With the impending move to the SEC, the future Oklahoma football schedule that included home-and-home nonconference series with high-profile Power Five opponents Georgia and Tennessee have been postponed.
According to a news release issued by the OU athletic department, the SEC has directed this action because the second of the two nonconference games with the two SEC opponents was scheduled to take place after Oklahoma joins the SEC, expected no later than the 2025 season.
The Sooners were scheduled to play reigning national champion Georgia in Sept. 2023 and play at Tennessee in 2024. The SEC wants to delay the matchups between OU and Georgia and the Sooners and Tennessee “until such time that those games become part of the conference rotation of games in future years,” according to the press release.
Because nonconference games are contracted for and scheduled years in advance, the OU home-and-home series with Georgia and Tennessee were scheduled ahead of the 2021 announcement that Oklahoma and Texas were leaving the Big 12 to become members of the SEC. Oklahoma has nonconference home-and-home series scheduled all the way out to 2035-36.
Oklahoma announced that it has replaced the Georgia series with nonconference games against SMU in Norman in 2023 and at SMU in 2027. Oklahoma is 5-1-1 all-time in games against SMU.
OU officials are still working on a schedule replacement for the Tennessee series.
In a related announcement, Texas Longhorn officials announced that the Texas game at Alabama next season will take place as originally scheduled because the second game in the home-and-home contracted series will occur before the Longhorns officially become members of the SEC.