s landscape. Big Ten powers Michigan and Ohio State have won the last two national championships. Moreover, perennial Midwestern doormat Indiana is seen as the odds-on favorite to win this year’s crown. The lone SEC representative left in the College Football Playoff, Ole Miss, fell last night to Miami.
You could point to other metrics like the SEC’s 1-5 record in bowls played outside the College Football Playoff as further evidence of the conference’s diminished stature. Not surprisingly, the Purity Patrol is arguing the SEC doesn’t look so tough when compensation is being delivered to the players through the front door instead of the back.
If conference pride is your thing, this all must be very concerning. But what if you’re not a dork?
“It just means more” may be nauseating, but the marketing slogan still fits the identity of the Southeastern Conference to the letter. Eleven of the top 20 college football programs that produce the most total revenue reside in the SEC. SEC teams also account for 11 of the top 20 programs that spend the most on football. The list of teams drawing the most television eyeballs is dominated by the SEC, too.
The disparity in resources plays out in roster construction. According to the 247Sports Team Talent Composite, half of the 20 most talented rosters in college football in 2025 belonged to SEC teams, compared with six from the B1G. Nine of the top 20 recruiting classes in 2026 come from the SEC, versus five from the B1G.
You could argue the gap between the supposed Power Two conferences has shrunk in the last decade. For example, the SEC had eight of the top 20 most talented rosters in 2016, while the B1G had three. When you account for conference expansion, however, 10 of 2016’s top 20 now call the SEC home, versus five from the B1G as presently constituted. As far as recruiting goes, the SEC had eight teams in the top 20 in 2016, and the B1G accounted for four. Each conference would have two more of the top 20 of 2016 if we count teams added through expansion.
Nevertheless, the “great flattening” of college football seems legitimate at the moment. To wit, the team with the most distinguished history among the College Football Playoff’s final four is Miami. Meanwhile, the current SP+ rankings for 2025 contain eight teams from the SEC in the top 20 overall and seven B1G teams.
My guess is that the leveling out on the field of play will prove durable in some respects. The ease of movement for players now makes it much easier to hop from one program to another, which simultaneously robs recruiting powerhouses of depth and raises the floor of also-rans. Obviously, money is playing a role, too, as programs such as Texas Tech and Miami have put the resources of fanatical boosters to work in the market for talent. And the flow of information will continue to pick up speed going forward, so identifying promising prospects will only get easier.
Keep in mind, though, that we’re still witnessing the early days of tectonic shifts in the landscape. Some programs gained an advantage by way of billionaires infusing them with cash, but the Phil Knights of the world can’t live forever. At the same time, football-crazy schools that don’t have a single generous benefactor propping them up will continue developing best practices for talent acquisition – or copying the programs that excel.
Lastly, don’t discount the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the game now. No. 1 Indiana is among the programs that have loaded up on experienced players with extra eligibility thanks to blanket exemptions granted by the NCAA in 2020. Note that these extensions simultaneously forced some players in subsequent recruiting classes to wait an extra year behind veterans with extra eligibility – coupled with NIL opportunities, a later start to their careers means fourth- and fifth-year players benefit more now than in the past by spending an extra year (or two) in college. A bevy of sixth-year seniors are clearing the system after this season, though, so the experience distribution curve around the country should look more familiar going forward.
The chances of building juggernaut teams along the lines of the ones fielded by programs such as Alabama, Georgia and LSU in recent years do seem remote. Having said that, the structural advantages that worked in favor of SEC teams in the past haven’t changed. B1G schools will continue collecting big checks, but money doesn’t close the overall gap in institutional will between them and SEC programs. TV money doesn’t change the fact that fall Saturdays in SEC country are still the closest thing we have to a junior NFL in terms of the stage and the quality of the competition.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t chime in on a couple of recent developments at OU.
First, it appears as though tight ends coach at Oklahoma is Jason Witten’s next stop up the ladder to head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. I doubt I will be the first to observe that Witten’s son Cooper is a consensus five-star linebacker in the 2027 class. That presumably puts the Sooners in the driver’s seat to land his signature.
One of the top prospects in the next recruiting class is a hell of a fringe benefit, but you’d hope the OU brain trust has faith in Witten’s skills as a position coach. Those kinds of openings deserve more consideration than a candidate’s ability to bring in a single prospect. That being said, Witten doesn’t have a high bar to clear to surpass his predecessor in the role. I do appreciate it when programs look for perspectives somewhat off the beaten path to round out their coaching staff. And for other recruiting purposes, it can’t hurt to have a Dallas Cowboys legend on your sidelines.
As for player personnel management, OU’s latest transfer acquisitions seem promising. Pairing Virginia expat Trell Harris with Isaiah Sategna at receiver gives the Sooners a solid one-two punch out wide. Notably, Harris should serve as a more traditional number one on the outside than the slot receiver Sategna.
OU is coming close to hitting its targets in terms of position needs and numbers, but tight end still feels underwhelming. It would be comforting to know OU has options at the position with selling points that are more persuasive than “wasn’t on last year’s roster.”
Time for the new TE coach to work his magic, in other words.