The long held belief about Oklahoma University has been that the Sooners held what was viewed as a subservient stance to the University of Texas because they knew where their bread was buttered. Their return to prominence has coincided with the birth of the Big 12, a closer rivalry with the Longhorns and other Texas schools, and, along with it, easier recruiting in the gold mine that is Texas high school football.
Not so on all fronts, said Bob Stoops Tuesday. Oklahoma is fine moving to another conference – likely the would be Pac-16 – without Texas. Not only that, they aren’t too concerned with whether they continue to play Texas.
I don’t think it’s necessary [to continue playing Texas]. No one wants to hear that, but life changes. If it changes, you have to change with it, to whatever degree. If it works, great, I love the game. But if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Sometimes that’s the way it goes. I’m not lobbying for anything. I’ll stick to whatever President Boren and Joe Castiglione feel is best for the university. I’m all in.
Not only that, they aren’t going to have any trouble continuing to recruit many of their best players out of the state of Texas even if they aren’t playing Texas schools regularly.
I think proximity in recruiting matters the most. We’ve always recruited heavier and stronger more north in Texas than in the South.It may a little bit but, overall, I don’t think it would drastically.
Oklahoma has been playing Texas since 1900 – since before Oklahoma was officially a state – and they’ve been playing in Dallas – a key OU recruiting haven – for 88 years. It’s a fantastic football program with a terrific head coach. One would think that they would be a strong program wherever they are. However, it’s much more of an unknown than Stoops acknowledges.