Oklahoma is the proof people need of the SEC's depth

From other conference commissioners, to head coaches, and even Colin Cowherd, have been trying to team up against the mighty SEC recently. They're trying their hardest to knock the SEC down a peg just to get the playing field at least a little bit closer.

“The same six schools have won the SEC since 1964. Not a single one is different from 1964. That’s top heavy, that’s not depth," SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said at ACC Media Days.

The Oklahoma Sooners are entering Year 2 of the SEC, and the Sooners proved in just one season the depth of the SEC that these people are attacking and were the proof against their argument.

Sooners struggled in first SEC season but wouldn't have elsewhere

For years, the Sooners ruled the Big 12 and had to hear about their weak conference schedule during every postseason discussion. Instead of whine and promote its rec league, though, OU joined the toughest conference in college football.

Year 1 of the SEC was certainly a reality check for the Sooners.

The Sooners went 6-6 in the regular season and 2-6 in conference play while enduring their first SEC slate in 2024. A year before that, OU went 10-2 and 7-2 against conference opponents in its final season in the Big 12.

The Sooners lost more conference games than they won while in the Big 12 only once in a 20-year span. It came after a coaching change and roster overhaul in 2022, ending OU's streak of 23 straight seasons with a winning Big 12 record, which included six championships in a row at one point.

But in the Big 12, the Sooners had to beat Texas and one other team having a dream season to reach the top. Now in the SEC, OU went to war every single week last season, and even dethroned Alabama to further prove the depth of the SEC.

As for Lashlee and his SMU Mustangs, they made the ACC Championship Game in their first season after making the jump from a Group of Five program to a Power Four conference. That kind of transition doesn't happen in the SEC. Even the ACC's top dogs are begging for an escape to the SEC.

The Big Ten also continues to not only argue that it's equals with the SEC, but maybe even superior since it's produced the last two national champions. The depth of the SEC has been mocked, even though the Big Ten is clearly the top-heavy conference.

Iowa has had one losing record in the last 10 years in Big Ten play. With a top-20 defense and zero offense, OU showed last season what would happen if Iowa was in the SEC. That 2-7 outcome would become the new norm for the Hawkeyes if they played in a conference with actual depth.

OU, the former king of another Power Four conference, is proof that the SEC is a conference full of college football royalty.

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