2025-26 schedule information

[skyvue]

I get the fans aspect. but we can lose a NCAA bid in non conf. Just cant take that risk.

And yet we're taking a different risk by playing all the good noncon teams on neutral/road courts. We'd have a better chance of winning those games at home, no? I get that not all of them can be home games or even most of them, but some? One or two?

 

[CoachTalk]

And yet we're taking a different risk by playing all the good noncon teams on neutral/road courts. We'd have a better chance of winning those games at home, no? I get that not all of them can be home games or even most of them, but some? One or two?

I dont disagree. Hard to get those cats to come to Norman. I hope next year, provided we have the dudes again to flip some of those to our place or pay com.

 

[WichitaSooner]

The committee looks at it as a whole. not conf vs non conf. Our whole schedule will give us a top 40 SOS (31 last year). thats plenty.

I get the fans aspect. but we can lose a NCAA bid in non conf. Just cant take that risk.

We played in the toughest conference in America two years ago and the committee expressly pointed to our noncon SOS as being the biggest factor that kept it out. So even if they "look at it as a whole," when a big chunk of that whole is as bad as possible, it does matter. And as for your latter point, you have it backwards -- we have already lost a bid because we played a heinous schedule. We have never lost a bid by playing better opponents. Look at the banners in the LNC and you'll see two or three years we made the tourney solely on the strength of our noncon. Again, this isn't difficult. Lon and Bill Self and many others figured out how to work this over a decade ago.

 

[notaburner]

- I will never understand the random neutral court games everyone schedules (Outside of MTEs). Schedule a home and home and your team has a chance to get a road win 1/2 years for SOS.
- What a disgusting home slate. Devils advocate tells me that even when we have had good noncon home games fans haven't shown up.
- I don't mind finding some scrubs to fill the OOC schedule with how good the neutral court games are but go schedule some Q3 games. That's how you boost your net the most. See North Carolina of last year.

 

[BoulderSooner]

- I will never understand the random neutral court games everyone schedules (Outside of MTEs). Schedule a home and home and your team has a chance to get a road win 1/2 years for SOS.
- What a disgusting home slate. Devils advocate tells me that even when we have had good noncon home games fans haven't shown up.
- I don't mind finding some scrubs to fill the OOC schedule with how good the neutral court games are but go schedule some Q3 games. That's how you boost your net the most. See North Carolina of last year.

exactly correct .. this home schedule is a joke ..
(rankings from barttorvik.com there are 365 teams ) OU is #31 preseason

Monday, Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m. // vs. Saint Francis // Norman #345
Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. // vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff // Norman (McCasland Field House) #363
Thursday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. // vs. Oral Roberts // Norman #322
Sunday, Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. // vs. Alcorn State // Norman #313
Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. // vs. Kansas City // Norman #316
Monday, Dec. 22 at 6 p.m. // vs. Stetson // Norman #351
Monday, Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. // vs. Mississippi Valley State // Norman #365



Saturday, Nov. 8 // at Gonzaga // Spokane, Wash. #24
Saturday, Nov. 15 // vs. Nebraska // Sioux Falls, S.D. #44
Friday, Nov. 28 // vs. Marquette // Chicago, Ill. #53
Saturday, Dec. 2 // at Wake Forest // Winston Salem, N.C. #82
Saturday, Dec. 6 // vs. Arizona State // Phoenix, Ariz. #70
Saturday, Dec. 13 // vs. Oklahoma State // Oklahoma City #47

 

[BoulderSooner]

other then ORU .. they should never be playing any team below 250 .. and for sure not 6 of them below 300

Tarleton St #266
Texas Southern #258
UT RIO Grande Valley #257
Sam Houston #250
Houston Cristian #248
Texas St #239
TAMU corpus Chris #213
UT Arlington #211
Lamar #202
Stephen F Austin #195
Rice #189
SE Missouri ST #166
Tulsa #141

all much much better options

 

[WichitaSooner]

other then ORU .. they should never be playing any team below 250 .. and for sure not 6 of them below 300

Tarleton St #266
Texas Southern #258
UT RIO Grande Valley #257
Sam Houston #250
Houston Cristian #248
Texas St #239
TAMU corpus Chris #213
UT Arlington #211
Lamar #202
Stephen F Austin #195
Rice #189
SE Missouri ST #166
Tulsa #141

all much much better options

For comparison, here is who KU plays in Allen:
Green Bay 255
A&M CC 213
Princeton 184
UCONN 10
Towson 134
Davidson 161

They also play road or neutral games against UNC, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Mizzou, and NC State, plus one opponent TBD in the final game of the Players Era in Vegas. And they play in an elite conference. So despite having plenty of big names and quality opponents, they aren't brining any 300 teams to Lawrence, and only two 200 teams. I have no doubt we could get most, if not all, of the teams they play at home to come to Norman, other than UCONN.

