.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
Oklahoma Football: 3 Reasons why Sooners aren't leaving Big 12
There has been speculation that the Oklahoma football program wants to abandon the Big 12 for greener pastures, but it's a move that simply won't happen anytime soon.
It wouldn't be a college football offseason if there weren't rumors about Nick Saban going to Texas, Notre Dame joining a conference in football, and of course, another team jumping ship from the Big 12.
This year it's Oklahoma who is reportedly unhappy with life in the inappropriately named conference, and the rumors are catching fire in a hurry.
Most recently, a columnist from The Oklahoman, Berry Tramel, appeared on the Paul Finebaum Show and stirred the pot with some rather outlandish statements. According to Tramel, Oklahoma fans are fed up with life in the Big 12 and want the Sooners to join the SEC .
.@BerryTramel says OU fans are done with the Big 12.
"They are ready for the SEC & it's fairly overwhelming. It's wide support for the SEC"
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) May 10, 2017
As attractive as this may sound to some Oklahoma fans, it's simply not going to happen – at least not in this lifetime. This is a pipe dream for Sooner fans and an utter nightmare for Bob Stoops, who loves to poke the SEC beehive at least once per season.
There are a number of reasons why we won't see Oklahoma football playing amidst the conference everyone loves to hate, but there are several issues which make it next to impossible.
Here are the top three reasons the Sooners won't be joining the SEC or any other conference anytime in the foreseeable future.
Jul 11, 2016; Hoover, AL, USA; Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey speaks during SEC media day at Hyatt Regency Birmingham-The Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports
No Room At The Inn
In case Oklahoma fans who are begging for this move hadn't noticed, there really isn't a lot of room in the SEC to add another team right now. The league is packed tight with 14 teams and two divisions, with complaints already that certain teams barely get to play each other in-conference.
For the SEC to add a single team, they'd most likely have to escort someone else out the door. So who would leave?
Get the Saturday Blitz App
The newest members – Missouri and Texas A&M – aren't likely to want to give up the financial windfall and increased recruiting power they've seen since joining the SEC. The longtime stalwart members of the conference certainly aren't going to give up their toeholds either.
The only team who could viably be looked at as replaceable is Vanderbilt, and it's doubtful the members of the SEC East will want to give up their yearly breather against the Commodores for a bloody turf war against Bob Stoops' Sooners.
Unless another conference makes an offer which can't be refused to someone in the SEC, that conference is probably set with the 14 current members for quite a while.
Oct 8, 2016; Dallas, TX, USA; A general view of the stadium and game program before the game between theTexas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners at Cotton Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
Killing Off Rivalries
The Big 12 is Texas and Oklahoma, and both of those programs will have to remain in place for the conference to be sustainable.
Regardless of how many upstart programs such as Baylor and TCU have pockets of success, and no matter how many almost-but-no-cigar seasons come out of Stillwater and Manhattan, the eyes of the Big 12 will always look to the Longhorns and Sooners.
By joining the SEC, Missouri and Texas A&M already killed off two classic college football rivalries – the Border War between Kansas and Missouri, and the annual Texas-Texas A&M showdown. Moving Oklahoma to another conference (SEC or otherwise) would likely put the kibosh on two more classic games.
There isn't a visible scenario where the powers surrounding college football would let the Red River Showdown (or Classic, or Rivalry, or Shootout, or whatever they're calling it this week) or Bedlam become ghosts of rivalries past. Nor would Oklahoma State and Texas care to lose the revenue from such big fan and network draws.
Texas and Oklahoma are joined at the hip in the Big 12, and unless they both bolt and completely dismantle the conference, it's a pretty safe bet that they'll remain in place.
Jul 18, 2016; Dallas, TX, USA; Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby speaks to the media during the Big 12 Media Days at Omni Dallas Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Money Talks
Just like practically everything else in college football, it's all going to come down to money. And while Oklahoma might see dollar signs dangled before their noses by the Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC, too many other interested parties will yank the Sooners leash before they wander too far off.
The biggest financial obstacle right now is the grant of rights deal owned by the Big 12. Under this agreement, the Big 12 owns all television rights for football and basketball games in the conference and would be allowed to keep those rights for any team leaving the conference until 2025.
In short, the SEC (and by proxy, ESPN) would not be allowed to broadcast and profit from Oklahoma football and basketball games for at least eight more years. That's a dog which simply won"t hunt down south, unless Oklahoma would be willing to forfeit their share of the SEC pot-of-gold for a few seasons to buy out that television deal.
That's not happening either.
No, for now, Sooner fans will have to deal with the rebuilding process going on in the Big 12 and the shortsightedness of the conference's leadership.
More from Saturday Blitz
This article originally appeared on 
