6:30 AM
Imagine the shock of the entire country after a move so bold and seemingly out of nowhere, and kept under wraps for a long time.
Four months ago, we learned that Oklahoma and Texas were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC.
The tables were turned on Sunday when Lincoln Riley decided to leave Oklahoma for USC.
It's a reminder that love, war and college football are all equal.
The sport of college football was changed four months ago when Texas and Oklahoma were admitted to the exclusive club. There was a new tone of suspicion immediately after the discussion of expansion. The Big 12 went into expansion mode, which shook up the American and Conference USA, and on down the line.
Texas had already begun preparations, firing Tom Herman and hiring Steve Sarkisian, who had recently been re-polished in Nick Saban's spin machine in Tuscaloosa after two previous head-coaching opportunities with mediocre results. The Longhorns brass banked on the offensive prowess and experience of the Alabama coach to know what they were up against. The school that has won seven national titles and 50 conference titles said it would be fine.
When the decision was announced on July 30th, Oklahoma president Jay Harroz said that the Sooner magic would make them and their new conference rivals stronger.
All that has happened since? Bob Stoops' hand-picked successor, Mike Riley, left OU to take the same job at Texas, which ended the Longhorns' longest losing streak in more than 50 years.
The Longhorns have not lived up to expectations this season.
In between, Texas lost to Kansas at home, had a starting wide receiver argue with a coach after a loss to Iowa State, and had a leaked video of a coach upset with players joking around after a loss. Oklahoma had a disappointing season that included a couple of crushing losses and a quarterback controversy as preseason favorite Spencer Rattler was replaced by freshman Caleb Williams.
The Big 12 teams never needed motivation to face either of them, but at every turn opposing crowds took glee in derisively chanting "S-E-C!," including Oklahoma State fans who storming the field after their team beat the Sooners on Saturday. Texas went to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go The entire state of Oklahoma was shocked by Riley's exit.
Dean Blevins, the sports director of KWTV in Oklahoma City who grew up in Norman and played quarterback at Oklahoma from 1974 to '77, said on his Sunday night show that the Bedlam loss will be one of the worst weekends in Oklahoma football. A string of six straight conference titles was over, the team eliminated from contention by an in-state rival that's still seething from being kept in the dark in the realignment derby.
Bob Stoops is back as the interim coach to hold down the fort while the Sooners look for a new coach. Despite a 55-10 record at Oklahoma, four Big 12 titles in five years and three College Football Playoff appearances, Riley was no longer it.
Riley's motivation wasn't explained other than USC was a "unique opportunity." Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said on Monday that Riley was on board with the SEC move and that they had a lot of conversations about how they'd adjust in terms of staffing.
We don't know if Riley was involved in the SEC decision. He cares about winning. A lot. The USC job offers a lot of upside without the SEC being a factor.
The SEC move for Texas and Oklahoma will be tough.
The SEC hasn't explained how divisions will break down in the expanded league, but it can be assumed that Oklahoma's path would include some combination of Texas A&M, LSU, Alabama, and the Mississippi schools. In the past 15 years, Alabama, LSU, LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, and Arkansas have all won 10 national titles.
Riley's path to the playoffs would be through Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Colorado and Utah. Utah is in the rankings. Washington won the national championship in 1991, the last time a school other than USC won a title.
A few years ago, a long time SEC coach had a discussion about what constitutes a dream job. His response was simple: being the big dog in a mediocre conference like Bobby Bowden was at Florida State or like Dabo Swinney became at Clemson when he surpassed FSU. The resources and recruiting ground at USC make it possible for Riley to take command in a league that has struggled to get footing in theCFP era.
During the Big 12 era, Oklahoma won 20 national team championships, 101 conference titles, and four Heisman Trophies, and produced 113 NFL draft picks, according to a statement by Harroz in July.
That doesn't matter moving forward. Barry Switzer, the last coach to take over at Oklahoma after a coach left for another job, told ESPN that Riley's departure was a "tipping point" for the Sooners with the SEC move looming. Nebraska has struggled since Tom Osborne retired, Frank Solich was fired and the Huskers moved to the Big Ten, so there's no guarantee that Oklahoma's long history of success will continue.
"You can't recruit from tradition," he said. "S---, 18-year-old kids don't give a damn about the people who are in college." They don't know who they are.
Oklahoma is preparing for a new world with an unprecedented amount of uncertainty for a program that has prided itself on stability. Stoops arrived in 1999 and the Sooners haven't known anything but good fortune. In his role as interim coach, Stoops projected confidence.
The football team has been here a long time. Stoops said that it wasn't going anywhere else. It's going to be here and it's going to be at the top of college football.
The SEC decision may affect the fan base. It is never a guarantee for quick success, and a coaching change can make a landscape look different in Norman.
The Italian restaurant at Campus Corner that was Switzer's old haunt and the site of his famed "Table of Truth" where he has held court for years were mentioned by bar patrons as the first casualty of the SEC move.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy lamented the shakeup after the Bedlam win, which might have been the last rivalry game between the two in the state.
"That's about as good as it gets for college football," Gundy said after his third victory in 17 games against OU as a head coach. We need to be careful about messing with the structure of college football. College football is pretty good.
USC athletic director Mike Bohn was happy when he introduced Riley as the new coach.
He said that they did exactly what they wanted with one of the biggest moves in the history of the game.
The end of the college football season marked a stunning end to a season that saw two teams make their own landscape-changing moves.
The Sooner wore a shirt with Riley's face on a penny and threw it on in the morning before the news broke. A reporter told him that the shirt choice was interesting.
He said he would let you have it.
