I'm sorry. You're tight about UCF. But they ended up undefeated in 2017, and one bowl loss in 2018, going 25-1 for those two seasons.. I guess that's not recent enough for you. They sure have a fertile recruiting area. In 2017, their bowl win was over SEC West champion Auburn.
You talked about the schools that joined the Big XII as somehow inferior. That's a crock. They haven't been in a P5, now P4 conference before. But last year, UCF's average team, gave OU all we wanted in a narrow loss in Norman. In BYU's narrow win in the Holiday over Michigan, we had an argument for having the title, until UDub kicked OUr butt in the Orange Bowl. Houston, Central FLorida, BYU and Cincinnati are not OU. OUr history takes a back seat to nobody. Including Bama. We're .500 against them.
But all four have quality athletic programs, at least as good as OU in basketball, and will make the XII a solid conference. But personally, I'd rather have stayed. I've heard guys on this board complaining, rightly, about the state of college athletics. And maybe softening considerably the attention they pay any more. I may join them. But my passion for OU football started over 60 years ago, listening to Ross Porter and then Bob Barry on the radio on game days, starting in the late 50's. It was the one thing my dad and I had a common passion for. So with those roots, I'll likely complain, but in an addiction fo soft, keep watching. Just like many of us did during the Blake years. And even in Gomer's second year, which was even more dismal.