OU, Texas rivalry entering unsure future in SEC

The Red River Rivalry that Oklahoma and Texas battle in each year is the newest rivalry that Southeastern Conference (SEC) Commissioner Greg Sankey must ponder the fate of.

With future football schedules necessitating a revamp, some SEC rivalries may be played less frequently.

Sankey, who will soon have oversight over OU and Texas after the Sooners and Longhorns complete their transition to the SEC after this year, spoke Monday in Nashville, Tennessee at SEC Media Days.

He addressed the SEC’s decision to eliminate its divisional format that has been in place since 1992.

“That discussion in football goes back to 2018- 2019,” Sankey said. “The discussion of, ‘Is our current divisional approach in football the most competitively equitable?’ The words fair and balanced came up a lot. You had to define what you mean by fair and what you mean by balanced in the schedule.”

It was a move to ensure each SEC teams don’t have to play each other so infrequently, as was the case previously for some teams in different divisions.

“Balance was rotating teams through with greater frequency, so I think plenty of people have written about a team may not see a team certainly for six years or may not go someplace for 12 years if they’re in another division,” Sankey said. “So that was balanced.”

There are many cherished rivalries in the SEC. Alabama and Auburn. Georgia and Florida. Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

Oklahoma and Texas’ rivalry certainly belongs in that class. OU and Texas have played 118 times.

There has not been a decision on whether the SEC adopts an eight-game conference schedule or a nine-game schedule. Requiring teams to play nine conference games would offer more flexibility for teams to play games against specific teams each year.

“All the way though, there are 16 really challenging schedules,” Sankey said. “There are some important rivalry games. We’re going to have to have a decision about do we play those every year? Or do we play some of them every other year.”