NORMAN — A new era of Oklahoma football is on the horizon, and the release of last week’s 2024 SEC conference schedule offered the first glimpse of what it might look like.
While the Sooners are still more than a year away from playing their first games as members of their new conference, it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that it will be a battle every week to compete for a conference championship. They will have a true SEC experience in 2024.
With trips to some of the biggest venues in college football, including LSU’s Death Valley, The Grove at Ole Miss, Jordan-Hare Stadium and Neyland Stadium, Oklahoma will have its first road experiences in some of the toughest places to play in the conference
Also, getting Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina in Norman will be a unique experience after more than 100 years of facing similar conference opponents in the Big Eight and later the Big 12. That’s not even including the travel annual in Dallas to face Texas.
Still, not including Texas, the Sooners have played a total of 107 games against the seven teams on their 2024 conference schedule, going 76-30-1 in those games. The only team on the schedule the Sooners have never faced is South Carolina.
Here’s a breakdown of the Sooners’ seven new conference opponents:
Alabama (Home)
Oklahoma has faced Alabama four times since the early 2000s with three wins during that span. The last meeting between the two teams came in the 2018 College Football Playoffs, a 45-34 victory for the Crimson Tide.
The Sooners defeated the Crimson Tide 45-31 in the 2014 Sugar Bowl and had a pair of home-and-home series wins in 2002 and 2003.
The first of those regular-season meetings took place in Norman, when the then-second-ranked Sooners saw eventual Heisman winner Jason White go down with a knee injury, but scored twice in the final 2:11 of playing time, including a 47-yarder. score and score by safety Eric Bassey that sealed a 37-27 victory.
The roles are expected to be reversed when the Crimson Tide returns to Norman in 2024.
The Crimson Tide, on their recent stretch of dominance, will likely enter that game as favorites, just like the Sooners did in 2002, two years removed from a national title and on a stretch of three national championship appearances in five years.
Oklahoma leads the all-time series 3-2-1.
Auburn (Away)
Few teams had as tough a draw in the recent release of the conference schedule as the Tigers.
Auburn is one of two teams set to face both Alabama and Georgia on the road in 2024. While the dates for conference games have yet to be announced, it’s obvious the Tigers will struggle with a schedule brutal
Auburn hired Hugh Freeze to take over the program last November after going 9-12 in two seasons under Bryan Harsin. Freeze has shown he can bring talent, ranking third in 247Sports’ 2023 transfer portal rankings with 21 commitments.
Oklahoma has faced Auburn twice, both with wins in the Sugar Bowl. Most recently, Oklahoma faced Auburn in the 2017 Sugar Bowl, a 35-19 victory in a game that featured touchdowns from Baker Mayfield, Samaje Perine, Dede Westbrook, Mark Andrews and Joe Mixon.
LSU (Abandoned)
It’s not a true SEC conference schedule without a trip to Death Valley.
Few places have been as difficult for opposing teams as LSU’s Tiger Stadium. The Tigers have an all-time record of 478-165-19 at home, but Tiger Stadium is perhaps best known for its night games.
Since the turn of the century, LSU has gone 96-15 in night games at home. But the tide appears to be turning for the Tigers, as they have also found a new level of success in home day games, going 20-2 in those games from 2010 through the start of last season.
Of those 20 wins, 11 were against ranked opponents and 19 were against conference foes.
Like OU head coach Brent Venables, LSU’s Brian Kelly will also enter his third season with the program when the two teams meet in 2024. Kelly faced the Sooners twice, while coach to Notre Dame, won at Norman in 2012 and lost at South. Bend, Ind. in 2013.
The two programs have met three times, but never in the regular season. LSU won the last two meetings in the 2019 CFP and the 2004 national championship game.
LSU holds a 2-1 lead over the Sooners all-time.
Missouri (Abandoned)
Longtime conference mates in the old Big Eight and then the Big 12, Oklahoma and Missouri met 96 times from 1902 to 2011, but haven’t seen each other since Missouri left for the SEC.
They met in Big 12 Championships in 2007 and 2008, both won by Oklahoma. The Sooners have lost just four times to Missouri since 1970, but each of those four losses came in Columbia.
The Tigers found most of their success in their new conference in their first few seasons in the SEC. They won the SEC East in 2013 and 2014, but haven’t posted a winning record in the conference since.
Ole Miss (Abandoned)
Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby was hired by Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin in his first season with the program. Lebby coached the Rebels for three seasons before moving on to Oklahoma.
The Sooners’ first visit to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will mark Lebby’s return to Oxford and his first game against his former head coach. Kiffin is 23-13 in three seasons at Ole Miss, and seems to consistently field teams that can knock off the best teams in the conference.
In 2021, the Rebels won 10 games for the first time in program history.
The Sooners’ only game against Ole Miss came in the 1999 Independence Bowl, a 27-25 loss that started a 20-game OU winning streak.
South Carolina (Home)
Both South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer and quarterback Spencer Rattler could see a return to Norman if both remain with the program through 2024.
Beamer was an assistant coach at OU from 2018-2020 before being offered the head job at South Carolina. The Gamecocks upset Florida and Auburn in his first season at the helm and won their first in three seasons.
Rattler threw for more than 3,000 yards with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in his first season after transferring from Oklahoma to South Carolina. He helped lead the Gamecocks to wins over Tennessee and Clemson in subsequent weeks.
This will be Oklahoma’s first meeting with South Carolina.
Tennessee (Home)
Like South Carolina, Tennessee is also expected to be led by former Oklahoma assistant coach Josh Heupel.
Heupel was a national championship-winning quarterback at Oklahoma and was the quarterbacks coach for a pair of Heisman Trophy winners. The Sooners played home-and-home with Tennessee in 2014 and 2015.
In 2015, the Sooners won a double-overtime thriller, 31-24, in Knoxville. The Sooners have a 3-1 all-time record against the Volunteers.
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Tarik Masri is The Transcript’s interim sports editor covering OU athletics. You can contact him by emailing tarik@normantranscript.com
