How Will Full SEC Share Affect Jennie Baranczyk's Oklahoma Basketball Squad?

NORMAN — Jennie Baranczyk has had plenty of success in her first five seasons at the held of Oklahoma women’s basketball.

After the program had slipped in the last few seasons under Sherri Coale, Baranczyk brought back momentum to the program.

The Sooners have made the NCAA Tournament in each of those seasons, advancing to at least the second round each time and making the Sweet 16 in each of the last two seasons.

The women’s basketball program figures to benefit greatly from the athletic department receiving full revenue shares from the SEC in this fiscal year after receiving a much smaller payout last year.

In the third of our series on how Oklahoma’s programs will benefit from the program receiving a full share, we look at the women’s basketball program”

NIL, Player Acquisition and Retention

The Sooners have made improvements in the NIL landscape.

That much was evident when they signed five-star prospect Aaliyah Chavez last season and in the addition of All-American Raegan Beers the season before.

In basketball, where a top-flight player or two can make a world of difference, there’s still a premium placed on finding the right talent that fits into your system, but having more money to build a roster certainly makes that job easier.

On the court, it’s extremely easy to sell the program.

Baranczyk’s style of play is one that’s attractive to scorers, and players looking for a future in the WNBA.

With that base, the addition of additional money into the program can do nothing but help.

The Sooners added four players in the portal in this cycle, including a pair of players with three seasons of eligibility remaining — Jordan Speiser from Kansas State and Keeley Parks, a Norman native who is transferring from Kansas.

While the money paid directly to athletes as part of revenue sharing is capped, additional money into the program certainly makes a difference in putting together a roster and helps open up doors for athletes to earn more money in the NIL landscape.

In women’s basketball, where the revenue sharing numbers are much lower than football and men’s basketball — which make up approximately 90% of the approximately $20.5 million in revenue-sharing payments last season — maximizing those outside opportunities and finding additional revenue streams for players is essential to remain competitive.

The addition of general manager Jared Boyd, who spent six seasons at Texas Tech, also figures to make that job easier.

Boyd’s hiring, much like his men’s counterpart Lucas McKay, was certainly made easier by the additional funds coming in from the move to the SEC.

Boyd’s job will primarily be roster management, including NIL and revenue-sharing strategy plus player retention.

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Facilities Upgrades

In mid-May, Baranczyk was one of the OU representatives on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Rock Creek Entertainment District, whose centerpiece will be a new arena for the Sooners’ basketball teams and women’s gymnastics squad.

With the new arena, which is expected to open in late 2028 or early 2029, on the horizon, it remains to be seen how much money will be put into Lloyd Noble Center.

It won’t be anything dramatic, at least in the part of the arena taken in by fans, but new athletic director Roger Denny has said he wants to make incremental changes to facilities annually instead of solely relying on bigger projects.

The biggest areas of improvement could come behind the scenes.

The Sooners are still expected to use the locker rooms at Lloyd Noble Center and the practice gyms, working facilities and training rooms there. Nothing dramatic is likely, especially as the locker rooms are still fairly new, but small improvements could be made to give the rooms more amenities.

Under Denny, Oklahoma doesn’t figure to be content to sit back and wait for the new arena to be finished before making upgrades to the program.

With the Sooners in a spot to have a chance to jump into the top echelon of women’s college basketball, it figures that they’ll be aggressive in seeking improvement that could make the difference.

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