University of Oklahoma approves plans for $175 million football operations facility
As the University of Oklahoma prepares to join the Southeastern Conference in 2024, the school’s Board of Regents has approved an estimated $175 million project budget for a new, "state-of-the-art" football operations facility.
The Tulsa World reports that the project is part of roughly $390 million in athletic facility expansion and improvement funds the regents approved. All the projects will be funded through a combination of private and athletic department funds.
Other planned projects include the construction of a $75 million student-athlete success center and upgrades that will directly affect a dozen athletic programs, including a $9.5 renovation to the men's and women's basketball team suites inside the Lloyd Noble Center.
The future home of the Oklahoma football program will sit adjacent to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman and will include updated facilities for strength and conditioning, recovery, nutrition, sports medicine and dining as well as meeting spaces, coaches' offices and two new practice sites, according to Athletics Director Joe Castiglione.
The approval of a new football operations facility comes less than five years after the Switzer Center — the existing football operations facility that was part of a $160 million stadium expansion and renovation — was dedicated in May 2018.
Uses for that building could include academic offices and other student-athlete support services, additional space for SEC Network studios, and offices to house other athletic programs.
The estimated $175 million price tag will put Oklahoma on par with their soon-to-be conference counterparts in the SEC and may set a new standard in a facilities boom that has unfolded across major college football over the last two decades.
