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Bob Stoops believes Oklahoma's SEC move was 'the only responsible thing to do'

20200517_134556by:Justin Rudolph•07/01/24
on3.com/bob-stoops-on-oklahoma-moving-to-sec/
© CHRIS LANDSBERGER

It is official: the Oklahoma Sooners are now a part of the Southeastern Conference. To commemorate their monumental move to the SEC, the university hosted a ceremony and celebration at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

The SEC Network team was on-site, taking in all the fanfare along with a “who’s who” list of Sooner royalty. As the celebration was roaring within the stadium, the SEC Network team welcomed legendary head coach Bob Stoops to the set.

To start their Q&A with Stoops, host of SEC Live Dari Nowkhah questioned the former Sooners head coach about his thoughts about the move and whether or not he knew about it during the early phases.

“Yeah, I was consulted about it, not that I was making any decisions, of course,” Stoops said. “But in my opinion, to fill this 85,000-seat stadium week-in and week-out, all the new sky boxes, and everything that we have— the TV revenue —financially, to me, it’s the only responsible thing to do.”

“Our fans want to see us Tennessee coming to town, Alabama coming to town. They want to travel to those places. So, in the end, you can either stay put, but very little in life stays the same forever. We had an opportunity to meet with a major one, and I got it. In my opinion, it was the right thing moving forward for the next 5000 years. This is gonna be good for us.”

Although he is not leading the program anymore, Stoops is well respected and revered throughout Norman, OK. As he saw it, this was the best move for the university moving forward. Oklahoma’s transition from the Big 12 to the SEC not only comes with a more lucrative TV revenue deal but also with what most believe is a higher quality of competition.

Making the jump to the SEC with Texas is neither here nor there for Stoops. What matters to him is the continued flourishing success of the university. And the former Oklahoma coach knows what joining the Southeastern Conference means for the Sooners and the long run and is all for it.