Five Takeaways From Oklahoma's 2023 Football Schedule Release

The Sooners' path in Brent Venables second year is now set after the Big 12 rolled out the conferences' 2023 schedule.

Finally, Oklahoma’s 2023 schedule is set.

After pushing back the announcement multiple times, the Big 12 released the league’s first full conference schedule including BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.

This year will mark the first season in over a decade that the Sooners aren’t guaranteed to play every member of the Big 12, creating some interesting matchups for Brent Venables’ second year in Norman.

Here are a some takeaways from the schedule release:

The Four Left Off

Oklahoma avoided a return trip to Manhattan after the Kansas State Wildcats beat the Sooners 41-34 in Norman last year. The Wildcats ended the year by knocking off TCU to win the 2022 Big 12 Championship / Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Unless Oklahoma makes it back to the Big 12 Championship Game in Arlington to meet one of these teams, the Sooners won’t see Kansas State, Baylor, Texas Tech or Houston in 2023.

Immediately, three of OU’s seven losses from 2022 will be wiped off the schedule as both the Wildcats and Bears beat the Sooners in Norman, and the Red Raiders outlasted Oklahoma in overtime in the regular season finale last year.

Chris Klieman has had OU’s number, posting a 3-1 record against Oklahoma since arriving at Kansas State in 2019. The defending Big 12 Champions are returning plenty of pieces from the 2022 squad as well. Under the normal scheduling model, Venables would have returned to Manhattan in 2023, but instead the Sooners will avoid the Wildcats completely.

Dave Aranda has also had success over the past two years, winning two straight contests over Oklahoma. Though the Bears were unable to return to Arlington last year to defend their 2021 Big 12 Championship, the Sooners also avoided a return trip to Waco in 2023.

The Red Raiders won’t get a chance to go back-to-back against OU in the regular season under Joey McGuire, and the Sooners won’t have to contend with Houston after recent matchups in 2016 and 2019.

Avoiding the Lone Star State

Oklahoma's yearly trip to the Cotton Bowl to face the Texas Longhorns will be the Sooners' only trip to the Lone Star State in the 2023 regular season :: Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

Intentional or not, the Big 12 handed Oklahoma an interesting slate of road games.

OU will make trips to play BYU, Kansas, Oklahoma State and BYU along with the yearly trip to play Texas at the Cotton Bowl.

It means that the Sooners, who rely heavily on a regional presence in Texas for recruiting, will make just one trip down I-35 South in the 2023 regular season.

Had the conference remained on the old scheduling model, OU would have added another trip to play in Waco this year.

The schedule won’t drastically hamper Oklahoma’s recruiting efforts with the 2024 class, but it is an odd quirk for the Sooners to be locked out of the Lone Star State outside of the Red River Shootout.

New Stomping Grounds

OU will make the program's first trip to BYU's LaVell Edwards Stadium in 2023 :: Rob Gray / USA TODAY Sports

Of the new Big 12 members, the Sooners will hit the road to play BYU and Cincinnati.

Should Cincinnati host the contest at Nippert Stadium, it will mark the first ever visit by Oklahoma to either Provo, UT, or Cincinnati’s home stadium.

OU played against the Bearcats in Cincinnati back in 2010, but that contest was moved to the home of the Bengals, formerly Paul Brown Stadium. The only other meeting between the two schools was a 52-26 Oklahoma victory in Norman in 2008.

The two meetings all-time between OU and BYU have both been neutral site contests.

Most recently, BYU’s 14-13 upset over the Sooners in 2009, was the first American football game ever played in AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The only prior meeting between the programs came in the 1994 Copper Bowl in Tucson, AZ.

Bedlam Finale?

The Sooners are guaranteed one more trip to Stillwater this season  :: Bryan Terry / USA TODAY Sports

Much has been made about the future, or lack thereof, of the Bedlam Series over the past 12 months.

The Sooners and the Cowboys have both indicated that the game will not continue in football after OU departs for the SEC.

If that move comes ahead of the 2024 season, then the final Bedlam contest will play on Nov. 4 in Stillwater.

Mike Gundy’s Cowboys outlasted Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams in OU’s last trip to Stillwater in 2021, but the lasting image of the Oklahoma State fans flooding the field in celebration may not stand as the final Bedlam memory in Stillwater for quite a while.

Year 2 Bump

Brent Venables is looking to improve on last year's 6-7 season after signing a stellar recruiting class and aggressively attacking the transfer portal this offseason :: Annie Rice/Avalanche-Journal-USA TODAY NETWORK

With SMU having to replace Georgia on the home schedule in 2023, Oklahoma’s road ahead appears to be far from treacherous on paper.

The Sooners will welcome in Arkansas State, SMU, Iowa State, UCF, West Virginia and TCU.

Outside of the Horned Frogs, who became the Big 12’s first team to win a College Football Playoff game last season, the rest of OU’s home opponents posted a combined record of 28-35.

Away trips to Tulsa, Cincinnati, Kansas, Oklahoma State and BYU look to be manageable as well. The five schools combined to go 35-29.

Cincinnati, who finished with the best record of OU’s 2023 road opponents last year at 9-4, hired Scott Satterfield to replace Luke Fickell at the helm of the program after he took the Wisconsin job this offseason.

Oklahoma will have its hands full with Texas after the Longhorns embarrassed the Sooners 49-0 last year, but otherwise OU’s 2023 schedule sets up nicely on paper for a team trying to make tangible progress on the field after a disappointing 6-7 season in Brent Venables’ first year as a head coach. 

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