Oklahoma schedules Houston for home-and-home series, starting in 2024

Oklahoma’s schedule is going to kick up a notch next fall when they head into the Southeastern Conference. However, the Sooners are keeping in touch with their Big 12 roots to a degree based on their latest announced opponent for 2024.

Per George Stoia of Sooner Scoop, Oklahoma has scheduled a home and home with the Houston Cougars. This news came via Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione in a statement. Houston will come to Norman next fall and play on September 7th. A return visit to TDECU Stadium won’t then come until 2028 for OU.

Source: Oklahoma will play Houston at home in 2024 to fulfill the SEC's Power 5 non-conference requirement. It will be a home-and-home with the #Sooners traveling to Houston in 2028.

— Summer of George (@GeorgeStoia) August 11, 2023

Oklahoma and Houston won’t be meeting in the Sooner’s final year in the Big 12 this season. Seven of the Cougar’s nine conference games are against former members of the Big 12, including Texas and Oklahoma State, but they dodged the Sooners. That face might be a driving factor in how this came together.

The two schools have met four times ever with the last game coming in 2019. Oklahoma boasts a 3-1 record in those contests with the Cougar’s only win coming in a game in 2016.

As part of Stoia’s report, he added that the school has also scheduled Maine for ’24. They will join the Cougars as well as Temple and Tulane as Oklahoma’s non-conference opponents.

The Sooners will then play the Longhorns in Dallas, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina at home, and Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, and Missouri on the road in the SEC.

Oklahoma has one last season in the Big 12 after a span of history that goes back as far as some Sooners can remember. That’ll come first before a ’24 schedule that got a bit better today with a new Big 12 member now coming to be an opponent in Memorial Stadium next year.

Greg McElroy previews Oklahoma’s schedule

Greg McElroy recently dove into  Oklahoma’s schedule. When he looked at it on paper, he said the Sooners could make a run to the Big 12 Championship Game.

“I think this team has a chance to be a player,” McElroy said on Always College Football. “A lot of people think there’s no way they’re going to be able to catch TCU and Texas and the other schools, Texas Tech, in the Big 12. They could very well find themselves in the Big 12 Championship. “

“I really believe that because I think about what they did as far as their high school recruiting class. I think about what they did as far as eight of their top 10 prospects that they signed in their high school recruiting class coming on the defensive side. Nine overall, or the number nine overall transfer class in college football, which includes six immediate starters off of other Power Five defenses has me feeling really optimistic about the direction of this program.”

Brent Venables goes into year two after coming in with a lot of expectations right off the bat. Now, this fall could be a nice bounce-back opportunity.

“I’m really optimistic about where they’re going. I think they are going to be back in the mix,” McElroy said. “Maybe not in the playoff mix this year. But I think they have a chance to be very very dangerous.”