Josh Pate criticizes SEC schedule makers for Oklahoma, Texas disparity…….

When the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns joined the SEC, there was a wave of excitement that spread throughout both programs, fanbases, the league itself and college football as a whole.

One season into life in the SEC, the Sooners and Longhorns have had very different experiences. Oklahoma went 6-7 in 2024 and barely made a bowl game. Texas played in the SEC Championship game (losing to Georgia) and went to the College Football Playoff.

They got an extremely easy draw as a five-seed in the CFP, facing Clemson and Arizona State before running into a wall in the semifinals against Ohio State, the eventual national champion. As it turns out, easy scheduling has been a perk the Horns enjoyed last year and will enjoy again in 2025. The argument could be made that Texas went 0-3 against the only elite competition they faced in 2024, losing to Georgia (twice) and Ohio State.

Look, it’s no secret that Texas was miles ahead of OU in 2024. The rivals faced off in October, as they do every year, and the Longhorns walked out of Dallas with a convincing 34-3 win. Clearly, they are in a much better position than the Sooners are right now.

However, the way the SEC sets its conference schedules is playing a big part in the divide between the two programs.

The conference plays an eight-game league schedule, though it could be shifting to nine games (like the other elite conference, the Big Ten, already has) as soon as 2026. The SEC set things up in such a way that, starting in 2024 when OU and Texas entered the league and the member count became 16 programs, each team would have one permanent rival that they played every year. The Red River Rivalry is that permanent matchup for the two new programs. Then, you played seven teams in home-and-home fashion in 2024 and 2025 and the other seven teams in home-and-home fashion in 2026 and 2027, while still keeping your one permanent rival.

That meant that you’d play your most bitter rival all four seasons and you’d see the other 14 teams twice in that four-year stretch, once at home and once on the road.

That’s all fine and good, but the way the SEC set up the schedules was the problem.

In 2024, Oklahoma’s eight conference opponents ended with a regular-season conference win percentage of .625. Texas, on the other hand saw their eight conference opponents finish with a regular-season conference win percentage of a measly .375. The Longhorns played just one of the seven teams in the top eight of the league standings, and it was a home loss against Georgia. The Sooners played just one of the seven teams in the bottom eight of the league standings, and it was a road win against Auburn.

OU and Texas will play the same teams they played in 2024, just with the locations flipped. It’s an issue that CBS Sports college football expert Josh Pate brought to light on his show “Josh Pate’s College Football Show” earlier this week.

“The schedule-makers in the SEC have shafted Oklahoma as it relates to Texas,” Pate said. “The strength of schedule dynamic and disparity between one and the other has been a joke”

The Sooners drew Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, Missouri, South Carolina, and Auburn in the first two seasons in the SEC. Texas got Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas A&M, Florida, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Mississippi State. There’s a noticeable difference in quality there, and it’ll be the same opponents again in 2025. Both schools add non-conference dates against the class of the Big Ten, as Oklahoma plays the 2023 national champions (Michigan) and Texas faces the reigning champ, Ohio State.

“They (Texas) have got the easiest conference schedule in this league,” Pate said. “It’s not easy; I said it’s the easiest in the SEC. Compare that to what Oklahoma’s gotta play, or what Florida’s gotta play. It’s like different worlds. And somehow, these are all league schedules, these are all conference schedules … the league schedule in the SEC makes no sense whatsoever.”

The SEC used the results of the 10 seasons prior to Oklahoma and Texas’ entrance into the SEC as the basis for their scheduling. During that 10-year stretch, Oklahoma made the College Football Playoff four times and won six Big 12 championships. Texas struggled through the last decade of their Big 12 tenure but finally had a bit of success in the final year in the league in 2023, winning the conference title and making the playoff.

But the decade of results set the stage for what we saw in scheduling for 2024 and 2025. Namely, Texas getting one of the softer schedules in the nation.

Oklahoma’s schedule in 2024 consisted of the entire top half of the league besides Georgia. Texas’ schedule consisted of the entire bottom half of the league besides Auburn. Once again, all of those opponents will stay the same in 2025. Those are the kinds of statistics that lead experts covering the sport to question what college football’s premier conference is doing when it comes to league scheduling.

Josh Pate criticizes SEC schedule makers for Oklahoma, Texas disparity…….

Josh Pate criticizes SEC schedule makers for Oklahoma, Texas disparity…….

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