Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioRules
No, you're wrong. The SEC did not invite OU. Slive might have put out some feelers but there was no invite extended. The Big 12 was on the verge of collapse. No way OU woulda said no to a stable conference and more money to stay in a conference that made less money and was likely to fall apart. The University Presdent would have been fired immediately had he turned down an SEC invite.
Here's the problem with Oklahoma joining the SEC: They are too good and don't bring in the money to match. For some reason, OU doesn't get the tv ratings of other national powers. So, why would South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Auburn etc... want a school, that they can't beat for less money? A&M brings huge amounts of money. Every school offers something different and it depends on what a conference is looking for. The SEC wasn't looking for tradition. Or a football king like OU. They wanted improved academics, decent but not great football, tv markets. Missouri and A&M offer all three. OU offered none.
And if you think Texas is riding OUs success then you don't know anything about the power structure in college football.
It's nothing personal, Oklahoma had nothing to offer the SEC (without Texas included). It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with OU. It means they didn't have what the SEC was looking for. You can tell yourself the SEC was drooling over OU all you want. Fact is, talking to a school does not equal an invite.
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Again, you're not from here and you clearly don't know what you're talking about.
OU DID say no to Slive and the SEC because OU knew as long as there is a league with the Sooners and Shorthorns then that's enough for any conference. You're just wrong, little fellar.
Please take the time to read the following articles mentioning OU's invite by the SEC during the first major wave of realignment. OU was the prime target and A&M was the second main target. The invitation was still open even in late 2011 when A&M joined.
Hope this helps with your reassessment.
Better luck next time with your "assertions" Pardner.
Also, yeh, it's not even debatable: OU has had a ton more success than Tejas. Sure we've used many Texans to win but that's Shorthorn's U.'s fault for keeping their own blue-chippers in state.
Oklahoma president: SEC invited Sooners and Texas A&M | AL.com
Oklahoma president: SEC invited Sooners, Texas A&M during conference expansion frenzy - ESPN
Berry Tramel: OU wants no part of the SEC | News OK
From Barry Tramel:
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Berry Tramel: Realignment frenzy proves Oklahoma is a state united
Oklahoman Comment on this article 5
Published: June 17, 2010
During the conference realignment frenzy of last week, the Southeastern Conference contacted the University of Oklahoma.
OU's Bob Stoops, left, and OSU's Mike Gundy are tied together in so many ways, especially now that OU turned down an invitation from the SEC because the conference wouldn't invite OSU. PHOTO BY NATE BILLINGS, The Oklahoman Archive
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Berry Tramel: Realignment frenzy proves Oklahoma is a state united
The SEC invited the Sooners to join its league.
The mania was so mighty over the possible breakup of the Big 12 that the SEC invitation wasn’t even at the top of OU’s priority list. Jump to the Pac-10? Salvage the Big 12? Sooner decision-makers had a lot on their plate.
OU president David Boren wouldn’t confirm the SEC invitation — “wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment†— but sources say Boren responded to the SEC in two ways.
1. Appreciation for the interest. It indeed is flattering to be courted by the nation’s best football league.
2. Would the invitation include Oklahoma State?
The answer was no, not at this time. Boren thanked the SEC for its interest but said the Sooners weren’t going anywhere without OSU.
Truth is, OU preferred the Pac-10 or remaining in the Big 12 to joining the SEC. But as the realignment craze settles down, one thing abundantly clear is the solid relationship between the two Oklahoma schools.
The Bedlam brothers work together. Compete fiercely on the fields and courts. Their fans rail at one another in the stadiums and the workplaces. Refuse to wear orange or be caught dead in red.
But their leaders cooperate. Work together. Look out for the good of the state.
When the Pac-10 first came calling, it wanted just OU. Most every league does, because of the Sooners’ football prowess.
But Boren and Co. made it clear. Both or neither. Bedlam or bust. OU sources said the Pac-10 accepted that answer cordially and quickly, and while orangebloods.com reported Wednesday that the Pac-10 attempted to backtrack late and swap in Kansas in place of OSU, that plan had no traction. Not with the Sooners.
The Bedlam rivalry drives each school, probably less in football than most other sports, since OU-Texas trumps all on the gridiron. But a competitor is defined by his opponent. Sooner excellence propels OSU; Cowboy success motivates OU.
Both schools would be less without the other.
“We’re one state,†Boren said. “We’re tied together in so many ways.â€
Just look at the presidents. OSU’s Burns Hargis, wildly popular, has an OU law degree. The veterinary teaching hospital in Stillwater is named for Boren; it was his pet project when he was Oklahoma’s governor in the 1970s.
Hargis and Boren work together on state appropriations with the legislature. Sure, their kinship on athletic matters is fueled in part by politics. If OU tried to leave OSU behind en route to the Pac-10 or SEC, the capitol would call for a special session before sundown.
But the alliance goes deeper than cash.
Unless your only family ties to higher education are cheering in coliseums or arguing in bars, most Oklahomans have ties to both schools.
The parents of Boren, who bleeds more crimson than did Cecil Samara, were OSU graduates. Boren’s mother was homecoming queen.
Hargis’ daughter runs a business in Norman, and there’s that interlocking OU on his law degree.
When both men talk about their Bedlam rival, they do so with affinity. Not political talk. Not jargon. True appreciation.
Boren feels that what is good for OSU is good for the state, and what’s good for the state is good for OU. Hargis feels that’s what good for OU is good for the state, and what’s good for the state is good for OSU.
OSU athletic director Mike Holder — heck, Boone Pickens himself does the same thing — talks glowingly about Sooner football, admitting the OU tradition is what OSU aspires to. Hard to admit you’re a little brother; hard to be a gracious big brother. But it’s great for all when it happens.
This isn’t the first sign of Bedlam class. When OU won the 2000 national championship, State athletic director Terry Don Phillips took out a full-page ad, congratulating the Sooners. When OU played basketball at Gallagher-Iba a couple of weeks after the tragic 2001 OSU plane crash, Kelvin Sampson’s Sooners came out in orange warmup shirts.
That’s the kind of bond apparently missing in Texas, where UT and Texas A&M got so crossways on the Pac-10 proposal, the entire deal blew up.
This Bedlam bond will make rabid fans recoil, cursing their school’s president for treason and cursing me for writing about it.
But that’s the kind of bond we need in Oklahoma. Maybe you can thrive working solo in Texas. But in Oklahoma, we need to work together.
Maybe some day, we won’t have such a bond. Maybe we’ll have leaders who look out only for their school, not their state.
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