With just 12 days until Oklahoma takes the field in Norman against UTEP, projections and predictions for the season are in high gear. Rosters and position battles are being won left and right, and the outlook for each team’s season is becoming more clear. All that’s left is to do the most important part: play the games.
ESPN’s taking the liberty of protecting the bowls and CFP matchups for the 2022 season (ESPN+).
Oklahoma’s projected matchup pits it against an old foe it will reunite with when it joins the SEC. Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M Aggies are projected to take on Oklahoma in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
A&M’s schedule features a significant Top 25 matchup against the Miami Hurricanes, which is a better nonconference test than Oklahoma’s matchup with Nebraska. A&M faces the tougher conference schedule with Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss.
A matchup for these former Big 12 rivals would be their first matchup since the 2013 Cotton Bowl. That game featured high-powered offenses led by Johnny Manziel and Landry Jones. A&M came out on top, 41-13, outscoring Oklahoma, 27-0, in the second half to pull away.
A trip to the Allstate Sugar Bowl in his first year as head coach would be a very nice start for Brent Venables, considering the amount of turnover the Sooners went through since the end of last season.
Double-digit wins (a possible Big 12 Championship) and a New Year’s Six bowl against an SEC opponent would be a great start to the Venables era in Norman.
[listicle id=68993]
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.