Big 12 Football: 5-Star S Peyton Bowen flipping from Oregon to OU?

It looks like the action could be far from over during the Early Signing Period around the Big 12 football conference as of the afternoon of Dec. 22. More drama during this signing period could come courtesy of the five-star Denton Guyer safety recent Oregon Ducks commit Peyton Bowen.

On the first National Signing Day on Dec. 21, Oregon pulled off a bit of a shocker by flipping Bowen’s commitment from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Bowen was figured to be on flip watch heading into the first signing day this week, but most of the smoke was surrounding the Oklahoma Sooners, not the Ducks.

Yet, head coach Dan Lanning and the Ducks made some real noise on the first signing day by landing multiple blue-chip commitments in the 2023 class, including Bowen. And despite flipping Bowen from Notre Dame on Dec. 21, Oregon wasn’t able to get him to sign on the dotted line to lock in Eugene as his college destination.

This led to some real buzz on the morning of the second day of this signing period (Dec. 22) that Bowen could be on flip watch again.

On the morning of Dec. 22, Nick Harris of Rivals.com put in a FutureCast projecting Bowen to flip his commitment from Oregon to Oklahoma. We also got two On3 RPM picks early on Dec. 22 projecting Bowen to flip from Oregon to Oklahoma, each with a pretty high level of confidence.

More Big 12 football recruiting drama on the way with OU potentially flipping 5-Star S Peyton Bowen from Oregon

At the moment, even the buzz coming from the Oregon side of things sounds like Bowen is probably Norman-bound by the end of the day on Dec. 22. That is usually a good indication of how things are trending in a recruitment when it comes down to it.

Moreover, this Bowen saga is one of the most drama-filled decisions that I’ve seen in the last seven or eight years since I’ve covered college football recruiting. Seeing a recruit flip twice in the span of roughly 24 hours in one signing period is certainly something to behold.

If Oklahoma can ultimately pull off this flip from Oregon, it would be a big win on the recruiting trail for head coach Brent Venables and the Sooners staff. Oklahoma could also push for a top-five-ranked recruiting class in the nation if it were to sign Bowen.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2023 Oklahoma recruiting class currently ranks at No. 8 in the nation and in the second spot in the Big 12 behind the Texas Longhorns. Per the 247Sports class calculator, flipping Bowen from Oregon would give OU a shot at cracking the top five, but would still keep it behind Texas in the Big 12 rankings.