'You fit right in': Why OU belongs in the SEC. Plus what sports the Sooners must step up

SEC Network anchor and host Dari Nowkhah knows all about both the SEC and OU.

The countdown is on: OU's move to the SEC is almost official. 

Sooners everywhere say they're ready to go, and many say they've been ready for years. 

But what about the Sooners on the courts and the fields? Are they ready? 

No one knows better how OU folks are feeling and what life in the SEC is like than Dari Nowkhah. He's a host and anchor on ESPN's SEC Network, and he's a native Oklahoman and OU grad. We'll talk with him about OU in the SEC becoming official and what he expects the next year to look like for his alma mater. 

All that and more on The Jenni Carlson Show. 

Episode highlights

1:20: More excited about OU officially joining the SEC or the Thunder trading for Alex Caruso?

2:10: What should OU be celebrating most as its move to the SEC becomes official?

5:50: If OU isn’t going to know what life in the SEC is like until it gets there, what might the Sooners be surprised by in their new conference?

8:00: Where does OU football slot into the SEC right now?

11:20: Does the expanded College Football Playoff change the dynamics for OU changing conferences right now?

14:25: In what sports will OU have to step it up in the SEC?

15:40: Is there ever a bit of disbelief that OU is really going to join the SEC?

20:00: What can people expect to see on the SEC Network around OU and Texas making their move to the SEC official?

22:20: Any chance Dari will get to fire one of the Ruf-Nex’s guns?

Producer: Jacquelyn Musgrove

Creative Director: Michael Lane

Transcript

Jenni: Dari, how are you? Things going well?

Dari: Things are good. Things are good. Just buckling up and getting ready for the grand entry of two pretty prominent universities into this crazy, wild successful league.

Jenni: Definitely. But I need to ask you if you're more excited about OU's move to the SEC becoming official or the Thunder trading for Alex Caruso? I saw your tweet about the trade. You're pretty excited about that, too.

Dari: That's just Sam Presti doing what Sam Presti does, right? I mean, yes, I was ecstatic about the move. You tell me who in the NBA is going to have a better defense, especially perimeter defense than, than OKC. 

But no, all in all, to have OU coming into this league that I've gotten to cover very closely for a decade and really have grown to completely love, you know, this mix of professional interest with personal interest is something that I just can't wait to see it happen. I can't wait to be there on July 1 and help bring them into this league.

Jenni: Yes, July 1, Monday, you're right, officially it becomes official. Big celebration in Norman planned. SEC Network will be there. We'll talk about more of that in just a minute. 

But we talk about celebration. What should OU Sooners, what should they most be celebrating about this move becoming official?

Dari: That's a great question. Gosh, I've been asked a million questions about this. I've never asked it that been asked it that way. 

I would say be excited about  joining a league where, top to bottom, the passion for those institutions matches the passion Oklahoma fans have for their institution. You know, Jenni, the phrase, it just means more is overused, and (SEC commissioner) Greg Sankey will use it more than anybody, but it is so absolutely true. And you know, it doesn't mean more teams in Omaha. It doesn't mean more championships. It doesn't mean any of that. It simply means that to the fan of an SEC team, to the household of an SEC team, every win, every loss, every success, every failure, every championship, it means more to their mood, it means more to their daily life, it means more into their daily conversations, it means more importance to the conversations at the cooler on work days, it means more to their happiness or disappointment or heartache than it does to the average fan in America. That's what it just means more means. 

And to bring in two fan bases that … people around the SEC in Georgia and Florida, South Carolina and LSU, they'll ask me, ‘What do you think of Oklahoma and Texas coming to the league?’ I said, ‘They're perfect fits. They're the same fan base that you are. It matters to them as much as it does to you. Geography makes sense actually, which is unusual in conference realignment, but everything to them means as much as it does to you. And you're gonna be comfortable going to Norman and Austin and realizing what those places are like. And you're gonna be very fond of the fans from Norman and Austin and Oklahoma and Texas that come to your place on a Saturday afternoon or a Saturday night.’

