On Tuesday at Big 12 media days, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark reiterated that Oklahoma and Texas would remain in the conference for the next two years before making the jump to the SEC in the fall of 2025 after the current grant of rights agreement expires.
According to Yormark, Oklahoma and Texas have committed to Yormark that they’ll be present for the 2023 season when the Big 12 welcomes in new members BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF. The new 14-team conference won’t have divisions. Instead, the two teams with the best record will meet for the Big 12 championship game.
So what could the schedules look like for Oklahoma over the next two years in Big 12 play? As we attempted to work through what a potential schedule could look like, we wanted to make sure a few things landed.
Oklahoma needs to play Texas (because, of course) and Oklahoma State twice. After 2024, we have no clue when Bedlam will be replayed. So the Big 12 will want to make sure that game happens while it can.
Here are a few other scheduling “rules” we came up with for both Oklahoma and Texas that honors historical and regional matchups before the Sooners and Longhorns leave for the SEC.
- Oklahoma would play Texas twice and former Big 8 conference mates Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Kansas, and Iowa State in home-and-home contests over the next two years.
- Oklahoma would play two of the four current Big 12 schools (Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia) in 2023 and the other two in 2024.
- Oklahoma would play two of the four new members (BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, UCF) in 2023 and the other two in 2024.
- Texas would play Oklahoma twice and home-and-home series against Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia over the next two seasons.
- Texas would play two of the four remaining Big 12 schools (Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State) in 2023 and the other two in 2024
- Texas would play two of the four new members (BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, UCF) in 2023 and the other two in 2024.
- Oklahoma and Texas would split home games with the new members. OU would play Cincinnati and Houston at home, while Texas would play UCF and BYU at home.
In this format, half of the current Big 12 would get home-and-homes with Oklahoma, and half would get home-and-homes with Texas. Oklahoma and Texas would play everyone at least once, and schools that don’t get home games against Oklahoma would get home dates against Texas and vice versa.
So with that groundwork laid, let’s take a look at what schedules could look like for Oklahoma in the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Oklahoma has yet to fill their final nonconference game for the 2024 season, but we left an open week for Joe Castiglione to work with.