Greg McElroy says Oklahoma got a harder 2023 schedule than Texas
Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy compared the schedules of Oklahoma and Texas. He made the claim that the Sooners have a harder slate than the Longhorns.
Of course, both teams square off once again in one of their final years in the Big 12. But, McElroy took a look at the road trips for Oklahoma and could not believe the difficulty of the opponents.
McElroy explained on Always College Football.
“I happen to think when you look at it, though, I mean, it’s definitely possible that they could have a bit of an improvement,” McElroy said regarding Oklahoma. “But you look at the schedule man, I thought they got dealt the more difficult hand when comparing them to the Longhorns, partly because all four of their road opponents, if you count the neutral site game against Texas, they all competed in bowl games last year.
“And you think about it man, that November 16 road trip to BYU is no picnic. You got Stillwater a couple of weeks before that as well. So it’s a little bit tricky, you know, I mean, you see that battle at Bedlam like that was one of the first games I tried to find. Why? Because it might be the last one. I don’t know how many more we’re gonna have. So when I saw that game on November 4, and then knowing what they have a couple of weeks later, I was like man, Oklahoma. They have a bit of a gauntlet there, especially in November, and I did not think that Oklahoma got any benefits whatsoever when looking at the upcoming schedule.”
The Sooners will kick off their season against Arkansas State and SMU at home but will take a rare non-conference true road trip during Week 3 to battle Tulsa on their home turf. They’ll round their season out the week before the conference championship game against TCU — a game that could serve as a proverbial passing of the torch from an outgoing Big 12 stalwart to the new shiny toy in the conference.
They expect themselves to get back into the mix in 2023, especially with the SEC move alongside Texas on the horizon. A poor performance in the Big 12 would be a disaster in the SEC — and the Sooners can’t afford another losing season.