It comes and goes. It is on the minds of the Sooner Nation on a regular basis. A move from the Big Twelve to another conference is not going away anytime soon. It is what can consume not only what followers of the Big Red of the South focus on, but all supporters of the Big Twelve Conference. The powers-to-be of the Pacific Athletic, the Southeastern, the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference keep a keen eye on the situation. The landscape of the major conferences would shift with a move by Oklahoma University and the look in realignment would take affect. Will it happened and when? And what is one major consideration that would please the Sooner Nation more than anything else?
Let us get to the point. Does a typical home schedule in football please the Sooner faithful when the Alabama’s, LSU’s, USC’s, Penn State’s, Florida’s and Ohio State’s come-a-calling rather than the Texas Tech’s, Baylor’s, Kansas’s, and Iowa State’s? Does a slate of perineal powers coming to Norman on a regular basis increase the interest in Sooner football, even Sooner basketball, and all other sports that OU partakes in? Hell yes it would. In spades. If you have not noticed, ducats for Sooner games, football especially, are not that hot of a ticket anymore. Never do you go to Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium and have a problem in getting a ticket at the last second to watch the Sooners, and almost always below face value. The fact of the matter, the athletic department at OU will not only have NO waiting list for season tickets, but will have an issue in SELLNG tickets on an individual basis to keep their sell-out string to continue. Many long-time season ticket holders for OU have had their accounts closed as the Sooner tickets are not the item of choice anymore in this state.
College football at OU will not continue to be what it was in the glory days when a typical home schedule today has pitiful schools such as Texas-El Paso, Tulane and South Dakota come and play in the Sooner playground. Take the Sooners 2017 home schedule. UTEP, Tulane to go along with conference games that include match-ups with Iowa State, Texas Tech, TCU and West Virginia. A marque game in the group? Maybe a couple of good games, but marque games/schools? It is a joke folks. A schedule that excites the Sooner Nation? Not in my book.
The Big Twelve schools do not bring excitement in the long of it with such weak home conference games that bring low interest teams not named Oklahoma State to Norman. The excitement does come when OU schedules the Ohio States, Tennessee’s, Nebraska’s and Michigan’s, which are future schools coming to OU in the non-conference. But on too many Saturday games in Norman who really cares to see OU paste another crappy team and school?
Sooner fans, are you as happy as a pig-in-slop getting to watch your Sooners play South Dakota, Temple, Florida Atlantic, Tulane and UTEP? Would you rather buy a season ticket that had a South Dakota on a home schedule with say Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M rather than Iowa State, Kansas State, Baylor and Texas Tech? How about a conference schedule with USC, Arizona State, Oregon, Washington State, and Stanford coming to Gaylord Family? Or what about a Big Ten group of Penn State, Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa, and Purdue? No more Kansas every season but a look at other schools on a rotation basis, like Alabama, Florida, California, Ohio State, Arkansas, Missouri and LSU coming to town and a Sooner visit to their place for the future. Interest you as a Sooner fan to take a trip to Gainesville, Oxford, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Los Angeles and Tucson on a scheduled conference game visit? Well, it you get it, understand it, you see my point.
Yes, OU would like to make the Big Twelve into a conference better than it is today, which is number five of five in ranking of the Power Five Conferences. But what does that do for the fans, the Sooner Nation?. Sooner Nation, you will have to answer that for yourself.
OU’s athletic department realize that the “want” for tickets is not as it was five, ten, fifteen years ago. You have a surcharge to buy them and think great, I have tickets. Then you go down to Norman and find a ticket way below the face value and feel discouraged in having the season ticket. Sure, die hard Sooners that have no problem in shelling out the extra five hundred, thousand, five thousand dollars to be a donor season ticket holder is strong, but it just takes one really bad season followed by another and we are back to the John Black days where they were giving out tickets to the schools…..It was not hard to get season tickets last year and I am sure it is much easier this year with such as poor home schedule.
I have visited with many former OU season ticket holders that currently will not buy them as of the schedule. You ask why there are always tickets on sale at ALL OU games, and except for one every few years (Ohio State last year) you can pick one up for less than face. If you don’t know, the athletic department is on the hustle on selling tickets all the time as their waiting list for season tickkets has diminished as of the extra charge per ticket to buy a season ticket. The lists of the past of ten, fifteen, twenty thousand on a waiting list are no more. Call the Sooner athletic department at OU and tell them you want to donate to the program and want a season ticket for 2017. It migh surprise you that you can have them if you want. I know OU works at finding top level programs to play on a home and home basis with, but this year, 2017, it is a wash. Yes, we go to Ohio State but what is good for the home ticket? UTEP and Tulane? Crap crap and double crap. The OU Sooners will not continue with sellouts when the Big Twelve is declassified to a mid-major in five, six years. And heaven forbid we see another Gary Gibbs, John Blake era when tickets were being given away to almost any school child that wanted to attend a game. I was given 100 tickets to a game every year to take some of my school kids to the ball game. Let us get real. In my opinion, the home schedule will cripple the home crowd in Norman in time. The sellouts will not continue in the current situation. I was able to buy a season ticket last year for the Sooner home games and it was only because I wanted to see the Ohio State game in person. There was not problem in gettng the season ticket. That tells me that the interest in OU football is lacking and without an influx of better conference games in Norman the Sooners are in trouble. Iowa State, Kansas, K-State, Baylor, TCU……not going to cut it. My opinion.
