How Oklahoma's Program Has Grown and Evolved Since the Sooners' Last CWS Trip

OMAHA, NE — The last time Oklahoma played in the College World Series, the Sooners were not quite yet members of the SEC.

OU went into the 2022 NCAA Tournament as champions of the Big 12, but flexed plenty of muscle against its future conference.

Now, head coach Skip Johnson has been a member of the SEC for nearly two full seasons, and he’s gained a different perspective on the league than he had just four years ago.

“I think the SEC is the best conference in the country,” Johnson told Sooners On SI at Thursday’s press conference at Charles Schwab Field. “You can see it from week in, week out, whether it's coming out of the bullpen, whether it's the starting pitchers, whether it's going through the lineup.”

Johnson already knew that, of course. Everyone knows it. The SEC owns 11 national titles since 2009, including the last six in a row and eight of the last 11. Seven different programs have won it all in that time: LSU, South Carolina (two), Vanderbilt (two), Florida, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee.

So the SEC has long been the most dominant conference in college baseball, but nobody in Norman was intimidated by that team’s SEC path to or through the CWS.

After going 1-2 against SEC competition in the regular season, OU opened the postseason by beating longtime SEC power Florida twice to win the Gainesville Regional.

In the Blacksburg Super Regional at Virginia Tech, the ’22 OU squad took two of three games against the Hokies of the ACC, then quickly got another preview of a future SEC opponent, taking down Texas A&M twice at Charles Schwab Field. Coupled with a victory over Notre Dame, that sent Johnson’s first CWS squad as a head coach into the best-of-3 championship series against another future SEC foe.

That one didn’t go as well, as Ole Miss beat Oklahoma 10-3 and 4-2 to win the school’s first national championship in any sport.

But Johnson and the Sooners — and the OU fan base — did discover something very real about the SEC during those two days in downtown Omaha: these aren’t just good teams they would be playing three years down the road. They were elite fan bases.

Rebel fans outnumbered Sooner Nation somewhere in the vicinity of 6-to-1. Some estimates in the second game placed the crowd of 25,000-plus as high as 10-to-1 in favor of Ole Miss.

It was like a home game in Oxford.

“I’ve always said this: it's like a football atmosphere in a baseball arena,” Johnson said.

But here's a clear indication how the SEC has changed the Oklahoma program.

In 26 home dates, that 2022 Sooner squad — with a nation-leading 11 players who would be taken in the Major League Baseball Draft — averaged just 1,610 fans per game.

This year, in 29 home games, Oklahoma averaged 2,722 fans per game. That still ranks near the bottom of the SEC, where crowds of 10,000 are common. But no other program in the conference has experienced a 41 percent increase in attendance over the last four years.

“The fan base is incredible,” Johnson said. “Our fan base has been incredible all year long for us.”

The fact is that since that unforgettable run by Johnson’s 2022 team, Oklahoma has grown as a program, evolved, gotten better. The Sooners are one of five SEC teams in the eight-team CWS field, and although OU lost its last four league series and finished tied for 11th in this year’s standings with a 14-16 record (last year they also went 14-16 and finished 12th), this team makes no apologies for being here.

With two full seasons of SEC play, OU players now fully comprehend the weight of their task each week.

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“I love the SEC,” said DH Trey Gambill. “It prepares us for moments like this. And you don't get any breaks, similar to a regional or super regional.

“Every week you've got to be ready to go. So I think that, for us, has been fun, because we're competitors. Then as a baseball team, it's helped us grow and prepared us for the College World Series.”

Shortstop Jaxon Willits was a freshman on the 2024 OU squad that played in the Big 12. Now he’s had two years in the SEC, and his perspective has been altered some.

“I feel like the SEC is really tough, and it prepares you in a way that — whether it's Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, you're facing the same quality of arms as anywhere. You're facing the best arms from anywhere in the country, Friday, Saturday, through Sunday.

“I feel like sometimes in maybe some of the other conferences you face a really good Friday guy, really good Saturday guy, and Sunday it's maybe a little bit of a fall-off. I feel like you don't see that a lot in our conference.

“So you've got to be buttoned up, and you've got to be ready to go every day of the year, whether it's a Friday in February or a Sunday in June.”

Since returning from Omaha last time, L. Dale Mitchell Park has become Kimrey Family Stadium, thanks to $15 million in donations from Brian and Kim Kimrey in July 2024. OU’s ballpark has grown, changed, changed again, and is still improving. Soon, it may look and feel like almost any SEC venue.

When SEC membership was announced in the summer of 2021, the Sooners’ facility was not close to the standard of its new conference. Now it is.

“We were gonna build a field all along,” Johnson said. “There's no doubt about that. Moving to the SEC, every field and every facility is really nice. I can't thank the Kimrey family enough for what they've done. It's transformational in our program.”

Johnson wanted to be at OU. But the Kimrey family's commitment to him and to the baseball program made him feel truly appreciated.

“OU cares about baseball,” Johnson said. “You know, Joe C. (Castiglione) cared about baseball. We just hired Roger Denny as our new AD — unbelievable. I mean, he's been around; the things you talk (about) and the communication was incredible. We're excited for the future of Oklahoma baseball.”

“I didn't come to the University of Oklahoma to leave a job vacancy. I came here to leave a mark on the program and to carry on the tradition that Enos Semore left, and Larry Cochell, and all the great players that played there. So, excited to do that.

“ … We're excited to be in the SEC, and we know that's helped our baseball team, and it's helped our baseball players.”

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