The Oklahoma Sooners have one of the hardest schedules in the country in 2025. It’s not a stretch to say that OU’s gauntlet is the toughest in America. According to ESPN SP+, the Sooners schedule is the most difficult in FBS. Year 4 under head coach Brent Venables and Year 2 in the Southeastern Conference is a pivotal season for the entire program.
One college football analyst believes that if things fall right, the Sooners could actually benefit from their brutal schedule. On3 Sports’ J.D. PicKell outlined on his show “The Hard Count with J.D. PicKell” just how teams like Oklahoma and the Florida Gators, who have extremely difficult schedules, could get some help in the long run. He began with non-conference schedules, highlighting OU’s key matchup against the Michigan Wolverines.
“If you win your non-conference games, you have a chance to take a massive narrative-shaper with you into that Selection Sunday,” PicKell said. “So for that committee to look at Oklahoma and say they beat Michigan, that matters to us … that stuff matters.”
The Sooners got a rough draw in their SEC conference schedule when they came into the league because they were so successful in the decade prior. The Sooners will face Auburn, Texas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and LSU. Against that group of teams, Oklahoma went 2-6 in 2024.
“If you go 9-3 with one of those schedules, it’s my humble opinion that you should be graded on a curve,” PicKell said. “I’m not saying the games don’t matter. I’m saying how you look in your games and who you play should matter. The gauntlet they have is harder than everyone else in college football. You go 9-3 and things shake your way with the other chaos across college football, I think one of those teams (Oklahoma or Florida) gets in.”
A 9-3 record isn’t the standard in Norman, Oklahoma. But, all things considered, most of Sooner Nation would likely be pretty happy with a mark like that, especially when looking at the gauntlet OU has to play and the fact that Oklahoma went 6-6 in the regular season last year. To improve by three wins, the Sooners have to get better across the board, especially on offense. New offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and new starting quarterback John Mateer will have to have excellent seasons to get Oklahoma to nine wins.
Going 9-3 would be a huge step forward for the program and Venables. It’d likely be enough to save his job, and if Pickell is correct, it could be enough to have the Sooners in the College Football Playoff, which would be a major accomplishment considering where OU was at the end of last season.
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