Scott Stricklin shares thoughts on Texas, Oklahoma joining SEC in ‘unique opportunity’

Scott Stricklin calls the competition around the SEC “fierce.” And the Florida athletic director believes the additions of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference will only make things even better.

While the Longhorns and Sooners are currently both still members of the Big 12, both schools have accepted invitations to join the SEC, with the programs currently scheduled to begin competing in the conference on July 1, 2025. So it’s not too early to start thinking about what the SEC landscape will look like with these teams in the mix.

During an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday, Stricklin shared his thoughts on what it will mean to add these two programs to the SEC in the near future.

“When we see an opportunity to improve as a league, the collective output in what we’re doing, we take advantage of that,” Stricklin said on the show. “This is a unique opportunity where two schools like Texas and Oklahoma approached our league and had an interest in affiliating with us.

“They’ve got their own commitments that they have to live up to in their current conference, but the day’s going to come when they’re going to be able to step onto an SEC football field or basketball court or baseball field or whatever it is and compete with the rest of us.”

And that could make things even more competitive than they already were in one of the top, most talented conferences in the country.

Scott Stricklin says adding Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC will "improve the collective output of our league." pic.twitter.com/6dondII40v

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) August 10, 2021

Jake Rill

Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.