The Oklahoma Sooners knew they were in for a gauntlet of a schedule when they decided to make the move to the [autotag]SEC[/autotag]. Then, when the schedules for the 2024 season were released, it was clear that OU drew one of the short straws.
[autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]’ team is 1-1 in conference play and 4-1 overall coming out of their first bye week. Only a ten-point loss against Tennessee has kept Oklahoma from the ranks of the unbeaten.
But the schedule gets increasingly difficult for the Sooners beginning with a showdown with the nation’s top-ranked team in week seven. The Texas Longhorns will meet OU in the Cotton Bowl for the 2024 edition of the greatest rivalry game, the Red River Rivalry.
But the big-time opponents don’t stop there for Oklahoma. In fact, 247Sports college football writer Brad Crawford believes the Sooners have the second-toughest remaining schedule in all of college football, behind only fellow SEC foe Florida.
Here’s what Crawford had to say about Oklahoma in his list of the hardest remaining schedules in the country.
The rubber meets the road for Oklahoma beginning with Saturday’s tilt against Texas in Dallas. That’s the first of five games over the remainder of the season against top-end competition in the SEC. New starting quarterback [autotag]Michael Hawkins Jr[/autotag]. has his work cut out for him considering the Longhorns are unbeaten and he’s going to have to play four ranked opponents away from the friendly confines of Norman the rest of the way. – Crawford, 247Sports
OU still has five ranked opponents left on their schedule: Texas, Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama, and LSU. Only the game against the Crimson Tide will be at home, as the Sooners will travel to Oxford, Columbia, and Baton Rouge after their neutral-site contest in Dallas. That doesn’t include a home date against a feisty South Carolina team.
Gone are the days of teams like Iowa State, West Virginia and TCU making up part of the Big 12 slate for the Sooners. They’ve been replaced with much tougher opponents. But, with tougher competition comes a greater platform to make a statement to the college football public. And it begins this week against the No. 1 team in the country.
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