Oklahoma football: Sooner schedule in 2021 sets up favorably
By Chip Rouse
The 2021 Oklahoma football schedule may not be as strong as some of the previous Sooner seasons, but it certainly sets up extremely favorably for another championship run.
Much is made of strength of schedule these days, especially when it comes to distinguishing between the best of the best in college football, and that could be an issue this season for the Sooners.
In its four previous College Football Playoff appearances, Oklahoma has been the No, 4 seed three times, and strength of schedule was the determining factor that awarded the final playoff invite to the Sooners over someone else.
A year ago, the Phil Steele College Football Preview ranked the Sooners 2020 schedule as the 35th most difficult among FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) teams. For 2021, the Oklahoma schedule is ranked 51st nationally and the easiest in the Big 12, which isn’t surprising, with the Sooners favored to win the Big 12 again this year.
Oklahoma Sooners Football
Oklahoma’s 2021 opponents’ winning percentage for the coming season (.467) ranks 103rd among the 130 FBS teams.
The Oklahoma football schedule in 2021 is considerably more balanced than it was a year ago. Between the Sooners’ Sept. 26 home game last season with Kansas State and their next home date. on Nov. 7 against Kansas, they played four consecutive games away from Norman. That 42-day span, which took in the entire month of October, tied the longest between home games in school history.
This season, the Sooners open up on the road at Tulane on Sept. 4. After that they play three consecutive games at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, starting with Western Carolina on Sept. 11, where the stadium will be a full capacity for the first time since the 2019 season.
Oklahoma’s signature nonconference game this season is against former Big Eight and Big 12 rival Nebraska. In another time, this would have been a classic top-25 matchup of rival programs, but Nebraska football has not been what it once was since the Cornhuskers changed conferences, leaving the Big 12 for the Big Ten after the 2010 season.
Over the past five seasons, Nebraska has compiled an overall record of 25-32 (.439), while the Sooners are 56-10 (.848) over the same span. Moreover, in the 51 seasons and the Cornhuskers and Sooners were members of the Big Eight and the Big 12, the two teams won 45 of the conference football championships.
The two schools are renewing their longtime rivalry this season. The 2021 game is in Norman, and the scene shifts to Lincoln, Nebraska in 2022.
Oklahoma plays six home games this season (two nonconference games and four against conference teams: West Virginia, TCU, Texas Tech and Iowa State) and four true road games (Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor and Oklahoma State).
On Oct. 9 in Dallas, Oklahoma and Texas will face off in the 117th renewal of their annual Red River Showdown at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Unlike the 2020 season, the Sooners don’t go more than a two-game stretch away from home. After the Sept. 25 game at home against West Virginia, OU is at Kansas State and then off to Dallas the following weekend for the game with Texas before returning home to host TCU.
As a point of reference, in Lincoln Riley’s four seasons as Oklahoma head coach, the Sooners are 21-2 at home in the regular season and 16-2 in true road games.
The Sooners should be favored in every game they play this season, and if the first 10 games go according to chalk, Oklahoma should be 10-0 as it heads into its most difficult two games of the season: back-to-back games against Iowa State, the reigning Big 12 runners-up and picked to finish behind OU in the conference standings, and the annual in-state rivalry matchup with in-state rival Oklahoma State.
The Sooners get to play Iowa State at home on Senior Day, but the Bedlam rivalry is at Oklahoma State this season.
Odds are, Oklahoma and Iowa State will meet in the Big 12 championship game for a second straight year. The winner of that game will likely be on its way to the 2021 College Football Playoff.
Buckle up! It could be a very special Oklahoma football season.