Aside from the arrival of Week 0 and the soft opening of the 2025 season -- which excludes Oklahoma for one more week -- the big news in college football this week was the announcement by the SEC to add one more game to an eight-game conference schedule that is already the most difficult in the land.
Oklahoma's first two seasons in the SEC have resulted in the Sooners being awarded arguably the most difficult schedule in the country. Now with a ninth conference game coming, OU's league schedule is almost guaranteed not to get any easier, which it would have next season given the current scheduling format.
The new schedule design calls for an overhaul of the current scheduling format that has teams facing the same conference schools for two straight seasons on a home-and-home basis. Oklahoma, like the other SEC schools, is in the second phase of that conference format this season, with the location of where the games are played representing the only change. Teams will now play three opponents annually with the remaining six league opponents assigned on a rotational basis in what will remain a division-free alignment.
Could Sooners renew rivalry with Nebraska?
The addition of a ninth conference game will shorten the nonconference schedule to three games, which will place the SEC in parity with the other Power Four conferences. The scheduling requirement to play at least one game every season with a team from the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC or Notre Dame will remain in effect.
Athletic director Joe Castiglione and Oklahoma have been operating under this mandate for years in the Big 12 and now the SEC. In fact, the Sooners already have some Power Four opponents scheduled out to the year 1930. Throughout the years, Sooner head coaches and administrators have openly said, "We're willing to play anybody, anywhere, anytime."
While everyone is busy rethinking the SEC scheduling process, it also opens the possibility for Oklahoma officials to revisit the idea of using the nonconference schedule to renew some old acquaintances and rivalries. Why not use the Power Four requirement to reestablish the age-old rivalry series with Nebraska, or even Oklahoma State? After all, for years, the Sooners' rivalry series with Texas was played as a nonconference game every season until that game became a regularly scheduled matchup of conference opponents when Texas became part of the Big 12 in 1996.
Oklahoma and Nebraska fans have lamented the breakup of the OU-Nebraska annual rivalry game ever since the Big 12 expanded to 12 teams and initially went with a division structure that had the Sooners and Cornhuskers in separate divisions, which meant the two old rivals didn't play each other every year unless they were to meet in the conference championship. Then, when Nebraska left to join the Big 12, the rivalry effectively came to an end.
Although Nebraska's national reputation and resume hasn't been the same since leaving the Big 12, and Oklahoma in recent seasons hasn't been the same team it has been historically, either, I would bet that fans of both schools would enthusiastically welcome the return of this great rivalry on an annual or even an every-other-year basis. For years, Oklahoma-Nebraska was one of the biggest games of the entire college football season.
There is already an existing precedent for annual rivalry games out of conference, and they are considered some of the great traditional rivalries of all-time in college football. Consider Florida and Florida State, Notre Dame and USC, Clemson and South Carolina or Georgia Tech and Georgia.
For many years, the annual Oklahoma-Nebraska game was played as the final game of the regular season. In fact, one of the greatest college football games ever, the 1971 "Game of the Century" between No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Oklahoma, was the final game of regular season that year for both teams. Imagine what a great way to end the season that game would be, despite the season record of the two teams.
If you were to put to a vote to Sooner fans the idea of scheduling an annual game with Nebraska as the Power Four scheduling option rather than nonconference games with other teams like Ohio State and Penn State out of the Big Ten, Clemson or Miami out of the ACC, or one of the old or new foes out of the Big 12, my guess is that an annual showdown with Nebraska would get the nod, especially among older Sooner fans and perhaps even some of the younger ones, as well.
You might even get some Oklahoma fans suggest why not be bold enough to schedule two Power Four nonconference games and add an annual or even periodic Bedlam rivalry game with Oklahoma State. Given a choice of one or the other, I'd be really surprised, though, if Nebraska wasn't the fan preference.
Although the nine-game SEC schedule won't take place until next season, the decision has already sparked widespread debate about who the three permanent opponents will be every season for every SEC team.
It's fairly certain that the Red River Rivalry with Texas will be preserved as one of the Sooners' three annual opponents and there's a case to be made for several other natural OU opponents as the SEC strives to preserve traditional rivalries and establish some new ones. This will be a subject of continuing debate and discussion in the media and throughout the conference in the months ahead.
Who would you like to see as Oklahoma's three annual SEC opponents?
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