OU football: Conference realignment is nothing new
Brandon Meier, director of OU’s athletic video department, sent me a great link the other day. Someone in his office had come across a 1964 story from The Oklahoman archives. It concerns conference realignment and a proposed “super conference” in which OU would join a proposed league with Southwest Conference members Texas, Arkansas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech; SEC members Alabama and LSU; and Houston, which at that point was an independent.
The story was written by sports editor Jay Simon. Here’s the story (in italics), with my thoughts sprinkled throughout.
Much speculation has found its way into the sports sections of newspapers through the Southwest the past few days about a so-called “Super Conference” that would include Oklahoma. Dr. George Cross, OU president, and Gomer Jones, Sooner athletic director, both deny Oklahoma is interested in such a conference. They further expression satisfaction with the school’s membership in the Big Eight.
This story is 48 years old. So for at least a half century, the idea of a “super conference” has floated around college sports. I can remember talk like this from the 1980s, but 1964?
Yet, stories from Texas continue to include Oklahoma among the schools considering the formation of a new league. Mentioned as prospective members in addition to OU have been Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Arkansas of the Southwest Conference, Alabama and Louisiana State of the Southeast Conference and Houston, one-time Missouri Valley member but now an independent.
Houston eventually joined the SWC in the 1970s, but this sort of shows what a vision-challenged conference was the SWC. If Houston had enough status in 1964 to be mentioned for a super conference, why would the SWC be so slow to add the Cougars? I know, much of it was political, and Houston’s academic reputation was not high, but still, much of the SWC’s later problems could be traced to a clear lack of vision. And where is Ole Miss in all this discussion. Auburn was not a big player on the college football scene in 1964, but Mississippi was.
Certain members of the board of regents of the University of Texas have made remarks that give some substance to this reported conference, but otherwise the rumor stories bring nothing but denials from official circles at the schools mentioned. One thing is certain, Oklahoma could not align itself with a new conference for football competition prior to 1973. Big Eight football schedules have been approved through the 1972 season.
Those were quainter days. The idea that since a conference schedule had been approved, a school would not jump, well, isn’t that nice? Of course, the truth is that schedules always can be remade. Next week is February, and still we don’t have the 2012 Big 12 schedule.
One of the factors pointed to in favor of the “Super Conference” is larger stadiums and the potential for increased crowds and revenue for football. This would be true in the case of Oklahoma. Stadiums of the seven other members of the Big Eight average approximately 38,000 seating capacity. Schools in the proposed conference aside from OU, would seat an average of 52,000 to 55,000 for football, depending on whether Arkansas and Alabama were playing at home or at off-campus sites in Little Rock and Birmingham.
How about that figure? 1964 doesn’t seem that long ago, does it? 1964 was after the Bud Wilkinson era at OU. But Big Eight football stadiums averaged just 38,000 seats? And yes, there was a time when Alabama split its home games between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
The four Southwest Conference schools would gain little in football crowd potential by shifting to such a setup. In fact, the overall football seating would amount to a total increase of only 1,500, if Houston continued to play in the 72,000-seat Rice Stadium. When the Cougars move into the new Houston dome stadium now nearing completion — as they have announced they will — the so-called “Super Conference” actually would have a small overall stadium capacity than the current Southwest Conference.
On second thought, I guess this story is a little dated. The domed Houston stadium was, of course, the Astrodome, which once was an eighth wonder of the modern world but now sits decaying next to Reliant Stadium, which is a wonder of the world itself and now is 10 years old. But you know what’s really interesting? All this talk about stadium size, but with little discussion of attendance. And NO mention of television. Think about that. A lengthy story about conference realignment, with no mention of television.
The present SWC members would be giving up Rice (72,000), Southern Methodist (75,000), Baylor (50,000) and Texas Christian (46,000) for Houston (72,000), LSU (67.500), Oklahoma (62,000) and Alabama (43,000).
Alabama’s Denny Stadium in 1964 seated 43,000. Think about that. Today, Bryant-Denny Stadium seats 101,821. And SMU has been downsizing for decades, going from the Cotton Bowl’s 75,000 to Texas Stadium’s 65,000 to the current Ford Stadium’s 32,000. If this keeps up, the Mustangs one day will be playing at Highland Park Junior High.
Seating for basketball is greater in the Big Eight than it would be in the proposed conference. Big Eight schools have an average fieldhouse capacity of approximately 8,600 — about 2,000 above those listed for the “Super conference.”
Basketball? Who brings up basketball in conference realignment?
Geographically, there would be little to choose for OU between the Big Eight the proposed league. Total mileage from Norman to each of the other seven schools in the Big Eight is 3,040. A trip from OU to the each other “Super conference” campuses would be 3,200 miles.
Here’s another omission. No mention in the entire article about OSU, which only a few years earlier had completed a long mission to enter the Big Eight.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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OU would have been MUCH MUCH better off if they had joined such a conference back then. Imagine what that conference would be like today.