CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford listed all the ingredients it takes for a college football team to have a truly difficult schedule, and the Oklahoma Sooners, once again, have a full pantry in 2026.
Crawford recently ranked the toughest schedules for the upcoming 2026 college football season and put the Sooners’ slate at No. 2 behind only Red River rival Texas. The rest of Crawford’s top 5 included Ohio State, Michigan and Ole Miss, respectively.
CBS Sports' Brad Crawford emphasizes Sooners' tough road in latest schedule rankings
“At this point, Brent Venables has to be tired of answering questions about unbalanced SEC scheduling and how his program always seems to get the short end of the stick,” Crawford wrote. “He's going to hear it again at media days in July since the Sooners face the arduous task of conquering another nightmarish slate.”
Crawford began his article detailing what exactly he believes a truly tough schedule entails. It’s not just one monster challenge like Notre Dame has on an annual basis, but the task of a ranked team in a tough environment week after week after week like teams have to endure in the SEC and Big Ten. He specifically mentioned three things in particular: “elite opponents, tricky road environments and unforgiving timing.” Check, check and check for the Sooners.
The Sooners’ schedule includes seven teams from CBS Sports’ post-spring top 25. Likely ranked matchups include at No. 15 Michigan, at No. 4 Georgia, No. 1 Texas, at Florida, No. 13 Ole Miss, No. 8 Texas A&M and at No. 20 Missouri. When On3’s Brett McMurphy made his post-spring College Football Playoff predictions this week, his 12-team field included three squads on OU’s schedule, as well as the Sooners.
Obviously the Sooners’ schedule will be loaded with “elite opponents” no matter how things shake out. And of the seven projected ranked matchups, five are away from Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, so there’s those “tricky road environments," plus two other SEC road trips to Florida and Mississippi State.
Read more: Sooners post-spring 2026 schedule prediction sets up Red River Rivalry revenge
As for unforgiving timing, Michigan, Georgia and Texas — all away from Norman — come within a four-game span. The Sooners travel to Michigan Week 2, then after an easier home matchup against New Mexico, they head to Georgia. OU then gets a bye week before the Red River Rivalry against Texas. CBS Sports already predicted once for the Sooners to limp to a 2-3 start to the season because of that window.
However, all of this is just déjà vu for OU fans. All of last offseason was also flooded with articles about how impossible the Sooners’ schedule was, but then they still went 10-2 and made the College Football Playoff. So, yes, OU’s schedule has all the ingredients to be a nightmare, but the Sooners also have everything needed to get through it again and return to the CFP.
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