Being in the SEC is very different than competing in the SEC, and it won’t take long for the conference’s newest members, Oklahoma and Texas, to figure that out.
The increased self-esteem and revenue that comes with SEC membership is substantial, but arranging the SEC schedule for most sports is difficult at best.
Oklahoma’s first SEC football game will be next Saturday against Tennessee in Norman, and it should be a challenging and historic matchup.
But there are challenges on both sides. The Vols have struggled on the road in SEC games recently, and a trip to Norman, Oklahoma, rarely goes well for anyone.
Being selected as Oklahoma’s first SEC opponent would be a piece of Sooners history, but given the level of success Oklahoma has had with football, it’s hard to imagine any SEC athletic director would approach conference commissioner Greg Sankey and ask for the honor of welcoming the Sooners into the league.
Oklahoma has won seven national championships and 49 conference titles, and has also produced seven Heisman Trophy winners.
Sooners football may be the centerpiece of sports in the state, but there’s much more to Oklahoma sports than that — if you have the time, visit the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in downtown Oklahoma City and catch a Vols game to find out for yourself.
Any sports fan will appreciate this Hall of Fame. With so many notable inductees, it’s like touring the National Sports Hall of Fame. Many of the names look familiar, and you might think, “I didn’t know they had anything to do with Oklahoma.”
Let me give you a few examples.
Jim Thorpe: An ABC poll ranked him as the greatest athlete of the 20th century, and it’s easy to see why.
He won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon, and was a running back, placekicker and punter in football. He played professional football, basketball and baseball.
Mickey Mantle: He was one of the greatest and most popular New York Yankees of all time. Few players in baseball history could match his combination of speed and power, and his tape-measure home runs were legendary. He was an All-Star 16 times, still holds several World Series records, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Mantle was so good that Oklahoma, as a high school running back, offered him a scholarship.
Warren Spahn: He also earned a place in the Hall of Fame after winning 363 games in his first year of eligibility, more than any other left-handed pitcher, and making the All-Star team 17 times. As durable as he was talented, Spahn compiled a 23-7 record at age 42.
Nadia Comaneci: Winner of five Olympic gold medals and the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 on the uneven bars, she defected from her native Romania in 1989 and moved to Oklahoma two years later.
She and her husband, Olympic gold medalist gymnast Bart Conner, live in Norman, Oklahoma.
Johnny Bench: Often considered the greatest catcher of all time, the Oklahoma City native was a member of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine in the 1970s, winning 10 Gold Glove Awards and being selected to the All-Star team 14 times.
Oklahoma’s rich sports history is just one reason why the Sooners are a worthy addition to the SEC — their football program is another.
Adams: Some opponents will have special motivation to beat the Tennessee football team in 2024.
No one can expect the Sooners to dominate at the SEC conference level like they did in the Big Eight and Big 12, but they also can’t be expected to regress into mediocrity.
The Sooners have been too good for too long for that to happen.
John Adams is a senior columnist. He can be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at twitter.com/johnadamskns.
This article originally appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel. There’s a lot more to Oklahoma’s rich sports history than the Sooners.