Oklahoma football: Waco on a Thursday night

The last time OU went to Waco for a football game, on Nov. 20, 2011, the Sooners were knocked out of the national championship race and Robert Griffin III was knocked into the Heisman Trophy race. And being a football Saturday night, with fans deluged by a dozen televised games including perhaps their own team, only part of America was watching.

That will change on OU’s next trip to Waco. The OU-Baylor game in 2013 has been moved to Thursday night, Nov. 7, and will be televised by either Fox Sports or ESPN. Both teams have open dates the previous Saturday.

Baylor fans during the second half of the 2012 OU-Baylor game. OU was defeated 45-38. Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, in Waco, Texas. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman

Which means Bob Stoops is cool with it. “It’s something we discussed,” Stoops said. “With the new television agreement, everybody’s going to have to have their hand on a Thursday night. In our situation, with a stadium right on campus, it really isn’t conducive for us to host one. So we’re going to have to go play one. In surveying it, we thought this may be the best scenario, and a relatively short trip.”

In 2012, the Big 12 played four non-Saturday games: Baylor-SMU on a Sunday, Baylor-Louisiana Monroe on a Friday, Texas-TCU on Thanksgiving night and Iowa State-West Virginia on a Friday.