In a pivotal year for the Kentucky Wildcats, success in the SEC will be made that much harder as, for the first time since 2012’s additions of Texas A&M and Missouri, the conference will be expanding.
Texas and Oklahoma will be competing in the SEC for the first time in the 2024-25 athletic season, after jointly inquiring about joining the conference on July 27, 2021. Two days later, the presidents of the current schools unanimously voted to extend offers of admission.
The schools were originally scheduled to join the SEC in 2025, but in February 2023 they reached a buyout agreement with the Big 12 that would allow them to join the conference a year earlier.
With the expansion from 14 teams to 16, the format and scheduling for SEC football will undergo a few changes.
Previously, the conference was split into Eastern and Western divisions for football and the schools in each division with the best conference record would meet in the SEC Championship game at the conclusion of the regular season.
The SEC decided to eliminate divisions following the expansion, though, so at the end of the year the two schools with the best conference record overall will play for the conference title.
Another change many people speculated is an increase from eight to nine intra-conference games each season, which is the standard in most major conferences, but the SEC instead made the decision to stick with the eight-game conference schedule despite the expansion.
Both schools have traditionally been powerhouse programs in the Big 12 as it was rare for them to not be towards the top of the conference standings with both having made previous College Football Playoff appearances pre-expansion.
Texas finished last season with a 12-2 record and a berth in the College Football Playoff for the first time and Oklahoma ranked No. 15 in the final AP Poll following a 10-win season.
Additionally, the Longhorns and Sooners have always done an exceptional job at producing pro talent, with each school currently having over 40 active players on NFL rosters.
In fact, Texas ranked second in players selected in the 2024 NFL Draft with 11, including two picked in the first round.
Because of the strength of both programs, it should not take long for them to rise up the ranks in the conference and compete for conference titles, or so they hope.
Brad Crawford of 24/7 Sports even projected the Longhorns to finish 11-1 overall in the SEC this season, saying that, “this Texas team may have the *it* factor as conference shocker in 2024.”
With the new scheduling format in the conference, all 14 of the other teams are scheduled to play either Texas or Oklahoma once in 2024.
As for Kentucky, the Wildcats have Texas on their schedule this season and will face the Longhorns in Austin on Nov. 23 with another matchup between the two schools set to take place in Lexington in 2025.
Prior to this season, they have only met once, when Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Wildcats came up short against the Longhorns by way of a 7-6 final on the road in 1951.
Texas will be a tough squad to beat not just for Kentucky, but for any team this year, as both its offense, led by standout quarterback Quinn Ewers, and its defense, which possesses a strong front seven, are both expected to be elite.
Oklahoma does not have as high of expectations as Texas does, but the Sooners, who have been building their offense around sophomore quarterback Jackson Arnold using the transfer portal, are sure to be competitive in an already very competitive conference.
Even though it usually takes a while for schools joining a top-tier conference like the SEC to become a dominant force, Texas and Oklahoma have what it takes to make noise very quickly and the existing SEC schools, including Kentucky, should be on the lookout.
Kentucky football will kick off its 2024 schedule against Southern Miss on Saturday, August 31. The Cats won’t face off against the Longhorns until their penultimate game of the season on Nov. 23.
