SEC Coaches Eager to Welcome 'Two Really Good Programs' in Oklahoma and Texas

Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said the Sooners and Longhorns "got time" to catch up to their new league, while A&M's Jimbo Fisher hopes to reignite the rivalry with Texas.

SEC Media Days concluded on Thursday at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, and sentiments about Oklahoma and Texas joining the league in a couple of years continued to trend in a positive direction.

The general consensus is that the Sooners and Longhorns face a significant step up in competition. Lane Kiffin, Mike Leach and others said this week that’s what they expect.

But Thursday, Auburn coach Bryan Harsin expressed a more patient opinion.

“Well, they got time,” Harsin said. “That's one thing.”

Harsin coached previously at Texas under Mack Brown and said he has familiarity with both staffs in Norman and Austin.

“That opportunity, when that comes, they're building their teams,” Harsin said. “They're figuring out in their own conference right now. They got to win now. That's really what the focus is, I would imagine, for those teams.”

The big question around the SEC is a simple one: what will the schedule look like? With 16 conference members — presumably beginning in 2025; that’s what the athletic directors at both OU and Texas both reiterated this week at a high school coaching function in San Antonio — will the SEC adopt a nine-game schedule, or keep it at eight? Or move possibly to 10? Will they stick with East and West Divisions? Will they switch to four, four-team pods?

“Well, I think the scheduling model is critical,” Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said, “especially as conferences expand.”

One popular model being discussed now includes each school having three permanent opponents to foment existing rivalries — or create new ones. Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, for instance, said Wednesday he’d like to see the Razorbacks play Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma every year.

Fisher said “the ability to get everybody to play everybody” over a four-year stretch should be important now, “ … make sure you do when a guy is there in school is going to be critical.

“Probably the model of three is much better because it gives you more consistency, helps keep some traditional rivalries,” Fisher added. “I think that's the one thing we're trying to do in college football. To me it makes college football special, the rivalries of college football, trying to keep as many traditions as you can with the expanding world. Things are inevitable, they're always going to change. If you can keep as much as you can, I think it's great.”

Who would Fisher want as the Aggies’ permanent rivals?

“You want Texas,” he said. “When Texas comes into the league, when that schedule comes in, definitely, because of that rivalry. I think LSU is a great rivalry. But that's probably our two biggest. Then Arkansas goes into that, too.

“ … I think the Texas rivalry is important. I think the LSU rivalry is important.”

Texas A&M and Arkansas probably aren’t the only current SEC schools who would like to permanently add big-time permanent games against Texas, or Oklahoma, for that matter.

“When it comes time,” Harsin said, “when they enter the league — who knows by then; there could be a few more changes at that point. We don't know that. This thing has changed significantly in a short amount of time — both those programs are powerful programs. They got a lot of support.

“Playing in that league, both of those teams, that Red River rivalry, that's a big game. So you understand the passion that each fan base has.”

For more than a year now, fans of both programs have been imagining what OU-Texas will look like under the SEC banner. Might the SEC step in and try to suggest changes? At AT&T Stadium for instance? Or home-and-home on campus? Or could the Red River Rivalry be played — brace yourselves — at night?

Last week, OU coach Brent Venables expounded on the Sooners’ annual throwdown with the Horns.

“Obviously, it's another rival,” Venables said, “and it's one of the most storied and tradition-rich rivalries in all of college football, played in the great city of Dallas and that Cotton Bowl — lot of history and tradition there.

“I know that rivalry very well, and what it means to so many people, the intensity and the emotion of it, the momentum that can come from that game. And everything has its time. We go head to head a lot for obvious reasons, both for recruiting and program development. But I'm looking forward, without question — as I know they are as well — to going down that ramp.”

New LSU coach Brian Kelly, who officially won 92 games in 12 seasons at Notre Dame, expressed an appreciation for the SEC's willingness not only to grow, but to add two of college football's most prized (and profitable) properties.

“I love the fact that Oklahoma and Texas, two great programs, are coming into the SEC,” Kelly said Monday. “That speaks to commissioner (Greg) Sankey and understanding the lay of the land, being proactive and having two great institutions coming into the SEC. We'll be excited when they officially join to have them on the schedule as well.” 

Harsin has nothing but praise for the SEC’s newest members — when they get there, that is.

“We're bringing two really good programs into this conference,” Harsin said, “to be a part of what we're doing here.”