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Report: Oklahoma Loses Another WR Commit

Gracen Harris is a 3-star prospect in the 2025 class and has been committed to OU for more than 18 months, but for various reasons, OU was not able to bring him to Norman.

John E. Hoover

Brent Venables, Gracen Harris
Brent Venables, Gracen Harris / Gracen Harris via Twitter/X
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Just days before National Signing Day, Oklahoma’s 2025 recruiting class has suffered another blow.

Wide receiver Gracen Harris, a two-sport star from Ennis, TX, is no longer an OU commit. He told On3’s Hayes Fawcett that he has officially decommitted from OU but still intends to sign somewhere when the Early Signing Period opens on Wednesday. 

Harris, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound speedster, has been verbally committed to OU since May 1, 2023. His intention was to play both football and baseball for the Sooners.

However, a source close to the program tells Sooners On SI that Harris is an unfortunate casualty of what head coach Brent Venables has referred to as the “carnage” of the coming NCAA scholarship adjustments.

Essentially, Harris still wanted to go to OU, and OU still wanted to take him. But a numbers crunch is on the way, which forced Venables to make a hard and unpopular decision. And it won't be his last.

Although the SEC has reportedly decided to use its autonomous authority and maintain its 85-scholarship limit (with 20 walk-ons) for 2025-26, it is expected the SEC will eventually conform to the NCAA’s coming rule changes when details from the landmark House v. NCAA settlement are revealed, resulting in a revenue sharing model between schools and athletes that is expected to start at around $22 million annually.

Power conference commissioners have established that they will move from the current NCAA limits of 85 scholarships and 105 total players on the roster to a flat 105 roster limit, with 105 scholarships available for schools willing to provide the maximum — although those scholarships will be able to be split among multiple players, such as in the current equivalency sport models.

That is forcing football programs and coaches into some difficult decisions that are based strictly on making the future numbers work.

“Again, the real carnage is getting our roster to 105,” Venables said at his weekly press conference on Nov. 20. “So what does that mean? That means you’re going to have to tell several players that they don’t have a spot. That’s the only thing that has caused me just anxiousness. It’s just not good.”

It means that players — those currently on the roster as well as high school or junior college prospects who have been offered full scholarships — can have their existing deals altered or dropped with little notice.

In Harris’ case, it means the loss of a four-year starter at Ennis who has compiled 258 career receptions for 4,242 yards (16.4 yards per catch), 37 touchdown catches and three 1,000-yard seasons. 

Harris also produced 1,249 career rushing yards (8.4 yards per carry) and 12 TDs on the ground as well as 768 passing yards and nine TD throws, 351 yards on kick returns and 548 yards and a touchdown on punt returns — a whopping 7,157 all-purpose yards and 59 total touchdowns in his career.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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