The Oklahoma Sooners and teams from the Southeastern Conference have both been playing football for well over a century, yet when you separate out former Big Eight and Big 12 Conference foes, the Sooners have played only a meager percentage of games all-time against SEC teams.
Missouri and Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2011. Oklahoma has an all-time winning record against those two teams (62-24-5 versus Missouri and 19-12 in games with Texas A&M). The Red River Rivalry between the Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will be continued in the SEC, with Texas leading the all-time series with a 63-51-5, But Oklahoma has won 11 of the last 15 meetings, including a dramatic 34-30 victory last season.
Discounting the three former Big 12, the Sooners have played a total of just 37 games against teams in the SEC, a surprisingly low number considering the long history of the teams involved and the college football in general. And if back out Arkansas that number drops to just 22 games against nine teams..
Oklahoma's overall record against the 12 other SEC teams is 22-13-2, a .622 winning percentage. When you add in Missouri, Texas A&M and Texas, OU's all-time record against the SEC goes to 166-100-7 (.623).
Besides Mizzou, A&M and UT, the Sooners have gone up against nine other current SEC teams. Oklahoma has never played Mississippi State, South Carolina or Vanderbilt. South Carolina will drop out of that grouping when the Gamecocks travel to Norman on Oct. 19 in the coming season along with their head coach, Shane Beamer, a former OU assistant.
Only four SEC teams sans Texas have a winning record against the Sooners in football: Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss and LSU, and that's over a total of seven games. OU will play at Ole Miss and at LSU this season.
Here is how Oklahoma stacks up historically against the eight SEC teams on the 2024 schedule:
Tennessee
OU leads the all-time series 3-1. Tennessee comes to Norman on Sept. 21. The Volunteers' head coach, Josh Heupel was the quarterback on OU's 2000 national championship team and later the Sooners' offensive coordinator. The last time these two teams met was in the 2015 regular season. Oklahoma won 31-24 in double overtime at Tennessee.
Auburn
Oklahoma's first SEC road trip will be to Auburn on Sept. 28, the week following Tennessee. The Sooners are 2-0 against the Auburn Tigers. Both games were in the Sugar Bowl in NCAA postseason play. OU won 40-22 in the 1971 season and 35-19 in 2016.
Texas
This year's annual Red River Rivalry game, the first as members of the SEC, will take place Oct. 12 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Texas leads the all-time series 63-51-5, but since 2000. OU owns a 17-8 record in the rivalry series.
South Carolina
The Sooners and South Carolina have never met. This will change on Oct. 19 when the Gamecocks make their first ever trip to Norman.
Ole Miss
Oklahoma and Ole Miss have played each other just one time previously. The Rebels defeated the Sooners 27-25 in the Independence Bowl in 1999, Bob Stoops' first season as Oklahoma head coach. Oklahoma will travel to Oxford, Mississippi, in the heart of SEC Country, on Oct. 26. Former OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby is the new head coach at Ole Miss.
Missouri
The Sooners will be in Columbia, Missouri, to face off with an old familiar conference foe in the Missouri Tigers. While Oklahoma owns a commanding 62-24-5 record against its longtime foe, this Tiger team could be a top-10 team when the two teams meet on Nov. 9. Several former OU recruits (wide receiver Luther Burden and defensive tackle Williams Nwaneri) and a former player (offensive lineman Cayden Green) are on the 2024 Missouri roster.
Alabama
Oklahoma's final two games of the 2024 regular season are about as tough as you can get. The Sooners will host Alabama on Nov. 23. The Sooners are 3-2-1 against the Crimson Tide in six games against each other. The most recent contest was in the 2019 season in a College Football Playoff national semifinal game. No. 1-seeded Alabama defeated the Sooners and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray 35-24.
LSU
Some say that Oklahoma won't a truly experienced an SEC road game until they play at Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee or LSU at night. The Sooners won't be playing at night, but they will play an afternoon game at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge on Nov. 30 before over 100,000 highly partisan LSU fans. Oklahoma is 1-2 overall against LSU, with the two losses coming in the BCS national championship in 2003 season and the College Football Playoff national semifinal in the 2019 season. No. 2 LSU defeated OU 21-14 for the national championship in 2003 and Joe Burrow and an LSU team loaded with NFL talent hammered the Sooners 63-28 in 2019. Both LSU teams won the national championship in those two seasons.