Oklahoma football: Nonconference schedule looms large in Sooners’ success

Most college fans will tell you that the season doesn’t really get relevant until the conference games get underway. If you believe that, you haven’t been following Oklahoma football all these years.

Teams play three or four nonconference games every season. Most of those contests are played in the first month of the season before the conference schedule kicks in and, in the eyes of many head coaches, serve as a tune up before the schedule turns harder and with more at stake.

In general, nonconference games are not that competitive, with most nonconference matchups featuring wide gaps in talent and an opportunity for teams to work out the offseason rust, pick up some quick wins and gain confidence heading into more competitive conference play.

Because of the 10-team structure, teams in the Big 12 play a round-robin, nine-game conference schedule, which leaves three games against teams outside of the conference. Beginning with the 2015 season, the Big 12, along with the other Power Five leagues, imposed a rule change requiring their member teams to play at least one nonconference game every season against a team from another Power Five conference.

Oklahoma Sooners

With its 112-game annual rivalry with Texas, Oklahoma has long been assured of a quality nonconference opponent well before both teams became members of the Big 12. For many of those years, especially in the 1950s and thereafter, at least one of the two teams was nationally ranked, and numerous times both teams were ranked in the top 10.

During the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) era (1998-2013), and even more so in the four years the new College Football Playoff format has been in place to determine the national champion, winning your conference has been the most important factor in identifying the two or four best teams in the country, but it is not the only factor. The overall body of work, which of course includes who you played and who you beat in the nonconference portion of the schedule, also is taken into consideration.

In fact, Oklahoma’s win at Ohio State last season, was a big factor in the Sooners earning the No. 2 overall seed in the College Football Playoff, perhaps more so than the fact that they were Big 12 champions.

While Bob Stoops was head coach of the Sooners, from 1999 through 2016, he was a strong advocate of the position that to be the best you have to play and beat the best, and that included playing good teams outside of the conference.

In 10 of the last 19 seasons, dating to 1999 in Stoops’ first season at OU, the Sooners have played at least one ranked team in their nonconference schedule and at least one team from a Power Five conference in 17 of the last 19 seasons.

Since 2002, Oklahoma has played home and home series with Alabama (2002-03), Oregon (2004 and 2006), Florida State (2010-11), Notre Dame (2012-13), Tennessee (2014-15) and Ohio State. The Sooners’ record in those games was 9-3.

Beginning this season, Oklahoma will play UCLA in back-to-back-years and has a two-game series slated with former Big Eight and Big 12 rival Nebraska in 2021-22.

Oklahoma owns a record of 52-8 against nonconference opponents since 2000. The Sooners have posted a perfect nonconference record in 13 of this seasons, including last season, when they handed then-No. 2-ranked Ohio State a 31-16 defeat in Columbus.

Only twice in the last 19 seasons has OU had a losing nonconference record (going 1-2 in 2005, with losses to TCU and UCLA, and in 2016, with losses to No. 15 Houston and No. 3 Ohio State). In 2016, Oklahoma rebounded from losing two of its first three games by winning 10 in a row, including four ranked teams and a decisive 35-19 win over Auburn in the Sugar Bowl.

Oklahoma’s success in scheduling and performing well against nonconference opponents is an important factor in finishing the season among the nation’s top 25 teams in all but four of the last 19 seasons and a huge favorite to do so again this season.