Fans who like to travel to Oklahoma football away games are going to pay higher prices when the Sooners eventually join the Southeastern Conference.
And that will hold true for all of the other “minor’ sports.
In the Big 12, the closest conference member to OU is OSU in Stillwater and that is only 85 miles from Norman. You can easily drive that in 90 minutes.
The farthest Big 12 foe from OU is West Virginia, which is 1,150 miles from Norman. That is a 17-hour drive or an expensive six-and-a-half-hour flight (with two stops) at a cost of over $500.
I have never been to a game at West Virginia.
Iowa State is 600 miles away from Norman in Ames, Iowa. That’s probably a 10-hour drive or five-hour trip (with one stop) to Des Moines, again for $500. Lawrence, Kansas; Manhattan, Kansas; Ft. Worth; Lubbock, Texas; Waco, Texas and Dallas (home of the Cotton Bowl) are 350 miles or closer. That would be a five-hour drive.
So, except for West Virginia and Iowa State, an OU fan could drive to the game and back in one day.
That is not the case in the SEC.
First, we don’t know what division OU and Texas will be in. Let’s assume that there will be a West and East Division, each with eight teams.
For the sake of comparison, let’s put OU and Texas in the West with Texas A&M, Missouri, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State and Ole Miss.
Arkansas would be the closest to OU at 240 miles. That’s a nice drive for a fan. The next closest would be Texas A&M at 375 miles – about 6-8 hours in the car.
Missouri is a stretch at 490 miles and then Mississippi, Mississippi State and LSU are all 600-plus miles. That’s an all-day trip.
And if you have two divisions, one proposal would be for OU to play all seven teams within their division every year and then four teams from the other division on a rotating basis. And you get one nonconference game (which for OU would probably be OSU).
Then the mileage gets significant.
Florida (1,200 miles) and South Carolina (1,100 miles) are two-day trips for drivers. Georgia is 990 miles and Tennessee is about 900 miles. Kentucky and Auburn are both 850 miles while Alabama is 750 miles and Vanderbilt is 700 miles.
Discounting West Virginia, nine SEC teams are farther away than current Big 12 locations.
OU is going to be awash in TV money, so getting the football team to Florida won’t be an issue. But what about the other sports?
It will increase the travel costs for every other sport significantly and it might have a detrimental impact on fans traveling to see minor sports.
By the way, should OSU choose to join the Pac-12 Conference, the distances would be astronomical.
The closest Pac-12 school to Stillwater is Colorado (650 miles) and every other school is at least a thousand miles away.
Oregon, Oregon State and Washington are almost 2,000 miles from Stillwater.
These would be two-day driving trips or expensive airline flights.
Not every college offers the same athletic programs, either.
Only eight SEC schools – Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU and Missouri – offer women’s gymnastics programs. (Texas also does not offer women’s gymnastics).
This year, Missouri will join Big 12 members Iowa State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and West Virginia along with affiliate programs Air Force, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, Utah Valley and Wyoming in Big 12 competition. Former affiliate Fresno State eliminated wrestling after the 2020-21 season.
The 12 wrestling members participate in a regular-season scheduling alliance and compete for the Conference championship title and allocated berths into the NCAA tournament.
Only three schools in the Pac-12 have wrestling programs. Those are Arizona State, Oregon State, Stanford. Nine schools have women’s softball teams. Colorado, USC and Washington State do not.
Oklahoma distances to SEC
| Florida | Gainesville, Fla. | 1,200 miles |
| South Carolina | Columbia, S.C. | 1,100 miles |
| Georgia | Athens, Ga. | 990 miles |
| Tennessee | Knoxville, Tenn. | 900 miles |
| Kentucky | Lexington, Ky. | 850 miles |
| Auburn | Auburn, Ala. | 850 miles |
| Alabama | Tuscaloosa, Ala. | 750 miles |
| Vanderbilt | Nashville, Tenn. | 700 miles |
| Mississippi St. | Starkville, Miss. | 650 miles |
| LSU | Baton Rouge, La. | 600 miles |
| Mississippi | Oxford, Miss. | 600 miles |
| Missouri | Columbia, Mo. | 490 miles |
| Texas A&M | College Station | 490 miles |
| Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark. | 40 miles |
Oklahoma distances to Big 12
| Iowa State | Ames, Iowa | 600 miles |
| West Virginia | Morgantown | 1,150 miles |
| Kansas | Lawrence, Kan. | 350 miles |
| Texas Tech | Lubbock, Texas | 350 miles |
| Kansas State | Manhattan, Kan. | 300 miles |
| Baylor | Waco, Texas | 275 miles |
| TCU | Ft. Worth, Texas | 200 miles |
| Texas | Dallas, Texas | 190 miles |
| OSU | Stillwater, Okla. | 85 miles |
Oklahoma State distances to Pac-12
| Arizona | Tucson, Ariz. | 650 miles |
| Arizona State | Tempe, Ariz. | 1,000 miles |
| Utah | Salt Lake City | 1,200 miles |
| UCLA | Los Angeles | 1,400 miles |
| USC | Los Angeles | 1,400 miles |
| Stanford | Stanford, Calif. | 1,650 miles |
| California | Berkeley, Calif. | 1,700 miles |
| Washington St. | Pullman, Wash. | 1,800 miles |
| Oregon | Eugene, Ore. | 1,900 miles |
| Oregon State | Corvallis, Ore. | 1,900 miles |
| Washington | Seattle, Wash. | 2,000 miles |
Oklahoma State distances to Big 12
| Iowa State | Ames, Iowa | 550 miles |
| West Virginia | Morgantown | 1,100 miles |
| Texas Tech | Lubbock, Texas | 400 miles |
| Kansas State | Manhattan, Kan. | 275 miles |
| Baylor | Waco, Texas | 350 miles |
| Kansas | Lawrence, Kan. | 285 miles |
| TCU | Ft. Worth, Texas | 260 miles |
| Texas | Dallas, Texas | 260 miles |
| OU | Norman, Okla | 85 miles |
Right now, OU has the second largest stadium capacity in the Big 12 behind Texas. In the new SEC, here is the ranking of stadium sizes:
Stadium size
- Texas A&M 102,733
- LSU 102,231
- Alabama 101,821
- Texas 95,954
- Georgia 92,746
- Florida 88,548
- Auburn 87,451
- Oklahoma 86,112
- South Carolina 80,250
- Arkansas 76,000
The SEC has five of the top ten football stadiums in terms of capacity in the entire country and will have six of the top 10 when Texas joins the conference.
Nationwide, Michigan has the largest stadium at 107,601, Penn State is No. 2 at 106,572 and Ohio State is No. 3 at 102,780. Texas A&M is tops in the SEC at No. 4 nationally. OU is No. 13 nationally.
Besides OU and Texas, no other Big 12 schools are in the top 25.
Texas A&M can sell 16,000 more tickets at home than OU can at home. That may not seem like a big difference but OU almost always had a tough game versus Texas A&M in College Station.
Will this put pressure on OU to enlarge their stadium? Perhaps.
One thing is for sure. The departure of OU and Texas from the Big 12 to the SEC was more about money than any consideration for fans who like to go to away games for football or who like to follow the other sports in away games.