Sooners to visit Mickey, Minnie and O’Leary?

CAMPUS CORNER — And now for something different, other than news about earthquakes and severe weather.

A website dedicated to covering University of Central Florida sports is reporting UCF and Oklahoma are nearing a home-and-home football deal. OU would go to east Orlando in 2012, and UCF would come to Norman in 2013.

It would be a no-brainer for the Sooners, left in the lurch by TCU joining the Big 12 — taking that scheduled contest from a non-conference to conference game. I’m intrigued by Kansas State backing out of a series with the Knights. Why? Maybe K-State has something else lined up? Can’t imagine why it would encourage more scheduling issues at this juncture.

Good deal for UCF, too — a coup to get OU on its home turf at a relatively new stadium. That’s what scheduling scarcity will do, even for a program like Oklahoma.

Personally, I’m cool with an Orlando trip. In fact, I was advocating for the Big 12 to consider UCF and/or USF for expansion. Perhaps this is a goodwill tour that could eventually pave the way for UCF to become an 11th or 12th member. Who knows?

One of my favorite steakhouses is in the Orlando area. As the Atlanta Braves spring training home, it’s a former stomping ground for me.

The game isn’t a blockbuster, but, with Notre Dame on the schedule, OU doesn’t need a blockbuster. It needs a space-filler, and this would suffice in a more-than-adequate way, since the Sooners are dabbling into Florida recruiting. This isn’t the Knights’ finest season, but they’ve competed for their conference crown.

UCF has Akron (Aug. 30) and Pitt (Sept. 8 ) on its 2012 schedule, currently. So a late-September or October meeting is possible. Heck, I guess nothing’s out with the way the Big 12 will again be shuffled. OU is scheduled to host Notre Dame on Oct. 27, with a visit to South Bend set for Sept. 28, 2013.*

We’ll check on this later today with OU officials.

= Trav

*Future schedules courtesy of nationalchamps.net.