Oklahoma football: Why not play Missouri?
The Kansas City Star reports that Missouri will play at Central Florida on Sept. 29. That fills out the UCF 2012 football schedule; the Golden Knights had been mentioned as a possible opponent for OU, which is still seeking two non-conference games.
But the Star also reported that Mizzou needs two more games to fill out its non-conference schedule. The Tigers are moving to the Southeastern Conference in 2012 and play just eight SEC games. They’ve got non-conference games with Arizona State and Central Florida, but need two more.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Why not an Oklahoma-Missouri series? OU apparently is talking about playing Rutgers in the Meadowlands, and if that came to pass, OU surely would want a home game. Missouri, naturally, wants a home game, too, but Mizzou athletic director Mike Alden recently said the Tigers need six home games. They’ve got five now. So one of Mizzou’s two others could be a road game.
So there’s wiggle room for both OU and MU. If Rutgers falls through, maybe the Sooners could talk Missouri into a home-and-home series, but with the game in Missouri played at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium. The Tigers have been playing Kansas there, but KU says the series is over, now that Mizzou is bolting the conference. Missouri wouldn’t want such a scheduling discrepancy, but on the other hand, Sooner fans would help fill up Arrowhead. If nothing else, it would be quite the thumb-nosing at KU.
Play in Norman this year and Columbia in some future season. Play in Columbia this year and Norman in some future season. Play in Kansas City this year and call it even. The options are many.
Of course, Bob Stoops and Gary Pinkel just spit out their morning Maxwell House, at the very thought of playing each other.
Let’s see. OU has Notre Dame and maybe Rutgers in New Jersey non-conference, Texas in Dallas, home games against OSU and Kansas State, and road games at TCU, West Virginia and Texas Tech. Good luck talking Stoops into play Missouri, here, there or yon.
Missouri has home games against Georgia, Arizona State and Alabama, plus road games at South Carolina, Central Florida, Florida, Tennessee and Texas A&M. I don’t see Pinkel getting excited about playing the Sooners on Faurot Field, on Owen Field or in Marshall Field.
But OU needs a game or two. Missouri needs a game or two. Desperate times call for desperate scheduling.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Same thing is true for Texas A&M, according to Houston Chronicle article.Why not home and home with them?
Looks like we are trying to carve a path into the SEC, especially when we have Tennessee in the years ahead and any other SEC teams we may want to schedule as non-conference…. Stoops has winning records against both teams…though playing in Columbia and at Kyle field is NEVER a picnic…kinda of hard to figure why either Mizzou or A&M would want to schedule OU as non-conference especially the way the bowls now work….and for OU, either team could derail a NC….
Really a stupid idea. There is nothing in it for MU, and the SEC schedule is tough enough. This sounds like some KU zealot suggested this.
The best are the Alabamas, LSUs, even Arkansas….MU and A&M will struggle to get to 500 in the SEC….I just don’t see them wanting to play OU year after year, even when they have a good shot at catching OU when playing at home….if the bowl system changes and becomes pickier about who goes, I would think that at OU home at home is out of the question knowing their records against OU. The facts say, come to Norman and lose, play at home have have a less than 30 percent chance to win…..why start your season with a loss and then have to battle that loss all year long? OU would be their non conference marquee game….for OU we would still have to play an Ohio St., LSU plus MU and A&M. In the old days with a conference championship, you could balance the strength of your opponents. With a round robin system where we play everyone like in the old days, the non conference schedule becomes trickier. TCU and WV represent tougher teams to beat both at home and away than A&M and MU did. So, there is a lot of risk for OU, too.
Back in the day with Switzer, OU would schedule it up…Play them all…but parity has made things a lot different in today’s world of college football…really, when could an ISU have knocked off an OSU team with the talent and power it had this past year AND gone on to play in a bowl game with a winning record. Upsets happen, but the difference today, is that many teams pulling the upset also have winning records today where 30 years ago that was not necessarily so….
As an OU grad and season ticket holder, I think this is a GREAT idea!