Oklahoma Sooners Football: Big 12 approves 9+1 scheduling format for 2020 season

Following the direction of other conferences, the Big 12 has announced that its member institutions will each play a 10-game schedule, the conferenced announced in a Monday evening press release. The Big 12’s version will consist of the standard nine-game round-robin format, while each school will also play one non-conference game.

According to the release, the start date for conference play will be announced “in the coming weeks”, with the conference slate estimated to begin in mid-to-late September. This, of course, means that OU will begin its Big 12 slate earlier than its original Oct. 3 slot against Baylor.

Additionally, the new scheduling model allows for the Big 12 Championship Game to be pushed back to either Dec. 12 or 19 if the need arises. According to The Athletic, a Dec. 19 move would result in a venue change, as the game would need to be moved to the Texas Rangers’ new Globe Life Field due to scheduling conflicts with both Texas high school state championships and the Dallas Cowboys.

As far as the non-conference games are concerned, all of the contests are required to be home games for the member institutions. In the case of the Oklahoma Sooners, Missouri State fits the bill, and it goes without saying that the Army game will have to be moved to a future season.

OU is currently slated to play their FCS foe on Aug. 29, so we’ll have to see if the Big 12’s chosen date to commence conference play has any impact on this. For instance, if the conference chooses to begin its round-robin schedule on Sept. 19 or 26, would OU choose to move the Missouri State game back to its original Sept. 5 date (or even later), or would they allow for a gap of 3-4 weeks between the first and second games of the season? The latter seems highly unlikely, and reports are indicating as much.