Oklahoma football legend Barry Switzer 'concerned' about Sooners' move to SEC
Oklahoma, along with rival Texas, will move to the SEC in the summer of 2024, a year earlier than originally expected, and the decision has one of the school's most legendary figures a little nervous.
Barry Switzer, the head coach who led the Sooners to three national championships in 16 seasons, is sounding an alarm of sorts to OU fans.
"I'm concerned," Switzer told Tulsa World.
"I know what it'll look like. It'll look like we're playing Texas every [expletive] week."
SEC football is another world
Oklahoma is used to being in the conference championship picture just about every season, but moving to the SEC will dramatically increase the difficulty of obtaining that goal.
Perennial favorites like Alabama, Georgia, and LSU are routinely in the mix for the SEC football title, and football powers like Tennessee, Florida, and Auburn are traditional contenders, as well.
The SEC is regarded as by far the premier conference in college football, winning 13 of the last 17 national championships and routinely fielding the most competitive and dominant teams and matchups every season.
"You've got to be good," Switzer added.
"I don't know if we're good enough right now. We'll have to get better on defense."
Did the move cause a coaching change?
Switzer also speculated that Oklahoma's move to the SEC was a motivation as to why Lincoln Riley left the program for USC.
"I think it's one of the major reasons why Lincoln left," he said.
"He wasn't involved [in the decision to join the SEC], so he got the [expletive] out of here."
Going forward for Oklahoma
Now the move falls to Brent Venables, the head coach who in his debut season led Oklahoma to its first losing record since 1998 and, despite his reputation as a gifted defensive strategist, played the nation's 122nd ranked defense.
Making the jump to the SEC will no doubt help Oklahoma as far as the money the football program makes, but Barry Switzer wants fans to know that the team as currently constituted may have some work to do on the field first.
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