Oklahoma Football not far off as college football becomes wide open

College football is a far cry from what it was the last time the Oklahoma Sooners won a national championship. Shoot, it’s vastly different from the last time the Sooners won a conference title in 2020.

Conference realignment, the transfer portal, and name, image, and likeness have created a vastly different sport than the one many of us grew up on. And it’s a sport that sits on a foundation of shifting sands. We haven’t seen the last of the changes in the game we love as networks, conference commissioners, and the playoff committee continue to evolve the sport.

But over the last couple of seasons, things have begun to shift in the sport. For much of the last decade and a half, the SEC had run the sport. Since 2003, the SEC had won 14 of the 21 national championships awarded. Georgia, Alabama, LSU, and Florida each won multiple national titles, and Auburn earned one for good measure.

From 2006 through 2023, the SEC won 13 of the 18 national championships. Over the years, a talent disparity grew between the SEC and the rest of the nation. Whether you look at recruiting rankings or the number of players selected in the NFL draft by conference, the SEC had created a gap in talent.

But over the last two years of the College Football Playoff, we’re seeing the gap is closing according to Dan Wolken of USA TODAY Sports.

A cynic might say that once it became legal to pay players, the SEC no longer had an advantage in, um, talent acquisition. But a more generous interpretation of the current climate doesn’t even need to invoke tales of nefariousness. It’s simply a fact that stockpiling talent is harder now, and recruits who might have been ticketed for the SEC in past years are organically landing at a wider group of programs. – Wolken, USA TODAY Sports

Michigan beat Alabama last year in the championship game. This year, Tennessee lost to Ohio State and Georgia lost to Notre Dame. Both SEC squads opened the playoff with a loss. Texas, a team that fell in…