Do the Oklahoma Sooners Even Need the SEC Anymore?

The College Football Playoff is officially expanding to 24 teams beginning next season, and with that, the SEC announced this week that they are ending their conference championship game after 35 seasons.

No longer will teams head to Atlanta on the first weekend in December for their chance to win an outright SEC title on the field. Instead, every team will be hoping that they are on the right end of tiebreakers, while catching a break to get favorable matchups from the scheduling matrix.

In a league that prides themselves on the idea that it just means more, their most coveted prize now means a whole lot less.

So now with easier access to the postseason and no trip to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on the line, the Sooners have to ask themselves a loaded question.

Does Oklahoma need the SEC anymore?

There is a strong case to be made that they do not. When OU joined the Southeastern Conference in 2024, it was a no-brainer. The top programs were consolidating into the SEC and Big Ten, separating the haves and the have-nots. Despite what some might tell you, Oklahoma’s move to the SEC wasn’t purely financial. By moving to the conference, the Sooners aligned themselves into the best league in America alongside powerhouse programs like Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and others. It was largely about prestige, having a presence amongst the elites.

Times have changed.

Oklahoma’s move to the SEC wasn’t a mistake by any means. They needed to secure their future in the sport, while the Big 12 remained unstable. It was a necessary lifeboat and needed to have a seat at the table with the big boys in college football.

Going forward, the new 24-team playoff will require all Power conference programs to play 10 qualifying games against P4 opponents or Notre Dame. The jersey patch of a league does not protect you or define your season anymore. If conference championships are dead, and nearly two dozen at-large teams are getting into the postseason every winter, why are bluebloods like Oklahoma still splitting their pie 16 ways?

You’ve probably heard a few complaints over the years about Notre Dame not being in a conference. The Fighting Irish have held strong over the years about maintaining their independence. Now they look like geniuses who outsmarted everyone else and beat the system. Notre Dame could become the model for the rest of the power programs in the sport.

While everyone else has been fighting for survival in conference realignment, Notre Dame has been cashing $50 million in checks from their football TV deal with NBC each year, along with another $17 million annually for their other sports in the ACC. That’s a grand total of $67 million.

But that’s not all!

When Notre Dame makes the College Football Playoff, they keep every dime to themselves. If you go back to the Fighting Irish’s 2024–25 postseason when they lost in the CFP National Championship to Ohio State, they earned a grand total of $20 million all going back to their own pockets. Meanwhile, schools like Oklahoma have to share their postseason revenue with the rest of the SEC, and it ends up like charity to subsidize the bottom feeder programs in the league, like Arkansas. 

So why can’t Oklahoma do the same thing as Notre Dame?

The Sooners are a proud blueblood program with a national following. According to Nielsen, through the eighth week of the current college football season, Oklahoma was the third most-watched team on TV of any school in the nation. There are t-shirt OU fans all across the U.S. that watch the crimson and cream suit up every week, who have never stepped foot on campus in Norman in their lifetime.

Let’s not forget a little history either: it was the 1984 NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma Supreme Court case that shattered the NCAA's monopoly and gave schools the right to control their own television destiny in the first place. 

Simply put, if conferences are basically reduced to scheduling agreements with no conference championship to play for, what is stopping Oklahoma from taking the same 1984 blueprint and charting their own path forward?

If everything worked out right, the Sooners as an independent program would be very enticing.

All of a sudden, Oklahoma could have their own blockbuster TV rights deal, keeping every dollar for themselves. They would get to create their own schedule, guaranteeing more lucrative home dates at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium every fall. Then, when they make the College Football Playoff, they would get to keep all the payouts in Norman without having to share it with conference members that would never even sniff the postseason.

It gets even better.

By the Sooners taking total control of their own schedule, all of a sudden those regional rivalries you may have missed could return. Imagine having annual matchups with Nebraska, or renewing the Bedlam Series with Oklahoma State. Not to mention, you could still have open dates for annual games against Texas in Red River, as well as Missouri. Oklahoma would also have some remaining dates every year to fill against some of the nation’s elite as well.

The move to the SEC can’t be looked at with any regret. It was the right play for financial stability and guaranteeing Oklahoma’s status among the top programs in a shaky college football landscape. 

But in a 24-team playoff world where conference crowns are decided by tiebreakers instead of on the field, the SEC needs a powerhouse brand like Oklahoma a whole lot more than Oklahoma needs the SEC.