Tough Out of Conference Schedule - Love or Hate it

[Boomer.....]

OU has been playing a tough out of conference schedule for many years now and continues to schedule them for the future. It's great for the fans and national publicity, but it has come to bite us more than a few times. Off the top of my head, we have losses to UCLA, TCU, Oregon, BYU, Miami, and Notre Dame. We also have some wins over great OOC teams which boosts our strength of schedule and overall national perception which has benefited us. There are teams like OSU and Texas which play patsies the majority of the time and can get a false sense of greatness, but then again they are getting wins. So are you a fan of tough OOC games or would you rather us play lesser teams which guarantee a win?

[FaninAma]

Once the BCS playoff format expands there won't be any question that it is the thing to do. Under the crappy BCS 2 team national title process it was legitimate to question playing tough non-conference games.

[Curly Bill]

I'd have selected something in the middle if that was an option. Because of our stature we don't really need a tough OOC schedule to gain a shot at the NC, but I don't like the total cupcake route either.

[MichiganSooner]

Under the formula for the 4 team playoff, we will need to play a tough schedule. Besides, we are Oklahoma!!

[PrideMom]

I thought this year's schedule was poor, having the first game away, and two bye weeks in odd places, etc. I know TCU was supposed to have been an out of conference game and it really messed up the schedule when they joined the BIG XII.

[Boomer.....]

Our future OOC games include Notre Dame, Tulsa, Tennessee, Ohio State, LSU, and Army.

[deweydw]

i don't love it. Nor do I hate it. It tells us pretty much what level the team is playing. Unfortunately this year we played two softy's before ND. So maybe they weren't as prepared as they should have been.

[rock on sooner]

I'd have selected something in the middle if that was an option. Because of our stature we don't really need a tough OOC schedule to gain a shot at the NC, but I don't like the total cupcake route either.

The cupcake route is how Snyder did it at KSU. Personally, keep the schedule
tough, 'cause it'll keep us tough for conference play.

[JiminyChristmas]

The BCS was always very good to us. The schedule was a big part of that. Kudos to the scheduling philosophy.

[tycat947]

I think it's probably benefited our program more having the more difficult non-conference schedule (more national exposure) and probably better prepared us for conference games however it results in more losses unfortunately, and I'm not a big fan of that!!! :sneakiness:

[aero]

A tough OOC schedule has always helped us in the BCS and I think it also lets us know how good the team really is. Sometimes its easy to get caught up in whipping lesser teams.

[Boomer.....]

i don't love it. Nor do I hate it. It tells us pretty much what level the team is playing. Unfortunately this year we played two softy's before ND. So maybe they weren't as prepared as they should have been.

If the first team had been anymore difficult, we may have lost.

[Tear Down This Wall]

Do we have a tough out of conference just because we have one challenging game? UTEP and FAMU aren't tough. Notre Dame, without the brainfarts on our end, was highly beatable. Their QB barely hit 50% of his passes. Law of averages caught up with him on the 50 yard pass in the 4th quarter.

I'd like to see a tougher out of conference schedule - especially paying what I pay for season tickets. It's not even remotely interesting to watch us beat the hell out of Florida A&M or Idaho State or Middle Tennessee or East Popcorn, as Bob put it years ago.

Our problems - like many other big schools - is that no one will schedule multiple good home and homes out of conference because you'd have to - sob - give up one home game a year.

We have three out of conferences with the current configuration of our crappy conference - yes, West Virginia and TCU are still crappy additions. Give us only one crappy game, but please have two good home and home worthy opponents as well.

In 2013, we are home for Tulsa and ULM, then at Notre Dame. Stupid. Give me Tulsa or ULM, not both in one season. Yes, Tulsa now has winning seasons. Hooray for them. But, when we beat them, no one cares. It doesn't help us worth dick.

Get home and homes versus worthy opponents twice a season. We have Tennessee, LSU, and Ohio State in the future. Good. So have Notre Dame and Tennessee in the same season. Have LSU and Ohio State in the same season.

Is there some sort of law which states we cannot ever schedule Arkansas during the regular season? That seems to be the biggest no-brainer of them all. Are we afraid to go to Fayetteville? With all of the television money pouring in, are we really afraid to give up one home game...even to a school right on the edge of an adjoining state?

We travel to away games...we even went to crappy El Paso at the beginning of this season. Get more home and homes with colleges worth seeing. Here's a good list:

Georgia
Florida
Arizona State
USC
Michigan State
Boston College
Stanford
Virginia Tech

Will it deflate the program to play a tougher out of conference schedule? Playing more than one "mid-major" is boring and trite.

Oh, TDTW, but ULM is so competitive now.

Baloney.

This is a major college football program with a lot of history and pride. Schedule two games with like opponents per year. Quit the "sand in my clit" routine about giving up a home game and get it done. Pus*ies.