Conference Realignment Updates: From Oklahoma to the West Coast and Beyond

Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

Friends, I believe it’s time to play the hits. I’ve been working the phones since I’ve returned from Atlanta, and I have a few updates to share on various conference realignment rumblings from Oklahoma, California, the Midwest, and more.

Can a statehouse, just like, make a conference?

Back in 2021, an Oklahoma lawmaker (Rep. Mark Vancuren, R-Owasso), made an out-the-box suggestion. Rather than have Oklahoma’s 11 D-II schools play in multiple conferences spread out from Arkansas to Missouri, there should be one league with all the Oklahoma schools. If the school presidents couldn’t reach that conclusion by themselves, well, the state would help them.

Politicians get involved in conference realignment all the time, but I can’t recall one proposing a bill to create an entirely new conference out of thin air, so I remember the story. From talking to D-II folks on the ground back then, I recall hearing that there wasn’t much legislative momentum to do something that drastic, and the proposal didn’t go anywhere.

Fast forward to today. A different lawmaker is now making the proposal. And the result….could also be very different.

Speaker Pro Tem-Elect Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, a graduate of D-II Oklahoma Christian, proposed a bill called the “Oklahoma College Athletic Conference Act”, which would create a commission to study the idea of establishing a new conference for ten of Oklahoma’s 11 D-II institutions. The bill was read this week and referred to the Oklahoma Postsecondary Education Committee.

The schools mentioned in the bill’s exact language are the Cameron Aggies, the East Central Tigers, Northeastern State RiverHawks, Northwestern Oklahoma State Rangers, Oklahoma Baptist Bison, Oklahoma Christian Eagles and Lady Eagles, Rogers State Hillcats, Southeastern Oklahoma State Savage Storm, Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm, and the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs.

We’ll get to why Central Oklahoma wasn’t included, along with why this happening and what it means, after the jump:

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