From one of my readers: There are ebbs and flows from season to season for several reasons. One is prior year success and talent. Didn’t hear anyone complaining that OU played NC games vs UTEP, Arkansas State and Rice in 2000. Another is stadium expansion. What is better economics – 60,000 seats and a 20-year waiting list for season tickets? Or 100,000 and immediate supply? Or a sweet spot on between? Given that, there are still ebbs and flows resulting from economics, success and scheduling. There are always going to be ‘better’ schedules from a fan’s point of view than other years. I think so long as these differences are smaller and frictional, they’re digestible. You implied the athletic dept buying or giving away tickets to preserve sellouts – perhaps so – in small doses and in many times from visiting schools returning unsold tickets at the last minute. You don’t see 20 -50% empty seats. So it’s a manageable ebb and flow. Nothing’s static. Also, tv has gotten better and covers more games than ever. That’s competition for ticket sales. I’ve been a season ticket holder for 18 years now, and most season ticket holders I know still have, or have upgraded theirs. Some go but new ones come. Normal frictional economics.
I agree on the big-12 being weaker and resulting in weaker games – but that wasn’t the case 4-5 yrs ago when TCU, Baylor and KSU (even KU for a bit) were good. Baylor used to be like KU is now. Ebbs and flows. But the overall conference structure is a disaster now and OU will move on in 2025 (when the current agreement expires) if nothing changes. And I don’t see how it can – the only teams remaining to add are mid-majors.
Non conference scheduling at OU is top-notch. No way you schedule 2-3 games from opposing major conferences Fred. You know that. The so called gods of the SEC don’t. They all proudly schedule their mid-season D2 patsies every year.
Scheduling all majors makes for good romanticism and fantasy, but it’s not reality. Look at the mediocrity these days of Notre Dame, a program that tried scheduling many years that way – and nothing but money to show for it. No chicken little, the sky is not falling in Norman.
it is now 2017 and not 2000. The landscape of college football has changed and is evolving. Some colleges have 100k plus stadiums and have large waiting lists while others have 50k stadiums and cannot sell out home games. What is better? That is a no brainer….large sold out stadiums and large waiting lists. Right now OU is in the second group with a large (not the largest) stadium and a withering if not non-existent waiting list (as I said I had no problem getting a season ticket last year without paying the extra donor money and I had not been a season ticket holder for almost ten years). Yes, it does make a difference in who you know but it can be done, get season tickets without a problem if you want them). With filling seats, the student section is the one that you might see some empty seats on any given game day, but the number of no-shows at a typical OU game against lesser opponents is approximately 10 percent, which is not high. The number one attended game in any Sooner season is the first home game, even better than such big time games in conference. Yes, Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, those games it is a given that it is a harder ticket to get. But as I said, I wanted to see OU/Ohio State last year so I bought the season ticket (and I was in a fairly nice seat in Sec. 2, Row 64, just under the upper deck so I did not get wet.) Steve, I have talked with more than less of m season ticket holder fans and they are not happy with the below average teams that come to Norman, and that included non-conference and conference games. They tell me why go when you know who is going to win with ease… games against Little-Sisters-of-the Poor do nothing for many of them. As of scheduling, in the near future we will have a major college division that will separate from the mid-majors and all non-conference games will have to be games with other major colleges in those conference that will be in that large group. This will happen in time. Sure, you cannot schedule two great teams in non-conference but because the Big 12 is the weakest team in the Power Five, it really doesn’t hurt to schedule teams not named South Dakota……that is a joke. As for Notre Dame, the have lightened their schedule and still can not win enough to get into the playoffs…..
Nebraska, Texas A&M and Missouri were part of the Big XII then and are not now. That is a huge difference in level of opponent. TCU and West Virginia are nowhere near replacements for any of those programs, and neither are Memphis, Cincinnati or Louisville. OU needs to have a big name opponent at home every year . I’m a seasoned n ticket holder, but only because I qualify to get Texas tickets do I continue.
I totally agree Clyde. The reason I got season tickets last year was I wanted to see the great Ohio State team in person. And I was treated to a wonderful night even if it was long and we lost. The memories were worth it 100 percent.
and I forgot, when Colorado was in the Big 12 and went bye bye that was not good either.