So the fit is perfect, but … what should they be most excited about? It's about a sense of … a gigantic sense of community and you fit right in and they're gonna welcome you and you're going to love them. And I think that … along with the fact that the home schedules in every sport are going to be enhanced and the opportunity to go visit incredibly fun places to go watch OU play on a regular basis. That's another reason to be excited.

Jenni: When OU’s easiest road game in football, opponent wise, is Auburn, Jordan-Hare Stadium is not exactly an easy place to go play. 

Dari: No, no. I mean, ask Bama who needed a miracle, right? I mean, I tell my friends and my family there, ‘You're going to have to get used to more 7-5s and 8-4s than 11-1s. You’ve just got to understand that's the nature of this beast. Your 8-4 could be better than a lot of your old 11-1. And it's the way it is. So you have to be OK with that.’

Jenni: I’ve heard several times and I'm sure you've heard it too that, you know, the Sooners and the Longhorns, they aren't going to know what life is like in the SEC until they're in the SEC. So what do you think might surprise OU fans, maybe even people within, you know, the OU sphere, coaches, players, administrators? What do you think might surprise folks about life in the SEC?

Dari: Joe C., Joe Harroz, those guys aren't going to be surprised. The coaches I don't believe are going to be surprised. I think they know what they're in for, but I think the fans are the ones that are going to have to adjust to a new reality that you're not walking into a league where you're one of the top two programs. You're just not, outside of softball where I do think that Oklahoma can still be and will be. That's not going to be life for football, and it's not going to be life for baseball and basketball on either side. Gymnastics maybe, which will be great.

But my goodness, they're all good here. You know, it's funny, I'll promote during SEC Nows … we'll promote Friday Night Heights (the women’s gymnastics broadcasts). I’m looking at this graphic that's got, this is the No. 2 team against the No. 4 team and the No. 6 team against the No. 3 team. And I'm like, ‘My God, what a league this is.’ So I think that fans need to understand that you're walking into a place where unlike the Big eight, Big 12, the sense of entitlement turning into reality is not going to happen here, not automatically. It's going to take time. You're going to have to be OK with that and enjoy the ride because the week in, week out ride is going to be a hell of a lot more fun than it has been. But it's going to be a little bumpier at times, and you're going to have to be OK with that.

Jenni: Let's talk specifically about football for a minute. I do want to talk about those other sports, too, but obviously football is front and center in everybody's minds. Sooners, Brent Venables, transitioning. You've seen them on a Big 12 schedule. You've seen them against some other teams that maybe are a little reminiscent of the SEC in their non-conference schedule. Just what's your sense of how they slot in to the SEC football league as it is right now? I mean, it looks to be like you've got four or five really good teams in the league. How does OU football slot into that?

Dari: You know, I think a lot of it depends on how what Brent's brought in through the portal materializes on the field, right? So it starts upfront. And if they don't have an offensive line to protect Jackson (Arnold), if they don't have a defensive line to slow down the run and go up against the 330 pounders, they're going to be trying to create space for running backs and protection for quarterbacks, then it's going to be tough, Jenni. 

I look at OU, and I put them somewhere between six and eight in the league, which isn't going to make people happy, especially when you look at Texas and you say they're probably two or three, right? So it's not ideal to walk into a league when there are a lot of unknowns in terms of your own personnel, which I do believe is the case with OU. 

But I think that if they come in and they start six to eight, I don't think it gets lower than that barring significant injuries. Because their NIL situation is great. The program history is great. … But it is a tough league and it's day in and day out. Say what you want about Vanderbilt, and maybe that's the one, but look, Missouri is going to be a top-10 team in the preseason. We’re sitting here looking at Georgia, Missouri, Texas, Alabama. Auburn's going to be really good, I think. LSU to finish the season in Baton Rouge. I mean, come on. Arkansas is going to throw more talent on the football field, even though they didn't win a lot of games last year, than most of the teams Oklahoma saw in the Big 12 last year. So is South Carolina, who didn't have a great year last year. Kentucky is too; they didn't have a great year last year. They're going to start a kid that was a five-star quarterback that started at Georgia that transferred there. 

You don't get a break, and that's a pretty tough reality. 

