Bedlam set but two questions remain with OU schedule

Friday, the Big 12 announced that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will play Dec. 3, a move most of us saw coming. Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe has said the league needed a marquee game to fill the void of no conference championship game, and with OU-Texas cemented at the October Texas State Fair, Bedlam was the second best option.

That date should be good for both schools. It will give the Sooners the chance to make a statement to BCS voters right before the final BCS Standings come out.

And it will give OSU wideout Justin Blackmon and quarterback Brandon Weeden and OU wideout Ryan Broyles and quarterback Landry Jones a huge stage to impress Heisman voters should any of the four be in the race at the end of the season.

But two significant questions still remain with the Sooner conference schedule, that will have a bearing on the season.

Will OU play a league game the week before Florida State? And Will OU play on Thanksgiving Weekend?

At the moment, the Sooners have an open date Sept. 10, the week before they travel to Tallahassee for what figures to be a clash between Top 10 teams.

An advantage to not playing the prior week would give OU an extra week of preparation for the Seminoles, who have already indicated they’ve been pointing to the OU game for some while.

But, there’s advantage in also staying crisp by playing the weekend before. The risk here, though, is what if the Big 12 schedules Missouri or Texas A&M or Texas Tech the week before Florida State. Not only does an extra week of prep go out the window, but the Sooners would have the unenviable task of having to play back-to-back tough games. Missouri and A&M have to come to Norman, but don’t forget, both teams defeated the Sooners last season. OU should be favored by double digits in both cases. But the Sooners can’t afford to look past either of those teams, either.

If OU plays a Thanksgiving game, we can rule out the entire Big 12 South as possibilities. Baylor and Tech are playing in Arlington that weekend. Texas-Texas A&M will play Thanksgiving day night. And the Sooners will play OSU the following weekend.

That leaves, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Iowa State as the only possibilities.

OU-Missouri would be the most attractive matchup, both for Sooner fans and for TV. But KU and Missouri might prefer to keep their annual rivalry game on Thanksgiving Saturday.

Also, in the first version of the Big 12 standings, K-State and Iowa State are actually scheduled to play one another Thanksgiving Saturday, something I can see being attractive for both schools, with their primary football rival, Nebraska, now gone.