Analyst claims power struggle brewing among Texas and Oklahoma after SEC inclusion in 2024

The Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners have been rivals for a long time. Both have officially joined the SEC ahead of the 2024 season after leaving the Big 12.

Heading into the 2024 college football season, many fans are eager to see how both schools do in the SEC.

The SEC is considered the premier conference in college football, and both programs do have some marquee games on their schedule.

The two fanbases are also looking at which of these schools will win an SEC Championship first or have more success in 2024. Although many believe that will be Texas, 247Sports reporter Bud Elliott thinks Oklahoma is closing the gap.

"For my personal power rankings, I do actually have Texas over Oklahoma," Elliott said on The Paul Finebaum Show (via AthlonSports). "But the past four years, Oklahoma has very narrowly recruited slightly better at the high school level than Texas has. I actually think the gap between these teams on the field is probably smaller than people think."

However, in 2024, the Longhorns do have the advantage with the strength of schedule, as they have the 14th-hardest schedule in the SEC. Oklahoma, on the other hand, has the third-hardest, according to SI.

Longhorns and Sooners eager for challenge of SEC

Texas and Oklahoma will have their hands full in their first year in the SEC, but both schools are looking forward to the challenge.

Sooners head coach Brent Venables is cautiously optimistic about his players. He does recognize that the team has an uphill challenge ahead of itself.

"Everything matters. There's a very small margin for error," Venables said, via ESPN. "There are so many things that decide games in this league, and you better be ready for all of them. How ready are we? We're going to find out. Until you're in the middle of it, you don't really truly know. So, it would just be conjecture on my part. As I said, we'll find out.

"What I do know is the challenge of it all, the depth of the teams in that conference, and what I feel best about is the depth of the investment that we have from our players, several of them going on their third year here."

As for Texas, head coach Steve Sarkisian believes going to the SEC makes them recruit differently and play a different style of football.

"We can't get enamored with just building a team to win the Big 12. We're going to have to build a team that can take down Alabama in January. I'm not talking September, but in January be equipped to beat those teams you're going to have to beat to win a national championship," Sarkisian said.

In the 2024 season, Oklahoma will have notable games against Tennessee, Texas, Ole Miss, Alabama and LSU.

Texas, meanwhile, will have notable games against Michigan, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida and Texas A&M.