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Paul Finebaum offers defense of Brent Venables’ new contract at Oklahoma
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Paul Finebaum understands Oklahoma offering a new contract extension for Brent Venables turned a few heads across college football. However, the SEC Network host understands why the Sooners made the move when they did ahead of the program joining the SEC.
Last week, Oklahoma officially extended Venables with a new 6-year deal that includes significant raises. Venables was set to enter the 2024 season on Year 3 of his original deal that was $43.5 million fully guaranteed over 6 seasons.
Reports on his new extension have the new deal kicking in during the 2025 season with a salary of $7.625 million. The peak season of his contract will be $7.925 million in 2029, but it was immediately unclear if his new deal will also be fully guaranteed.
Oklahoma is coming off a 10-3 season under Venables in 2023, but there is no denying the risk involved in the deal. Though he climbed the coaching ranks with extensive work as an assistant at Oklahoma and Clemson, Venables has just 2 years as a head coach under his belt with a 16-10 record and a pair of bowl defeats.
It is fair to question if the deal is a good one, but Finebaum addressed some of the concerns during his Monday morning appearance for “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning.” Finebaum admitted some are questioning the move, but he feels the last thing Oklahoma wanted to deal with is questions about the future of Venables when the move to the SEC becomes official.
Now, the Sooners can say they have clarity regarding the leadership of the football program:
“I think Oklahoma is in very good shape (for the SEC move), and I think that’s one reason why you saw the contract extension the other day. I know some people in the industry go ‘How can you do this? Isn’t this how you get in trouble?’ Well, not really,” defended Finebaum. “Not when you have one of the pre-eminent ADs in the country who doesn’t want a single question asked next Monday when the entire focus of college football is on Oklahoma about what the future is for Brent Venables. I dare someone to ask a question now considering what he just received.”
For what it’s worth, Finebaum did say the contract may not pass a traditional cost analysis. However, he pointed to the importance of outside perception and momentum of the program in modern college football.
“Everything about college athletics right now is about perception and recruiting and momentum,” Finebaum claimed. “I think the people at Oklahoma decided if we’re wrong, we’ll take the hit on the back end, but right now we have to go all-in.”
It will be interesting to track Venables’ time at Oklahoma, particularly for a program on the upswing but well outside of the realm of likely contender. FanDuel has the Sooners at +4200 to win the SEC and squarely in the middle of the pack entering the season.
That means it is unlikely Oklahoma has a realistic shot at the College Football Playoff with SEC teams like Georgia, Texas, Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss and even Mizzou ahead of the Sooners in the preseason CFP National Championship odds produced by DraftKings.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
