A new initiative by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce aims to simplify the process of starting and running small businesses in the state through a centralized online portal called the Business Hub.

The website, launched in collaboration with several state agencies, provides entrepreneurs with a one-stop shop for resources and guidance to name, register, and operate their businesses. The portal also offers educational tools and assistance with tax forms.

“We’re incentivizing people to live, work and play in Oklahoma,” said Ray Little, director of entrepreneurship and small business at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

Starting a business can often feel overwhelming, a challenge the Business Hub seeks to address.

“A lot of states make it really murky,” Little said. “We wanted to create a one-stop shop.”

Traditionally, entrepreneurs in Oklahoma have had to navigate multiple state agencies to launch their businesses, including the Secretary of State’s Office, the Tax Commission, and the Department of Commerce. The Business Hub streamlines the process by consolidating all the necessary steps into a single platform.

“Go to the Business Hub and you can find out how to do all that in one place,” Little said.

The initiative is a collaboration between the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, and the Secretary of State’s Office.

“We want to promote Oklahoma as the top state for business,” said Secretary of State Josh Cockroft, whose office oversees business registrations. “When you have those entrepreneurs that are looking at the state of Oklahoma, you want to make sure that you make the process as easy as possible.”

The Business Hub is designed to bolster a vital sector of Oklahoma’s economy.

“Small businesses is where we go to shop, is where we go to eat, it’s where we go to live,” Little said.

For additional support, the Department of Commerce offers direct assistance at 405-630-7455.

Click here to visit the business hub.

A former Oklahoma basketball player won’t make his return to Norman on Tuesday.

Georgia Tech guard Javian McCollum, who was OU’s starting point guard in the 2023-24 season, will not play in his grudge match against the Sooners. 

McCollum did not travel with the Yellow Jackets to Norman and currently has a concussion, a source told Oklahoma Sooners on SI.

Oklahoma Hosts Georgia Tech in ACC-SEC Challenge Looking to Improve to 8-0

McCollum started 30 games for Oklahoma a year ago after transferring to the program from Siena. The point guard led OU in scoring in his lone season in Norman, averaging 13.3 points per game.

Now in Atlanta, McCollum played in Georgia Tech’s first five games of the 2024-25 season, averaging 12.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. McCollum suffered a concussion in the Yellow Jackets’ 81-58 loss to No. 18 Cincinnati on Nov. 23 and hasn’t played since.

McCollum didn’t participate in the Yellow Jackets’ wins over Charleston Southern and Central Arkansas and will again miss out against his former team on Tuesday.

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The Sooners’ game against Georgia Tech is part of the ACC-SEC Challenge, an annual in-season series, starting in 2022, that pits teams from those conferences against one another.

OU enters Tuesday’s game 7-0 after beating Providence, Arizona and Louisville in the Battle 4 Atlantis midseason tournament in the Bahamas. 

Tuesday’s game against Georgia Tech is one of three non-conference games against power opponents remaining for the Sooners. OU will battle Oklahoma State and Michigan — both at neutral sites — in addition to home games against Alcorn State, Central Arkansas and Prairie View A&M.

OU begins its first conference season in the Southeastern Conference on Jan. 4 when the Sooners host No. 10 Alabama.

Just days before National Signing Day, Oklahoma’s 2025 recruiting class has suffered another blow.

Wide receiver Gracen Harris, a two-sport star from Ennis, TX, is no longer an OU commit. He told On3’s Hayes Fawcett that he has officially decommitted from OU but still intends to sign somewhere when the Early Signing Period opens on Wednesday. 

Harris, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound speedster, has been verbally committed to OU since May 1, 2023. His intention was to play both football and baseball for the Sooners.

However, a source close to the program tells Sooners On SI that Harris is an unfortunate casualty of what head coach Brent Venables has referred to as the “carnage” of the coming NCAA scholarship adjustments.

Essentially, Harris still wanted to go to OU, and OU still wanted to take him. But a numbers crunch is on the way, which forced Venables to make a hard and unpopular decision. And it won’t be his last.

Although the SEC has reportedly decided to use its autonomous authority and maintain its 85-scholarship limit (with 20 walk-ons) for 2025-26, it is expected the SEC will eventually conform to the NCAA’s coming rule changes when details from the landmark House v. NCAA settlement are revealed, resulting in a revenue sharing model between schools and athletes that is expected to start at around $22 million annually.

Power conference commissioners have established that they will move from the current NCAA limits of 85 scholarships and 105 total players on the roster to a flat 105 roster limit, with 105 scholarships available for schools willing to provide the maximum — although those scholarships will be able to be split among multiple players, such as in the current equivalency sport models.

That is forcing football programs and coaches into some difficult decisions that are based strictly on making the future numbers work.

“Again, the real carnage is getting our roster to 105,” Venables said at his weekly press conference on Nov. 20. “So what does that mean? That means you’re going to have to tell several players that they don’t have a spot. That’s the only thing that has caused me just anxiousness. It’s just not good.”

It means that players — those currently on the roster as well as high school or junior college prospects who have been offered full scholarships — can have their existing deals altered or dropped with little notice.

In Harris’ case, it means the loss of a four-year starter at Ennis who has compiled 258 career receptions for 4,242 yards (16.4 yards per catch), 37 touchdown catches and three 1,000-yard seasons. 

Harris also produced 1,249 career rushing yards (8.4 yards per carry) and 12 TDs on the ground as well as 768 passing yards and nine TD throws, 351 yards on kick returns and 548 yards and a touchdown on punt returns — a whopping 7,157 all-purpose yards and 59 total touchdowns in his career.