Oklahoma Embracing the 'Big Stage' Provided by New SEC Schedule
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The Southeastern Conference is going to look a bit different this year.
The league moved to a nine-game conference schedule, trading a non-conference contest for an additional battle between SEC teams.
It's a move that is possible because of the 12-team playoff, but it makes every school's path to the CFP that much harder.
Schools went back and forth on the decision when Oklahoma and Texas initially agreed to enter the league, and it's a move that is finally reality in Year 3 of the SEC's 16-team era.
Oklahoma is looking to make it back to the CFP after finishing 6-2 in league action in the regular season, but it doesn't matter much to head coach Brent Venables what the SEC schedule looks like.
"I'm for whatever the leadership decides," Venables said at SEC Media Days in Tampa. "I'm a great teammate."
The Sooners' 2026 schedule looks treacherous.
OU will see Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas A&M in the regular season, all teams that made the CFP field last year, as well as battles against Texas, against Florida in the Swamp and road trips to Missouri and Mississippi State. Oklahoma will also host South Carolina and Kentucky, in addition to its non-conference showpiece against Michigan.
For Venables, he sees the nine-game schedule as giving his program an additional chance to shine in the spotlight.
"I love being on a big stage with high expectations where there's a lot at stake," he said. "I've always enjoyed that. I think our players do as well."
Most teams in the conference have a stretch of games that appears to be a gauntlet on paper.
Ole Miss will travel to Texas and host Georgia in two of the three weeks ahead of its trip to Norman. The Longhorns take on Tennessee, the Sooners, Florida and Ole Miss in consecutive games.
In the two years of the 12-team playoff, an SEC school has been left at home despite feeling it has a case to be included in the field – a trend that feels like it will only continue with an additional conference game on the slate.
But Venables isn't worried about those outside factors, so long as his group is ready to go every Saturday this fall.
"You just play your schedule and they'll figure all the playoff stuff out and all those types of things," Venables said. "We have so many other things that we do control, and so that's kind of where we're at when it comes to what all that looks like."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oklahoma as Oklahoma Embracing the 'Big Stage' Provided by New SEC Schedule.
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