The Oklahoma Sooners beat the Auburn Tigers on Saturday by a score of 27-21, as [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]’ squad improved to 4-1 heading into their first of two bye weeks in the 2024 season.
OU now has a week to rest, recover and prepare for the rival Texas Longhorns, as the teams will collide in the Red River Shootout on October 12.
But according to USA TODAY Sports, Oklahoma could meet another one of their biggest rivals come bowl season.
Staff writer Erick Smith released his latest bowl projections after week five. He believes that Oklahoma will participate in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, which will be played on December 30. The Music City Bowl takes place in Nashville, Tennessee and pits the [autotag]SEC[/autotag] against the Big Ten.
Smith predicts that the Sooners will be matched up against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, renewing the rivalry between the two teams that dates back to 1912.
Of course, the Sooners and the Cornhuskers go all the way back to the days of the Big Eight and the Big 12, one of the fiercest rivalries in college football that was lost to conference realignment. Oklahoma holds a 47-38-3 advantage all-time in the series between the two storied programs.
OU has won the last three games in this rivalry; the Big 12 Championship Game in 2010 (the final matchup of conference foes), a home game in 2021 and a road contest in 2022. In fact, Oklahoma has won seven out of the last eight games between the schools and eight out of the last 10 matchups in the 21st century. The programs also have another nonconference home-and-home scheduled for 2029 in Norman and 2030 in Lincoln.
Being in the Music City Bowl isn’t what Sooner Nation was hoping for to begin this season. But if that’s the way the cookie crumbles, OU could do a lot worse than seeing one of their old friends to cap off 2024.