Oklahoma Among Elites Loading Up Their Future Non-Conference Schedules

Oklahoma Among Elites Loading Up Their Future Non-Conference Schedules

For all of the talk about cupcake scheduling in college football, the game’s elite (and Texas) are painting a much different picture.

May 8, 2019 by Kolby Paxton
Oklahoma Among Elites Loading Up Their Future Non-Conference Schedules

On Tuesday, just a few weeks after announcing a home-and-home with Clemson in whatever years the movie iRobot takes place, Oklahoma was back at it, announcing a home-and-home with Georgia in 2023 and 2031.

In the release published to SoonerSports.com, the Sooners were kind enough to flex the entirety of their list of marquee future opponents, and goodness is it eye candy for college football aficionados.

Take a look:

Year

Opponent

2019

Houston

2019

at UCLA

2020

Tennessee

2020

at Army

2021

Nebraska

2022

at Nebraska

2023

Georgia

2024

Temple

2024

at Tennessee

2025

Michigan

2025

at Temple

2026

at Michigan

2028

Temple

2029

Nebraska

2030

at Nebraska

2031

at Georgia

2032

Alabama

2033

at Alabama

2035

at Clemson

2036

Clemson

TBA

LSU

TBA

at LSU

Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, LSU, and the renewal—albeit short-lived—of one of football’s best defunct rivalries with Nebraska, are all on the board. Safe to say, Sooner Nation better go ahead and start allocating a little extra cash to their annual travel budget.

While OU’s scheduling has been supremely impressive, the winningest program of the modern era is not alone.

Clemson’s annual game against South Carolina doesn’t exactly make it easy for the Tigers to schedule additional non-conference games with juice every year, but don’t tell that to athletic director Dan Radakovich.

The Fightin’ Dabos will play at Notre Dame and host Virginia in 2020. From 2022 to 2037, Clemson will meet Georgia, Virginia Tech, LSU and Oklahoma—and will face off against the Irish seven times.

Georgia, who just added the Sooners, has Georgia Tech every year, but will also play Notre Dame, Virginia, Oregon, Clemson, UCLA, Florida State and Texas between now and 2037.

Notre Dame, for their part, can always be counted upon to play a bananas non-conference schedule because, you know, they don’t have a conference. Nonetheless, the Fighting Irish have been getting after it.

Georgia hosts Notre Dame this fall. So does Michigan. Over the next four years, alone, the Irish schedule will be headlined by Wisconsin, Florida State, Ohio State and Clemson.

Though it pains me to admit, Texas also deserves to be singled out in this instance, as the Longhorns have been similarly aggressive in their future scheduling. In the 2020s, UT will meet LSU, Arkansas, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State and Georgia.

Lastly, for as much heat as they take for not scheduling tough, Alabama has actually scheduled as strong as anyone in the country for the next 14 years-or-so.

The Tide have Southern Cal, Miami, Texas, West Virginia, Notre Dame and Oklahoma on tap through 2033—the latter four of which are, in fact, home-and-homes. 

Scheduling that handful of opponents on top of its SEC West sleight and an SEC East rotation that will feed them Georgia and Florida in 2020 and 2021, respectively, is extremely legit.

For all of the talk about cupcake scheduling in college football, the reality for the game’s elite (and Texas) runs very much counter to that narrative.

Rejoice.


Update (May 10):