As a fan of this game we all know and love, I couldn’t care less about the Oklahoma Sooners getting favorable matchups during the regular season. I’m the kind of fan that just wants to see good football.
With that being said, you could imagine my disappointment when I saw the entirety of the Sooners’ 2023 football schedule. While there are a few good things to look forward to, if this is the final Big 12 schedule the Sooners will ever have, it’s very underwhelming.
The absent Big 12 teams on OU’s schedule will be missed. Oklahoma will not be playing Baylor, Texas Tech, Kansas State or Houston in 2023. Considering that the Sooners went 0-3 against the Bears, Wildcats, and Red Raiders, that’s not the end of the world. But again, I don’t care about favorable matchups. I just want to watch good football games.
Other than a November trip to BYU, nothing on this schedule feels very special. The nonconference games especially sting due to the Sooners postponing their home-and-home series with Georgia. It could’ve been so much better.
While seeing three of the four new Big 12 teams in the regular season is different, I would’ve rather seen one or two of Baylor, Texas Tech or Kansas State instead of Cincinnati without Luke Fickell. Brent Venables deserves another shot at his alma mater, Kansas State before the Sooners head to the SEC.
The worst and weirdest thing about the schedule is the timing of Bedlam.
The Sooners will head to Stillwater for what could be the last time in a long time at the beginning of November. Having Bedlam the game before rivalry week was bad. This is so much worse. There’s no reason for the Sooners to play TCU on a Friday for the last game of the season when they’ve already played Oklahoma State three weeks earlier.
Like I said, the schedule isn’t all bad, but it just feels like a bit of a dud. The one thing I will miss about the old ten-team Big 12 is playing everyone in the conference throughout the regular season.
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