Look for Oklahoma and Texas to potentially have a rude awakening once they join the SEC.
As expected, the SEC was not about to make things any easier for the Oklahoma Sooners or the Texas Longhorns upon joining their league in 2024.
While it still doesn't make much sense to only have an eight-game conference schedule in a league that is expanding to 16 teams, we should be thankful that divisions are going to the wayside. Although the 1-7 format with only one annual rival is a tad head-scratching, it opens the door for everybody to get a taste of what the Sooners and the Longhorns are all about very soon.
Peter Burns of The SEC Network reported on Wednesday morning that all 14 other member institutions will face either Oklahoma or Texas in 2024. And given the nature of the 1-7, eight-game scheduling format, that means whoever faced one will face the other in 2025 due to the seven-team rotating premise. Simply put, the Sooners and the Longhorns will not duck anyone.
Oklahoma drew Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee at home in 2024. The Sooners will face Auburn, LSU, Missouri and Ole Miss on the road with Red River vs. the Longhorns technically serving as a home game, although it is clearly 100 percent a neutral-site affair for both programs.
As far as Texas is concerned, the Longhorns will host Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi State in 2024. Their three road games will be at Arkansas, at Texas A&M and at Vanderbilt, with obviously, Red River being played against OU at the site of the Texas State Fair over in Dallas.
I know the controversial 1-7 scheduling format will be adopted on a year-to-year basis, but at the very least, it is still so exciting to see a new 16-team league play all 15 members more frequently.
SEC held nothing back in making Oklahoma, Texas schedules as hard as possible
If you want to play with the big boys, this what it is all about. No league in the country has more traditional powers vibrantly part of it quite like the SEC. To simplify things, there are six traditional powers in the SEC already: Florida, Georgia and Tennessee in the East and Alabama, Auburn and LSU in the West. Other teams like Arkansas and Texas A&M have rich football traditions as well.
So now we are about to add Oklahoma and Texas to the mix to give us at minimum eight traditional powers in a league with only 16 members. Something has to give, right? Well, it is probably going to be OU and Texas, to be honest. Oklahoma dominated the Big 12, but has never factored in a College Football Playoff national semifinal game. As for Texas, they still aren't back…
Ultimately, I would venture to guess one of these two bitter rivals will have an easier time of adjusting to the new league than the other. I am leaning Texas right now because Steve Sarkisian has Alabama roots and they recruit like an SEC team. Then again, it never works out the way you intend it to in realignment. Just look at how TCU has done in the Big 12 vs. say a … West Virginia…
For now, everybody is going to be able to see what Oklahoma and Texas are all about by 2025.
