The Oklahoma Sooners versus the Texas Longhorns is one of the best rivalries in all of college football.
It’s the best game in college football. There’s simply nothing like it. What other game is at a neutral site in the middle of a state fair where the stadium is split 50-50 right down the middle?
As we approach the college football season, On3 picked the most important 2023 conference game for each Big 12 team, and you guessed it, the Red River Showdown is the most important conference matchup for Oklahoma and Texas.
The final Red River Rivalry game as members of the Big 12 carries all sorts of stakes in 2023. The Sooners were embarrassingly blanked 49-0 by the Longhorns in Brent Venables’ first season — OU’s worst-ever defeat in the showdown series. While the Sooners’ Big 12 opener at Cincy is a potential upset spot on the schedule — especially if that becomes a night game at Nippert Stadium — they have a September slate that should allow a new-look defense to gel before facing the Longhorns’ explosive offense. The winner of this game projects to sit in the cat-bird seat to make the Big 12 Championship. – Jesse Simonton, On3
There’s no doubt about it, this game has huge implications every year. There was a time in the 2000s it felt like the winner of this game was going to play for the conference championship and maybe a national championship.
This year there are still huge implications but for different reasons. For Oklahoma, Brent Venables has to prove he belongs. He has to prove the 49-0 shellacking from last season was a fluke.
For Texas, this could be the game where they let everyone know they are “back,” and actually mean it. Especially if they get through the Alabama Crimson Tide earlier in the season.
If Oklahoma starts the year 5-0 heading into this game like I think they will, this game will have a 2000 Red River Showdown feel to it.
It’s a little different because the Sooners aren’t coming off a decade of losing. However, that was the game the nation found out Oklahoma was on the rise to national prominence. That’s the same message the Sooners could send in 2023.
Now, I’m not predicting that to happen, nor am I predicting a magical run to a national title if they were to knock off the Longhorns. Still, it would be a huge statement if they could pull off a win in the Red River Showdown.
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