Jenni: When you mentioned six to eight, I think about teams that have transitioned leagues and maybe had some struggles and maybe not finishing high, then has taken a long time to get back. Nebraska springs to mind, Dari, when I think about transitioning and struggling. Missouri, it took a while for them to get back to the level they were when they left the Big 12. But this expanded playoff to 12 teams and maybe two more in the not too distant future, does that change that dynamic for OU? Fans don't want six or eight to be the range that they're going to finish in in the SEC for very long, but does that expanded playoff change the dynamic as they change leagues?

Dari: For sure. Comes at the right time. I don't think there's any doubt it comes at the right time. So if I say get used to the 9-3s and the 8-4s, because though I think there's going to be a lot of years you're going to consider that a really good season, in this league, historically, there have been really good teams that finished 9-3 and 8-4. And they don't make the four-team playoff and maybe they do make the 12-team. So that certainly helps. There's no question about it. That certainly helps. 

But there's going to be 8-4 seasons that you're looking at, and you say, ‘Yeah, we're pretty good, but we missed the playoff as well.’ And I think that's the reality that a lot of great programs and their fan bases are going to have to get used to is, ‘OK, you want to get to the playoff. But is that good enough?’ Do you have to be in five through eight to host? Or are you going to be OK being nine, 10, 11, and having to go play at Ohio State potentially or, you know, God forbid, USC. 

I think that initially, OU making the playoff is going to be an optimistic goal. I think that it's going to be difficult to do in this league because again, it is week in, week out. 

For years, you look at OU’s schedule and you maybe look ahead at a week or two, two or three weeks down the road and be like, ‘Well, we got Baylor and Iowa State, and then we got to go to Manhattan,’ and then you cross that bridge when you get to it. You don't get to do that here. I don't have their schedule in front of me, but for instance, ‘We just get through Tennessee. OK, good. We got through them. Wait, wait, I don't get to exhale because the next week we're at blankety blank or it's Texas week or it's at Auburn week.’ Well, yeah, but Auburn's sitting there at 3-4 right now. OK. Fine. Go tell me how easy it is to win a Jordan-Hare.

That's why I say enjoy the ride. It's not going to be an easy ride, but man, every week is just going to be bigger than every week has been in your entire OU cheering lifetime, which I love. 

Jenni: Something totally different. I want to talk about other sports before we let you get out of here, because you alluded to softball, women's gymnastics, which have been national powers at OU. You expect that they will step into the SEC and still be really good. But what about some of these other sports? I mean, we've seen obviously an all-SEC final in the Men's College World Series. Basketball, the SEC continuing to send men's basketball to the Final Four, women's basketball, obviously very strong. 

Are there sports where you look and say, ’OK, Oklahoma is going to have to step it up here. There's just no doubt that this is going to be a whole new level for them.’

Dari: Yeah. Men's basketball, fortunately they're in a great league as it is. I don't necessarily think that's a gigantic adjustment to the SEC from the Big 12. We know how good the Big 12 is. 

Women's basketball in this league for sure is a big step up, especially when you're bringing Texas with you. South Carolina and LSU, and look at the coaches in this league with Dawn (Staley) and … I mean, that's going to be a challenge. 

I think where I look at this, and this is just me talking to the OU fan base: ‘Your baseball program is good, but I fear they're going to go on the road and they're going to play in front of 15,000 in Starkville, and they're going to play in front of 10,000 at Arkansas and 11,000 in Baton Rouge and 9,000 in Oxford. And it's sold out night in, night out every single game you play in this league. Tennessee is a sellout every night. Kentucky is a sellout. South Carolina is a sellout every night. You're going to play in front of these crowds. A sellout every night. I don't want teams going into Norman and playing in front of 1,400 people at L. Dale Mitchell Park. 

The Friday Night Heights thing in gymnastics. These arenas, these fan bases treat gymnastics the same way. These are sellouts. These are 13, 14, 15, 16,000 people watching gymnastics. Don't bring that to Norman in front of 6,200 people for the arguably the best program in the country. It's certainly the best program in the country over the last decade or so. 