 

[CoachTalk]

For comparison, here is who KU plays in Allen:
Green Bay 255
A&M CC 213
Princeton 184
UCONN 10
Towson 134
Davidson 161

They also play road or neutral games against UNC, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Mizzou, and NC State, plus one opponent TBD in the final game of the Players Era in Vegas. And they play in an elite conference. So despite having plenty of big names and quality opponents, they aren't brining any 300 teams to Lawrence, and only two 200 teams. I have no doubt we could get most, if not all, of the teams they play at home to come to Norman, other than UCONN.

Comparing us and ku is wild.

But go off!

 

[WichitaSooner]

Comparing us and ku is wild.

But go off!

How did I know you would be obtuse. So I guess you think OU is so bad we couldn't get teams in the 134-255 range to come to Norman? Or do you secretly have so little faith in Moser that you just don't think we could beat those teams.

 

[Sooner04]

OK. He's starting to "get" it. Nebraska at a neutral site is exactly the type of game he needs to be scheduling. If we can't beat the Huskers then we have bigger problems, but a W in Sioux Falls helps a ton more than defeating Coppin State in Lloyd Noble. We beat Richie Pitino's Gophers in "The Pentagon" a few months before Covid struck.

Well, so much for that take. He obviously does not. That's the crappiest home slate there could ever be. If I didn't love the Sooners so much I'd "print" out my paper tickets and mail them back to Renee.

Now, let's compare with our contemporaries. I'm using the same barttorvik numbers mentioned elsewhere in the thread. We finished 14th in the SEC last season. Whoo boy! What's Texas doing? They're 13th. They suck too....like us! Here's their non-con home slate:

Texas 2026 (Avg - 272.63):
Lafayette: 276
Fairleigh Dickinson: 358
Kansas City: 316
Rider: 319
Virginia: 35
Southern: 191
LeMoyne: 327
Maryland-Eastern Shore: 359

Elsewhere? OK. Our last three years in the Big 12 we were 9th, 10th and 8th. Boy, that sucks. Who's the equivalent? TCU.....onward! Do something about that hair, Jamie.

TCU 2026 (Avg - 226.90):
New Orleans: 298
Saint Francis: 345
Lamar: 202
Michigan: 3
Kansas City: 316
Notre Dame: 66
Incarnate Word: 198
Oral Roberts: 322
Florida A&M: 333
Jackson State: 186

How about the other big basketball conferences? The 13th place team in the mighty ACC is the Panthers of Pitt. Jeff Capel, hello! Who's coming to your gym? How's Kanika?

Pitt 2026 (Avg - 192.50):
Providence: 58
Youngstown State: 206
Longwood: 222
Eastern Michigan: 311
Bucknell: 282
Quinnipiac: 218
Ohio State: 19
Texas A&M: 37
Hofstra: 240
Binghamton: 332

To close the show, we head to the Big Ten+6. Dr. Tom's Iowa Hawkeyes leak oil at the end of year like we always do. Long live, Chris Street.

Iowa 2026 (Avg - 247.43):
Robert Morris: 182
Western Illinois: 354
Xavier: 75
SE Missouri: 167
Chicago State: 325
Western Michigan: 308
UMass-Lowell: 321

 

[SoonerDutch]

- I will never understand the random neutral court games everyone schedules (Outside of MTEs). Schedule a home and home and your team has a chance to get a road win 1/2 years for SOS.
- What a disgusting home slate. Devils advocate tells me that even when we have had good noncon home games fans haven't shown up.
- I don't mind finding some scrubs to fill the OOC schedule with how good the neutral court games are but go schedule some Q3 games. That's how you boost your net the most. See North Carolina of last year.

To me, the non conference neutral sites are purely for tv/location purposes. CBB has become a TV-focused product IMO and the neutral sites allow regional alumni/fans to attend more easily. MTEs are of course better placed to achieve that, but these one off neutral sites accomplish the same thing.

The Nebraska game in SD is admittedly strange, it doesn’t fit the paradigm but the rest makes sense to me when viewing it in that context.

OU should definitely avoid playing so many 250+ games, 100% agree. Getting a big name to Norman with a home and home isn’t compelling to me personally, although I understand frustration.