The Big 12 released its 2020 football schedule on Tuesday, and there are a few things to note on Oklahoma’s side of things.
Here’s the schedule:
Sept. 5: Missouri State
Sept. 12: Tennessee
Sept. 19: BYE
Sept. 26: at Army
Oct. 3: Baylor
Oct. 10: Texas (Neutral site)
Oct. 17: at Iowa State
Oct. 24: Oklahoma State
Oct. 31: at TCU
Nov. 7: at West Virginia
Nov. 14: Kansas State
Nov. 21: Kansas
Nov. 28: at Texas Tech
Here are three takeaways from Oklahoma’s 2020 schedule:
Oklahomans were not happy to find Bedlam moved away from the last game of the season once again on the 2020 calendar. Since the Big 12 added a conference championship game, they’ve been reluctant to schedule Bedlam for the end of November for fear of having the same matchup appear the very next week on conference title game weekend. It’s worth noting the Sooners and Cowboys will play the final weekend of the regular season in 2019, but Oklahoma State doesn’t not appear to be a threat to make the conference championship game.
While Oklahoma is seeing a backloaded slate this season, it will be quite the opposite in 2020. The Sooners face Baylor, Texas, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and TCU all before November next season. This year, the Longhorns are the only team of that bunch that OU will see before Halloween. If Oklahoma can get through that tough stretch unscathed, the latter portion of the schedule is much easier with West Virginia, Kansas State, Kansas and Texas Tech coming in November. That can be a double-edged sword, though, as the Sooners likely won’t have any opportunities to win a marquee game late in the season should they need to impress the College Football Playoff selection committee.
The Sooners will have an exceptionally early BYE week next season, as it comes after Week 2 vs Tennessee. The college football calendar returns to normal next season, so that will be OU’s lone open date (as opposed to two in 2019). The only good news for OU: The placement of this BYE will give the Sooners two full weeks to prepare for Army’s triple option attack, which nearly defeated them in Norman last season. That could be particularly helpful as OU is tasked with replacing defensive playmakers Neville Gallimore and, likely, Kenneth Murray.