The college athletics landscape is forever changing and shifting in many ways from conference realignment to NIL to media rights.
The Oklahoma Sooners have been directly affected by all three in recent years and now they get to be a part of it once again.
After years with Bally Sports, the Sooners will enter a multi-year agreement with ESPN+ with an Oklahoma specific channel called “SoonerVision.”
The partnership with ESPN+ is the most expansive of its kind for a university athletics program. Oklahoma athletic director and Vice President Joe Castiglione in a release by the official athletics website says, “SoonerVision on ESPN+ builds upon our previous media successes by offering over 1,000 hours annually of live OU sports events and other programming to ESPN+’s growing subscriber base of more than 21.3 million. As a result, OU fans will now have an easily accessible year-round media home on all their screens.”
In many ways, it sets the stage for Oklahoma as it will make its way to the SEC in the coming years and become a part of the SEC Network also tied in a tight partnership with ESPN.
The infamous Oklahoma pay-per-view football game that’s become an annual occurrence will be no longer as that game likely slots into the “one regular season OU football game” category for those who carry an ESPN+ subscription.
The spring football game will also be accessible via ESPN+. The rest of Oklahoma’s football games will still be found on the ESPN family of networks or on Fox.
Oklahoma basketball will have 25 or more games found on ESPN+ along with other Olympic sports live games like track and field and more.
An ESPN+ subscription also includes access to professional sports like MLB, NHL, LaLiga, Bundesliga, and many other college sports competitions.
The deal allows the Sooner fans access to content from years past and also grants access to OU’s pro day, pregame shows, and a more immersive Sooner experience across the board.
Beginning in August, the content…