Step up because you're not just playing better programs, but you're playing programs in these sports that much of the country may not necessarily care about, but in this league they do. We know softball, great. No issues there. None. But you got to go to Mitchell Park, you got to go and pack gymnastics because I fear that the OU athletes are going to walk into these atmospheres and be like, ‘This is better than we get by far.’ And I just hope that the fans step up and understand what it's like here. And I say here, I mean in the SEC for all of these other sports that means so much to them and that it's reflected that way in Norman as well.

Jenni: Before we let you get out of here, I want you to step back for a second. Is there any part of you that pinches yourself and says, ‘The Sooners in the SEC, this team I've followed since childhood?’ Is it just a little wild for you, Dari?

Dari: Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, I remember the rumors three-plus years ago that it could happen and I kind of started to get goosebumps. 

A funny story, Jenni. My wife and I kind of had an unexpected pregnancy back in ’21. And I remember this was a time when COVID was still a significant thing, and I wasn't allowed to go into her doctor's appointments. I remember one day sitting in the car, and she's going in for a one of her doctor's appointments midway through ’21. And my wife and I don't talk sports. I joke that … she doesn't know a football from a hockey puck. I mean, she just doesn't care about it. So we never have the conversation. But she gets in the car, and I'm listening to sports radio and she overhears Oklahoma and Texas to join the SEC. And I really didn’t say anything about it. She looks over at me and she says — cause she's not a Sooner by any stretch; she's from Iowa — and she goes, ‘So that's going to be pretty cool for you, right?’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, you can say that. It's going to be pretty cool for me.’

I've known Greg Sankey very well for a long time. And he likes to tell the story, in fact he told it on the air in our pregame show at the College World Series, he and I like to go for runs when we're in Omaha together. And three years ago, we were going on a run, and he goes, ‘I've got to be back a little earlier this morning.’ He didn't tell me why. And so he gets back, and then eventually this news breaks and he calls me up and he says, ‘Remember that day in Omaha when I said I had to get back from that run a little early?’ He goes, ‘Well, I couldn't tell you at the time, but I had a big meeting with OU and Texas on Zoom. They were just continuing to tell me why they wanted to come into this league, and we had to work out some details.’ ‘You didn't need to tell me that, but thanks for doing it.’

It's just pretty cool. Like, this is really pretty cool.

Jenni: It becomes official July 1. You will be in Norman with SEC Network. Tell us about where people can find you, how they can be a part of what's going on.

Dari: So the Paul Finebaum Show will be in Norman, 2 to 6 p.m. SEC Now, which will be myself, Alyssa Lang, a variety of our analysts, including Dusty Dvoracek, I believe Greg McElroy will be there. We’ll probably have six or seven analysts. I think Haylie McCleney, one of our softball analysts who was a star at Alabama is gonna be there. 

All of the OU coaches are at our disposal. They've been told to be in Norman July 1. This is a big deal. So we'll have conversations throughout the day with coaches, with former athletes, six hours of live programming. 

I know that personally I'm doing some stuff through OU. They've asked me to go to Tulsa for a waking up in the SEC event, a breakfast, I think at 8 to 9 at a restaurant there. So it's funny, I'm actually waking up in Norman, and apparently there's a private plane that's going to take myself and Barry Switzer and a few other coaches to Tulsa for that, which will be cool. Then we will come back. I think I'm doing something on the schooner at some point during the day. There's a luncheon during the day. I mean, it's going to be start to finish. 

There's a 5k that I'm going to run in, just for fun, at 11 o'clock the night before, on Sunday night. And it's one of those things that's one of those nostalgic things, right? We run through campus. I'm like, I was too lazy as a college student to actually go on any jogs, but now I'm going to jog through the areas I used to walk for four years. 

I'm just going to take it all in. And we as a network are thrilled to do this. We'll be in Austin the day before. I won't be in Austin, but I'll be in Norman and I just can't wait. It's gonna be fun, and everybody's welcome. I know they've got festivities planned after we're off the air. I think there's fireworks or drone shows and people can get down on the field, I think, throughout the day and night. It's just gonna be a really cool event.

Jenni: Listen, if you don't ride that schooner and fire one of those guns or something while you're there, I am going to be sorely disappointed, Dari.

Dari: I don't know about the gun, but I think they're going to have me on the schooner.