Stormin in Norman
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Bob Stoops Has Always Been Champion of Competitive Nonconference Slate

By Chip Rouse

Oct 24, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops runs onto the field prior to action against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 24, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops runs onto the field prior to action against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
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College football has begun setting a bar on the quality of nonconference opponents. Playing big-boy football out of conference will require no adjustment on the part of Bob Stoops and Oklahoma football.

The Sooners have never shied away from scheduling nonconference games against quality teams, and that has been especially true throughout Stoops’ 17 seasons in Norman.

In fact, Oklahoma’s 2016 schedule includes September games against two teams that finished in the top 10 in the country last season. As most Sooner fans are guardedly aware, OU opens the 2016 season on the road in Houston for a contest with a very good Houston Cougar team that lost just once all last season. Two weekends after that, Ohio State, the No. 4 team in the country in the final Associated Press poll at the end of last season, comes calling to Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

“We’ve always believed if you want to be one of the better teams in the country, (you have to) play ‘like’ teams. It’s what college football fans want to see…as long as you win.” —Bob Stoops, Oklahoma head coach

The Big 12, along with other Power Five conferences, put in place a new rule at the end of last season that teams must play at least one nonconference game against an opponent from another Power Five conference. The obvious purpose was to prevent teams from schedule games against so-called cream-puff opponents and stacking three or four easy wins before beginning conference play. The notion also goes to the idea of strength of schedule, which is a major consideration in determining the final four teams to make the College Football Playoff.

For the past two years, the Sooners have played a home-and-home series with Tennessee out of the SEC, and the two seasons before that OU and Notre Dame played a similar two-game series. Prior to the two-game series with the Fighting Irish, it was Florida State. So Oklahoma has long been of this mindset.

“I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but “it’s always been our view,” Stoops said to reporters attending the Oklahoma press briefing during Big 12 Media Days this week.

“We’ve always just believed if you’re going to be a top-tier program and one of the better teams in the country, (you have to) play ‘like’ teams,” the Sooner head coach continued. “It’s what college football fans all around the country want to see. I know it’s what our fans want to see, as long as you win.

“In the end, our players are challenged and excited about it, as well as us as a coaching staff.”

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