Bob Stoops Discusses Conference Realignment

In an exclusive interview with Oklahoma Sports, Stoops revealed whether he expects realignment to occur and what the consequences could be.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:44 am

By: News On 6

Bob Stoops Discusses Conference Realignment

Originally Published: May 13, 2010 9:38 PM CDT

More conference realignment coverage on Oklahoma Sports.
- Joe Castiglione Discusses Big 12 Realignment
- Bob Stoops Discusses Conference Realignment
- John Holcomb’s Blog: Big 12 Plus Pac-10 equals ?

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

NORMAN, Oklahoma – With rumors continuing to swirl that the Big Ten Conference has extended invitations to Missouri and Nebraska to leave the Big 12, OU head coach Bob Stoops sat down with Oklahoma Sports Oklahoma City Sports Director Dean Blevins to discuss the possibility of conference realignment.

“I guess I’m just never surprised,” Stoops said. “In the end, I say it a lot, very little stays the same forever. There’s always things evolving and changing. It will be interesting to see where it all shakes out.”

The Big Ten – which actually contains 11 teams – has reportedly extended invitations to Rutgers and Notre Dame as well. If multiple teams accept their rumored invitations, it could cause a domino effect that results in several teams jumping from one conference to another.

The conference realignment discussion has seemed to heat up rather quickly, which Stoops said makes him think it won’t happen quite yet. However, he did say he expects it to happen eventually and that the majority of teams could end up in just a handful of large conferences.

“I’ll be surprised if it happens this quick,” he said. “I would think it’s going to take some time. I wouldn’t doubt that it happens in the future ? There may be four huge conferences of 16 teams or so. It’ll be interesting to see how it all works.”

Stoops said he has talked to OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione about the prospect of realignment several times, but that he does not concern himself with the details because he has no power over the situation.

“I don’t sit and worry about it, because I’m not going to be the player that makes a difference in it,” he said. “Joe and I confer in our conference meeting; it’s been talked about, we didn’t just start talking about it this year.”

While there could be significant change among the conferences in the coming years, Stoops insists that the OU football program will remain strong regardless.

“In the end, I still think at Oklahoma we’ll be in good shape one way or the other. I think the size of the stadium, the following we have, the tradition and all that, we’ll be a player for somebody.”

The discussion about conference realignment was just part of a longer interview Oklahoma Sports conducted with Stoops. Check back Sunday to view the entire interview, in which Stoops also discussed the succession of Landry Jones as starting quarterback, Sam Bradford’s future in the NFL and the Sooners’ recruiting.