Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: OU’s home-field advantage nation’s best over past two decades

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 25: A general view of the stadium during the West Virginia Mountaineers vs. the Oklahoma Sooners game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 25, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated West Virginia 59-31. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 25: A general view of the stadium during the West Virginia Mountaineers vs. the Oklahoma Sooners game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 25, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated West Virginia 59-31. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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As a general rule, college football teams win more games at home during a season than they do away from their home field. Oklahoma football teams have taken that notion to extreme over the past two decades.

Since the 1999 season, the first season under Bob Stoops, the Sooners have played 141 home games at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and they’ve lost just 11 of those contests. That .921 home winning percentage is the best in Division I football over that time frame. Boise State is next at .915 and Ohio State third at .892.

That domination is even more compelling when you consider that Oklahoma has more Big 12 championships (14) than games they have lost at home since the beginning of the 1999 season.

It certainly hasn’t hurt that all 141 Oklahoma home games since the start of the 1999 season have been sellouts of OU’s 80,000-plus home stadium, which in the glory days of the Bud Wilkinson era was disparaged by visiting teams as the Snake Pit.

More than just recording wins over 130 of the 141 teams that have played OU in Norman over the past 23 seasons, the Sooners have done so in overwhelming fashion. The average score against all the visiting teams over that time span has been 43-17.

Several years ago, the college football staff at 247Sports ranked Oklahoma as the 10th most intimidating place to play for a visiting tram in college football. That ranking may change from season to season, but the fact of the matter is OU’s Owen Field, or what the locals and Sooner fans proudly refer to as the Palace on the Prairie.

Oklahoma’s home record has long been among the best in all of college football, but even more so in the 76 years since Wilkinson arrived on the scene in Norman and elevated Sooner football to national powerhouse status. OU teams have won 81 percent of the games played (411-88-16) played at OU Memorial Stadium since that venue first opened in 1923.

Eighty-five percent of those 411 wins at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium have come in the last 75 seasons or since Wilkinson took over the head job in 1947. In the past 75 season, the Sooners’ home record has been 349-61-3.

Wilkinson’s teams were 70-10-1 (.864) at home from 1947 to 1963, and Barry Switzer was 70-10-1 (.886) in home game in 16 seasons between 1973 and 1988, but Stoops’ .911 home winning percentage (102-10) is the best among the big three Sooner head coaches of the modern era.

Lincoln Riley lost just one home game (38-31 to Iowa State in 2017) out of 29 in his five seasons at the helm.

Home superiority has been a major part of Oklahoma’s long run of success in college football and one reason the Sooners have won more games (684) than any other NCAA Division I team since 1946 or the end of World War II.

Oklahoma will have six chances in the 2022 season to improve upon the best college football home record of the 21st century. The Sooners’ home schedule includes the season kickoff on Sept. 3 against the University of Texas-El Paso and Big 12 home games against Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor and Oklahoma State.

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