Look: OU’s 2024 Schedule Ranks as Second-Most Difficult
Brent Venables and Oklahoma had the resurgent season that the Sooners needed in 2023 with a 10-3 campaign that effectively put the 6-7 nightmare of 2022 behind them.
Now, they’ll head into the SEC with some confidence, plus a roster that is better suited to compete in their new conference than the one that was in place with Venables arrived after the 2021 season.
However, with new offensive and defensive coordinators, an uber-talented quarterback with just one start under his belt, and a third-year head coach, there are plenty of reasons for skeptics to feel that OU is walking into a buzzsaw in 2024.
Oklahoma detractors will also point to the Sooners’ schedule in 2024, which seems to get more difficult the longer that you study it.
According to 247Sports, the Sooners’ 2024 slate is not only difficult, but it’s the second-toughest schedule in the country.
“The Sooners only leave Norman once in September, but that’s when the difficult stretch begins if Oklahoma’s able to get past Tennessee in the SEC opener for a potential 4-0 start,” 247Sports’ Brad Crawford writes. “What follows is a trip to Auburn, then five games against top-25 teams over the final seven to close it out. Few teams nationally face the late-November gauntlet that Oklahoma must endure with trips to Missouri and LSU with a home bout against the defending SEC champion in the middle.”
The Sooners will face six opponents ranked inside ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 in 2024, with No. 17 Tennessee, No. 2 Texas, No. 7 Ole Miss, No. 8 Missouri, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 14 LSU.
Woof.
In all likelihood, Oklahoma will be an underdog in five or six games next season, which hasn’t been the case for a team in Norman in a long, long time. Even in their abysmal 2022 season, the Sooners were favored in all but two games.
That won’t be the case in 2024 though, a product of facing the second-most difficult schedule of any team in the country.
