The Big 12 conference released its revamped 2020 season schedule on Wednesday, with Oklahoma opening up league play on Sept. 26 against Kansas State.
The Sooners will officially open the 2020 season a couple of weeks before when it plays host to Missouri State on Sept. 12 at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
Oklahoma was originally scheduled to open the season against Missouri State, an FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) team out of the Missouri Valley Conference, on Sept. 5. In an effort to allow a week off after each of its previously scheduled nonconference games as a precautionary measure because of the coronavirus pandemic, Oklahoma requested a waiver from the NCAA to move up the opening date to Aug. 29.
When the Power Five conferences elected to play a reduced season schedule because of the threat of COVID-19 and start the season later than originally scheduled, the Aug. 29 date no longer made sense. That would have left a gap of up to a month between OU’s first and second games.
Following the conference opener against Kansas State, the Sooners will travel to Iowa State on Oct. 3 for its first true road game of the season before heading to Dallas, Texas, for its annual Red River Showdown game with longtime archrival Texas.
The revised schedule has Oklahoma playing no home games during the month of October.
The OU-Texas game will be played at the Cotton Bowl, where the game has resided since 1932, but this year, the State Fair of Texas will not be going on during the game (the Cotton Bowl is situated at Fair Park, the site for the Texas State Fair), and there will be no fans in the stands. Oklahoma will be the designated home team for this year’s game.
The Sooners receive a second bye week following the Texas game. On Oct. 24 they will be at TCU, where the Sooners are 7-1 all-time, and the week after that they play at Texas Tech, on Oct. 31.
Oklahoma returns home to play Kansas on Nov. 7, against whom the Sooners have won 15 consecutive games. Nov. 14 is a bye week before Oklahoma hosts Bedlam against Oklahoma State on Nov. 21.
OU is at West Virginia on Nov. 28 before closing out the regular season at home against Baylor on Dec. 5. The Big 12 Championship game, which the Sooners have been a part of each of the last three years, is currently scheduled for Dec. 12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.