ESPN report: Brent Venables made an important announcement that will affect the team and the players.

In spite of the fact that Oklahoma will formally join the SEC on July 1st, Brent Venables has devoted much of his offseason to research and program preparation in anticipation of Oklahoma’s transfer to the “gold standard” conference in college football.

As Oklahoma concluded its last Big 12 season, Brent Venables turned his attention to the upcoming chapter for the Sooners.

Venables started a deep dive into the SEC in January. He studied Oklahoma’s new home and investigated what it would take to not only make the transition to college football’s top conference easy, but also to pinpoint the qualities that define success in the “unforgiving” and competitive league. Venables desired to go even farther

more about the Sooners’ new conference, but more than anything, he wanted to make sure his program was ready for the jump from the Big 12 to the SEC, which has 16 teams, to the Big 12.

“It’s my responsibility to understand the league, not for the league to understand me,” Venables declared earlier this week while attending the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Florida. That presents a challenge. You’ve been working hard on your schoolwork, research, and other assignments, but now is an exciting time. It’s a chance to improve, learn, and develop. Once more, for a while now, it’s been considered something of the gold standard in college football.”

Although Oklahoma has been functioning as an SEC program since the year 2024 began, the Sooners and Texas are now one month away from formally entering the conference as the two rivals make their much anticipated transition from the Big 12 to the SEC. With effect from July 1, the Sooners and Longhorns will complete their three-year journey to become full SEC members.

The 53-year-old coach has been studying in advance of Oklahoma’s inaugural SEC season, which will mark the program’s third under Venables and include a challenging eight-game conference schedule. Venables has been studying the SEC and getting a deeper grasp of the league in between Oklahoma’s spring practices, summer meetings, and recruiting. coming includes studying every team in the conference, not just OU’s eight opponents coming fall.

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Live tracker for the Oklahoma Sooners’ spring transfer portal
During the two-week spring transfer portal window, get live updates and the most recent information on Oklahoma, including commitments, departures, and other noteworthy developments.
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NORMAN: The season for spring transfer portals has here.

Spring football transfers have a two-week window that started on Tuesday and ends on April 30. (here’s everything you need to know about the spring transfer period). Although there won’t be as much activity on the transfer site as there was during the winter transfer window, roster changes are still anticipated in college football.

This includes Oklahoma, which is anticipated to look into its options through the portal in the upcoming weeks, especially in relation to both lines of scrimmage. The Sooners will specifically look to add complementing players to the offensive line and defensive tackle positions. Although attrition is still anticipated, especially as the program strives to get down to the 85-scholarship maximum ahead of the 2024 season, Oklahoma is not anticipated to see too many departures during the spring window after 18 players left the program at the end of the season. Right now, OU anticipates having 90 scholarship players for the

2024 season (that number includes the Sooners’ seven 2024 signees who have not yet reported to campus and recently retired defensive tackle Jacob Lacey, who is still on scholarship); therefore, at the end of spring practices, there will be some necessary roster trimming to bring the team down to the NCAA limit of 85 players.

Players may start using the site prior to Oklahoma’s spring practices ending, even though the team’s traditional spring game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Owen Field. Remember that even though Texas and Oklahoma don’t formally join the SEC until July 1, the Sooners and Longhorns are nonetheless subject to the league’s ban on intraconference transfers during the spring transfer window. As a result, no OU players who plan to leave can sign with SEC schools this spring, and the Sooners are also unable to add any players who are currently on an SEC roster.

When Oklahoma football moves to the SEC this summer, Brent Venables and his staff will be hard at work getting the program ready for the next level. Sooners Illustrated will keep you updated during the spring transfer portal window. We want to update this website whenever a player joins the transfer portal, leaves it, or commits to the Sooners for the 2024 season, making it your one-stop shop for all things Sooners-related. Additionally, all of the articles we’ve written on the transfer site and the transactions that take place during the spring transfer window will have links back to them.