Oklahoma’s Leadership Backs Venables, but Turns Its Back on the Championship Standard

Column

NORMAN — The sign above the entrance to Owen Field from the Oklahoma Sooners' locker room says “Play Like a Champion Today!”

After Wednesday’s Board of Regents meeting, a more appropriate message might read “Just Wait Until the Sport Has Guardrails!”

College football is a mess. The College Football Playoff is constantly re-formatting and expanding. Players can freely transfer each year and over-the-table money has become the driving force in roster construction.

No matter the environment, a blue blood like Oklahoma is supposed to persevere. But it seems that the administration is simply waiting for those guardrails to better structure the sport.

“We spend a lot of time thinking about the future of college athletics, the present of college athletics,” OU president Joseph Harroz Jr. said during Wednesday’s Board of Regents meeting. “When you look at all of the change that's taking place... we know it's not going to be an uncapped environment forever.

“We're going through a period that is truly unprecedented and not sustainable,” Harroz added.

OU Regents Chair Rick Nagel also spoke about the volatility of the sport and why it gives him confidence Venables is still their man for the future.

“So, we have seen that almost in spite of that tumult, we’ve had incredible consistency.” Nagel said. “We have seen, in Coach (Brent) Venables — and why we renewed his contract — that he has been able to recruit high-quality student-athletes, build an incredible culture and really do this the right way. We don’t have young people transferring out of here, like you see at other places; kids want to come to the University of Oklahoma.”

Roger Denny, Porter Moser, Joseph Harroz Jr., Jennie Baranczyk, Sooners — OU athletic director Roger Denny, left, men's basketball coach Porter Moser, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. (second from right), and Jennie Baranczyk join others in breaking ground on the Rock Creek Entertainment District on Tuesday in Norman. | Ryan Aber, Sooners on SI

Meanwhile, other blue bloods like Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame and Ohio State are doing just fine through the tumult Nagel described. Football powers like Georgia, Miami, Oregon and Tennessee have done just fine during this new wild west era of college football.

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Venables’ Oklahoma has been within earshot of the standard — defeating No. 3 Texas in 2023 as an undefeated, fringe-top 10 team themselves and reaching the College Football Playoff in 2025. Other feathers in the cap for Venables — upset wins over No. 7 Alabama in 2024 and No. 1 Texas in 2026 — have come during seasons that are often placed alongside the John Blake era.

Judging by how much Harroz and Nagel waxed poetic about the difficulty of navigating a program through this new environment — and their hope that guardrails are on the way — it does seem like they are resigned to the fact that chasing excellence is too difficult a task, too steep a mountain to climb.

Now, Harroz knows what the standard is. “Our expectations never change — championship football,” he said. “All of us recognize that right now we're not meeting them, and so that will never change.

Joseph Harroz, Oklahoma Sooners — OU President Joseph Harroz, Jr., for Viewpoint Interview, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

“Given all the changes that are happening, it requires a real team effort. The expectations don't change, and I believe 100% we have the right team and the right focus,” Harroz added.

That’s called talking in circles, essentially saying: This is Oklahoma, where championships are demanded, but right now this is good enough until the sport calms down.

Venables may be a well-liked man, talented leader and elite defensive mind — but that also comes with two 6-7 seasons to his name and potentially a third by the end of 2026. That's not the standard Harroz spoke of, that's mediocrity.

The program that won seven national championships, produced four head coaches with more than 100 wins, countless legends on the field and seemingly unbreakable records like the 47-game winning streak has taken stock of itself and the environment surrounding it and recalibrated.

Harroz, Venables, Oklahoma Sooners — OU President Joseph Harroz Jr celebrates with coach Brent Venables after a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the LSU Tigers at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. Oklahoma won 17-13. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

That championship standard — specifically a lack of tolerating failure throughout its history — has led Oklahoma to rise to the status of blue blood within college football.

The monster that Barry Switzer often spoke of — the beast that thrives on a diet of championships — is barking at the door.

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