OU IT x SEC

OU has entered the SEC as of July 1st, 2024, and August 30th will be the inaugural first game in the new conference. This major change brings a lot of ‘new’ to OU and when it comes to OU Information Technology it ‘Just Means More’.

David Payne, OU IT’s Senior Technology Strategist for Athletics, said it has been a busy summer for IT-related projects in the transition to the SEC.

Projects Include:

• A new dedicated AT&T circuit for broadcast which will connect Sooner Vision, each event venue, and ESPN
  
  
• Upgrade of the DV Sport video replay system for Football to include additional camera feeds and video delivery to the SEC office in Birmingham. This type of feed to the conference office has not been done before at OU.

“We had to outfit our event venues with new cable paths, cameras and equipment to support in-game instant replay review using the Hawkeye system,” Payne said. “This upgrade impacted 7 event venues which all had new fiber runs installed and linked to the video production suite in the football stadium”

• Sideline video, like in the NFL, has been adopted by the SEC allowing the use of scouting game film on the field in-game. This meant a lot more fiber in the Palace on the Prairie.

“This involved adding several direct fiber runs between specified camera locations (all 22 and end zone) to a capture station mounted in the press box. Also dedicated fiber connections between that capture station and home/visitor sidelines, coaches’ booths and video workstation points in the press box,” Payne said. “These fiber runs included 3 sets of 2 pairs – 2 of those sets go to visitors’ locations, one for conference games and one for non-conference.”

This requirement applies at the Cotton Bowl for the Red River Rivalry game as well.

“Since we are the home team this year, it falls to us to track on this same project along with the City of Dallas and the State Fair of Texas (owners of the facility) to manage those upgrades and ensure they are game-ready in October,” Payne said.

• Helmet communication in the game, also like in the NFL, has been adopted by the SEC. OU IT has added a connection location to set up the control system where an official turns communication on and off at specific times between plays.
  
  
• Gambling activity monitoring. The SEC has required all teams to use the gambling monitoring system, Prohibet. OU IT will manage this new cloud-based system.
  
  
• Standardized Sports Injury/EMR system.

“The SEC is standardizing and has negotiated favorable pricing so all its schools can use a specific sports injury/performance monitoring system,” Payne said. “They want to standardize a few tracking measures that each school will be required to share with their medical team to track trends and inform potential rule changes.”

Despite all these upgrades, OU IT has already established a strong foundation long before moving to the SEC.

“In terms of where we are ahead of the game, our existing infrastructure to support digital ticketing connectivity at the gates of each venue will require little modification because we were one of the early adopters of that approach,” Payne said.

In addition to the dedicated circuit already referenced, some smaller upgrades to the Sooner Vision broadcast media infrastructure are being completed with larger ones anticipated at the next contract renewal between ESPN/SEC Network and the conference in the next couple of years.

“In most other aspects we are at or ahead of most of our new conference peers,” Payne said.

A huge round of applause for all of OU IT that helped facilitate these changes and helped OU become SEC country.