Oklahoma football: Future schedule stacked with elite Power 5 teams
By Chip Rouse
The focus and sight line for most fans of college football is no further than one season out. That’s not how things work, however, within elite programs like Oklahoma football
Athletic director Joe Castiglione and his staff at Oklahoma have their sites on a football horizon that is much further out. And if you like seeing big games featuring marquee teams, you’re going to like what you see looking down the road quite a ways on the Oklahoma schedule.
There are two general perspectives regarding nonconference schedules in college football. One is to schedule so-called “cupcake” opponents with the idea you can work out the early season kinks and go into conference play undefeated and with some momentum. It also helps out in getting some early wins that put you halfway to becoming bowl eligible.
The other school of thought — and the one the Oklahoma has always subscribed to — is to schedule at least one quality nonconference opponent. Former Sooner head coaches Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops always advocated, if you want to be the best, you have to play the best.
“It’s going to be a fun schedule. It fits our belief system and our model here of wanting to play the very best competition and wanting to play in those big games.” –Sooner head coach Lincoln Riley
Even before strength of schedule became such a critical factor in evaluating which teams were more deserving of competing for the national championship and the Power Five conferences mandated that their teams must play at least one other Power Five team as part of the nonconference schedule, Oklahoma was scheduling early games with schools from major conferences.
Since becoming the OU athletic director in 1998, Castiglione has made it a point of putting together a nonconference schedule that includes one name opponent and one mid-tier program every season.
And in truth, scheduling good teams from outside of the conference has been embedded in the Oklahoma DNA since post-World War II and the Bud Wilkinson era that put OU football on the national map.
Oklahoma is the fifth winningest team of all-time in college football in terms of percentage (.726) and the sixth based on total victories (917). Since the end of WWII, though, no team has more wins than OU’s 673. That is 40 more, incidentally, than the next closest team over that time (Alabama).
In fact, in the Sooners’ illustrious football history, Oklahoma has played 37 of the 40 winningest teams of all-time.
Next season, one of college football’s best rivalries will be renewed after an 11-year absence. Oklahoma and Nebraska last played each other in 2010 as members of the Big 12 Conference. The following season, Nebraska left the Big 12 to become a member of the Big Ten.
The Sooners and Cornhuskers will play a two-year home-and-home series, with the 2021 game to be played in Norman. The venue switches to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2022. In the 99-year history of the Big Eight and all of its previous iterations, Oklahoma (34) and Nebraska (41) have won a combined 75 conference championships.
Next season’s game with Nebraska will mark the 50th anniversary of the “Game of the Century” played in 1971 between No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Oklahoma. Nebraska won that classic showdown, 35-31.
The Sooners and Cornhuskers are scheduled to meet again in 2029 (at OU) and 2030 (at Nebraska).
And that is just the beginning of a nonconference schedule packed with quality opponents extending 15 years out. Between 2021 and 2036, Oklahoma has nonconference games scheduled with Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, LSU, Alabama and Clemson.
For the complete schedule of major Oklahoma nonconference opponents scheduled through the 2036 season click here.
Most of the games are scheduled home-and-home in back-to-back seasons. Georgia is a notable exception. OU will play Georgia in Norman in 2023, but because of scheduling conflicts, the second game between the two schools won’t be for eight more seasons, in 2031.
When Alabama comes to Oklahoma in 2032, it will be only the Crimson Tide’s second-ever visit to OU. The No. 2-ranked Sooners won the previous game, 37-27, in 2002.
The Sooners will play the Michigan Wolverines in 2025 and 2026. The Sooners have never met during the regular season. They have played only one time before: In the 1976 Orange Bowl game. Oklahoma won that encounter 14-7 and claimed its fifth national championship and the second in a row under Barry Switzer.
A lot could change over the next 15 seasons. Castiglione acknowledged that the Oklahoma football schedule has never been extended this far out before.
There’s no way of telling where these schools will be at in the evolution of their football program. And that goes for the Sooners, as well. Although history tells us that these are marquee matchups no matter what season it is, and that’s what fans want to see.