Hearts on fire: Big 12 schedule released on V-Day


Posted February 14, 2012 by Travis Haney Comment on this article Leave a comment

CAMPUS CORNER — West Virginia moved this morning to officially join the Big 12 for the 2012 season and then, boom, the Big 12 released its football schedule.

Here is what Oklahoma is looking at this fall:

Sept. 22 – Kansas State in Big 12 opener

Oct. 6 – at Texas Tech

Oct. 13 – Texas (in Dallas)

Oct. 20 – Kansas

Nov. 3 – at Iowa State

Nov. 10 – Baylor

Nov. 17 – at West Virginia

Nov. 24 – Oklahoma State

Dec. 1 – at TCU

What immediately struck me: That’s quite the finish, with at West Virginia, OSU and at TCU in consecutive weeks down the stretch. I was really under the impression that West Virginia would be the conference opener, in September. I gather that might have been something that changed in the final models. If I’m OU, I would have wanted to go to Morgantown in September rather than November. Never know what you’ll get there late in the year.

Where’s the break: There’s only one gap in the conference schedule, and it’s Oct. 27 – the date of the Notre Dame game. A lot of fans are already asking me if there’s any wiggle room in this, and I doubt it, considering the Big 12 really did not want to move games after the release of the schedule.

What’s next: OU says the non-conference part of the schedule will be released “at a later date,” but there is reason to believe this might not be too far behind. The Oct. 27 home game against Notre Dame is set. UTEP is the discussed Sept. 1 opener, and then an FCS school is expected to fill the other date, either Sept. 8 or 15. But having all of early September open does leave as many options as possible for Joe Castiglione and the school.

= Trav

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