Oklahoma's Schedule Continues to be Favorable After Adding a Home Game

It’s official.

The Oklahoma Sooners will now open the 2021 season at home, moving the contest versus the Tulane Green Wave out of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

While the thoughts of the nation continue to be with those in Louisiana and all across the Gulf Coast, the on-the-field impact of moving the game to Norman should do nothing but help the Sooners.

Now, Oklahoma will play four straight contests at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium to start the 2021 season, the first time since 2004 the Sooners open with four games in front of the home fans.

The stadium won't be at 100 percent capacity to start the year, and OU will still be the designated road team, but Oklahoma won't have to leave the Sooner State until October. 

Overall, OU plays just four true road games, visiting Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor and Oklahoma State, as well as their traditional neutral-site game in the Cotton Bowl against the Texas Longhorns.

Nebraska’s inability to field a competent football team tanked what was supposed to be Oklahoma’s marquee non-conference battle, meaning the Sooners' schedule on paper is shaping up to be one of college football's softer slates, perfectly setting them up for a run at the program’s eighth National Championship.

Phil Steele ranked Oklahoma as having the 51st toughest schedule in the nation, and ranks last year's opponents' winning percentage at No. 103 in the FBS this season — a task made even easier by playing the Green Wave at home.

The Sooners have had some unexpected troubles opening the season on the road since 2000 against Group of 5 foes, dropping contests to BYU (2009 in Arlington, TX) and Houston (2016 at NRG Stadium), while slogging through road contests at UTEP (2012) and Tulsa (2002) even in victories.

Further than the matchups themselves, Oklahoma’s extra home game will add another benefit.

While games like Kansas State and Texas should certainly be circled on the calendar, the most difficult portion of OU’s 2021 schedule might not actually be any one team, but rather the fact that the Sooners have to play nine straight games before reaching their Nov. 6 open date.

Moving Tulane to Norman will mitigate that struggle a little, as Oklahoma now leaves Norman just three times during that stretch.

Up first, the Sooners travel to Manhattan hoping to avenge back-to-back losses to Chris Klieman’s Kansas State Wildcats before heading to the Texas State Fair the following weekend to lock horns with Texas.

Two weeks later, OU should be able to sleepwalk through Lawrence as the Sooners take on the Kansas Jayhawks in their last road contest before the open date. OU then comes off the open date with a game in Waco, before finishing the regular season two weeks later in Stillwater.

Expectations are as high as they’ve been in Norman since 2011, and now having seven home contests on the schedule just makes the road to the College Football Playoff and beyond that much easier for Lincoln Riley’s Sooners. 

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