LEXINGTON, Ky. — Former Alabama basketball coach Wimp Sanderson sees the report about Texas and Oklahoma inquiring about joining the Southeastern Conference as driven by one sport. But not his sport.
“It’s a football move,” he said this week before adding, “and I think it’s OK for basketball.” But Sanderson cautioned football types to be careful about embracing the idea of an SEC that would include yet two more marquee programs.
“I think it’s a terrible mistake for them to do that …,” he said of the league adding Texas and Oklahoma.
Why?
“You’re going to leave the middle of the United States football hungry,” he said. “I think it hurts the whole country to have it all piled down in the Southeastern Conference.”
As for basketball, Sanderson saw a less dramatic fallout. Texas will give Kentucky “a lot of competition” at the top, he said. Oklahoma will be competitive.
Among the current SEC teams, “the good ones are going to be good,” he said, “and the poor ones are going to be a little bit poorer” because of a more challenging league schedule.
Speaking of schedules, more SEC teams could mean more conference games. ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla saw the addition of Texas and Oklahoma meaning 20 — or more — regular-season SEC games. SEC teams currently play 18 regular-season league games.
Such a move would not be popular with the current SEC basketball programs, said Sanderson, adding, “I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to (expand the number of league games), either.”
Why?
Job security.
“If you didn’t win very quickly, you’d be 8-8 and out the gate,” Sanderson said.
By contrast, former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson said he would embrace the possibility of more league games.
“How do you play too many conference games?” he asked. “Hell, everybody plays the same amount of games. So, what difference does it make?”
More league games and less “practice games” would mean the addition of Texas and Oklahoma having a “great impact” on SEC basketball, Richardson said.
“Anytime you go out (to play), you’re going to have a hell of a ballgame.”
Richardson added that one or two so-called guarantee games in the early season should suffice.
“But that’s it,” he said. “As a matter of fact, if you want to go that route, I’d play two exhibition games and then right into league play.”
Richardson noted that in his debut season as a head coach (1980-81), his Tulsa team opened the season against defending national champion Louisville. The first seven games also included opponents like Purdue, which had been in the 1980 Final Four, Oklahoma State, Georgia and at Oklahoma.
Tulsa had a 26-7 record that season.
Richardson also saw fans benefiting by getting “their money’s worth because (teams) are playing better competition every night. There’s no bad ticket.”
Fraschilla put the possibility of Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC in the context of the currently ever-changing college athletics landscape.
“Every school has to be concerned with self-preservation first and foremost,” the ESPN analyst said.
Speaking of money, the SEC announced a revenue distribution of $657.7 million for the 2019-20 year. That figure included TV rights fees, plus revenue from bowl games, the College Football Playoff, the league championship football game, league basketball tournament, NCAA Tournament and a supplemental surplus distribution, the league said.
The Big 12 reportedly distributed $377 million in 2019-20 and $345 million in 2020-21, according to The Kansas City Star. Those figures also include College Football Playoff, bowl games and NCAA Tournament payouts.
Texas reaps an additional $15 million annually from its ESPN-affiliated Longhorn Network. Oklahoma receives an additional $6 to $7 million annually from its Bally Sports network.
Fraschilla suggested that conference shakeups would not stop should Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC.
“I can’t imagine that the Big 12 and to a lesser extent the Pac-12 and Big Ten would stay the same,” he said.
Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC is far from certain. Blair Kerkhoff of The Kansas City Star reported that Texas legislator Jeff Leach tweeted Thursday that he was working on a law that would require state legislative approval for Texas to leave the Big 12.
Should it happen, Fraschilla saw a departure by Texas and Oklahoma damaging the Big 12, while enhancing the SEC basketball brand.
In terms of the final NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) for last season, Texas (No. 18) was better than 12 of the 14 current SEC programs. Oklahoma (No. 36) ranked better than nine SEC programs.
In Ken Pomeroy’s final rating, only Alabama (No. 9), Arkansas (No. 18) and LSU (No. 24) ranked higher than No. 26 Texas. Oklahoma (No. 39) was better than 10 SEC teams.
Doug Barnes, who played for Oklahoma State and later worked as an assistant coach on Eddie Sutton’s Kentucky staff, does not embrace the move of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC.
“Because I think it’ll hurt the only two schools I care about: Kentucky and Oklahoma State,” he said before adding that Kentucky does not “need another two powerhouses in football.”
And the departure of its in-state rival would hurt his alma mater’s brand, Barnes said.
By contrast, Fraschilla suggested that Kentucky could benefit.
“I think Kentucky would value the addition of a Texas and an Oklahoma because it doesn’t hurt their status on the hardwood at all,” the ESPN analyst said. “And it would only enhance the Kentucky football brand.”
When asked about a UK football coach facing a potential schedule that included Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Florida, Fraschilla offered a glass-half-full quip by saying, “The guy who is coaching at that time would be handsomely compensated.”
