The Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners enter their final Big 12 football season with one goal: return to national contention by dominating the conference and reclaiming their places as the elite programs in the Big 12 and across the country.
However, while the goal may be the same, the two programs face very different paths to achieving it, and the Longhorns certainly seem to have the more challenging one.
The big nonconference game for Texas comes against Alabama as the second half of a home-and-home series. The Longhorns took the Crimson Tide to the brink in Austin last season but did not carry their impressive play from that game with them for the rest of the season.
The game is in Tuscaloosa this year, and both teams could be in the top 10 by kickoff. Alabama lost some important players from last year’s team, and Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will be trying to become just the third former assistant to knock off Nick Saban. However, Alabama is still one of the elite programs in the country and will be a massive challenge to bear.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s toughest opponent on its nonconference slate — which features three Group of Five teams that it should beat rather handily if it hopes to become a true Big 12 contender this season — is SMU.
Of course, the team’s play during the Big 12 portion of the schedule will primarily determine the path to contention.
Texas opens Big 12 play at Baylor, which should be a hostile environment given the teams’ proximity to each other, before taking on a sleeper team in Kansas and playing its big rivalry game against the Sooners at the Cotton Bowl. The schedule eases up a bit with games against Houston and BYU, but Houston will be out for revenge after being left out of the initial Big 12, and the Longhorns play three of their final four games against ranked opponents.
Texas must also travel to Ames, another hostile road environment, to play Iowa State.
In contrast, Oklahoma opens conference play against Cincinnati, one of six games the Sooners have against the projected bottom seven teams in the conference. TCU and Texas are the only ranked teams on Oklahoma’s schedule, and UCF and the final Bedlam game against Oklahoma State are its only other challenges.
Plus, there is more pressure on the Longhorns this season. Oklahoma is coming off its worst season since 1998, but it has made the College Football Playoff four times and won seven Big 12 championships in the last 11 years. Texas, meanwhile, has never made the College Football Playoffs and last won the conference in 2009.
It has also been at least 18 years since either team won a national championship.
The No.11-ranked Longhorns begin their season against Rice in Austin at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, while the 20th-ranked Sooners host Arkansas State at 11 a.m. CT.