Oklahoma football: Where would OU’s 2023 class rank among SEC teams?

Oklahoma football recruiting has been first or second in the Big 12 for the virtually the entire 27 years the conference has been in existence.

As a member of the Big 12, the Sooners have long been a big fish in a small pond insofar as nationally recognized football brands. Oklahoma has always recruited well in talent-rich Texas, but the Sooner coaching staff has long utilized its national recognition to recruit in other flush recruiting areas like California and Florida.

Eight of OU’s current 25-member 2023 class are from Texas (5) and Oklahoma (3). The other 17 are from 10 other states, including six from the state of Florida. That’s significant, because in the next year or two, Oklahoma will be competing directly with schools in the Southeastern Conference, considered to be the best football conference in the country.

That got us to wonder how Oklahoma will stack up against teams in the SEC when the Sooners’ move to the SEC becomes official in either the 2024 or 2025 season?

There is little doubt that Brent Venables’ ability to bring in a top-five or top-10 2023 recruiting class in the early signing period, depending on which national service you follow, had a lot to do with Oklahoma’s impending move to the SEC. The same can probably be said for Texas, which was ranked No. 3 by both Rivals, 247Sports and On3.

Nine of OU’s 2023 signees are from SEC states.

Using the 2023 class rankings as a base reference, Oklahoma ranked No. 4 in the ESPN class rankings, behind just two SEC teams, Alabama and Georgia. The Sooners were No. 5, according to 247Sports, and again Alabama are the only SEC schools that fared better. In fact. OU would rank No. 3 this year among SEC teams and No. 3 or 4 when Texas gets there, based solely on the 2023 recruiting class rankings.

The question of how the Oklahoma will fare on the field once the Sooners become a full-fledged, revenue-sharing member of the SEC will have to be answered later, but from a recruiting perspective, it appears that OU is more than capable of holding its own against some of the best college teams in the nation, a number of which do business in the SEC.