This year, the Sooners will start out in the desert mountains of El Paso as OU opens the 2012 season at UTEP on Sept. 1.
The Sooners? schedule was finalized just this week and the school announced the dates Wednesday morning.
The Miners are the Sooners? first true road opponent since 1994, when Gary Gibbs? final OU team started the season with a 30-29 victory at Syracuse.
OU also started on the road in 2002, but a swarm of Sooner fans overran Tulsa?s Skelly Stadium in a 37-0 Oklahoma triumph.
Oklahoma opened the 2009 season against BYU at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, a 14-13 loss in which quarterback Sam Bradford suffered a shoulder injury. Four of OU?s five losses that season were by a touchdown or less, and the Sooners finished with a 31-27 win over Stanford in the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
A week after starting at UTEP, OU hosts Florida A&M on Sept. 8. It?s just the third time under coach Bob Stoops the Sooners have had to resort to playing a school from the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA; the others were Indiana State in 1999 and Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2008).
It's believed UTEP will return multiple home games to Norman, though details of the contract were not released and athletic director Joe Castiglione was unavailable for comment.
The unusual nature of each of OU?s first two games this season underscores the difficulty Castiglione has had in trying to find opponents. Uncertainty from ongoing conference realignment, coupled with the rising costs of paying opponents to come to Norman (OU paid Ball State $900,000 last season) have made it tougher than most years.
?We have a philosophy of playing a challenging schedule on a yearly basis that puts our team in the best possible situation to make a run at a championship,? coach Bob Stoops said in a press release. ?I know that Joe Castiglione puts our program?s best interests at the forefront when scheduling our opponents and it shows with the quality of teams on our schedule.?
The Big 12 Conference finalized its 2012 schedule on Tuesday. That process was dragged out because of ongoing litigation between West Virginia and the Big East Conference, who sued each other over WVU?s decision to leave the Big East for the Big 12.
When the Mountaineers and Big East came to an accord, the Big 12 quickly revealed its conference schedule, which then freed up Oklahoma to follow suit on its non-conference slate.
OU?s other non-conference game is a home contest against Notre Dame on Oct. 27.
That game, part of a two-year contract that sends the Sooners to South Bend, Ind., in 2013, became locked in early, leaving OU with two open dates in September: Sept. 15 and Sept. 29. After that, the Sooners play nine consecutive Saturdays.
That includes a finishing stretch against defending Big East and Orange Bowl champion West Virginia in Morgantown, W.Va., against defending Big 12 champion and Fiesta Bowl Oklahoma State in Norman, and against defending Mountain West Conference and Poinsettia Bowl champion Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
?We look forward to another challenging year,? Stoops said, ?and hope our fans reflect the excitement we have for this year?s schedule.?
OU has never played a regular-season game at Sun Bowl Stadium, but is 3-0 in bowl games there, and is 2-0 all-time against UTEP (both in Norman).
This season also marks the first meeting between the Sooners and Florida A&M.
The Fighting Irish are 8-1 in the all-time series against OU, but haven?t played at Owen Field since 1966.
OU 2012 football schedule
Sept. 1: at UTEPSept. 8: Florida A&M
Sept. 15: Open
Sept. 22: Kansas State
Sept. 29: Open
Oct. 6: at Texas Tech
Oct. 13: *Texas
Oct. 20: Kansas
Oct. 27: Notre Dame
Nov. 3: at Iowa State
Nov. 10: Baylor
Nov. 17: at West Virginia
Nov. 24: Oklahoma State
Dec. 1: at TCU
Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20120215_92_0_Oklaho896525&rss_lnk=298,297
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