OU football: Breaking down the Sooners' new conference foes in 2024

Jun. 15—A new era of Oklahoma football is just on the horizon, and Wednesday's 2024 SEC conference schedule release offered the first glimpse of what that might look like.

Though the Sooners are still over a year away from playin their first games as members of their new conference, it doesn't take a crystal ball to see that it's going to be a battle every week in order to compete for a conference championship. They'll be getting a true SEC experience in 2024.

With trips to some of college football's greatest venues like LSU's Death Valley, The Grove at Ole Miss, Jordan-Hare Stadium and Neyland Stadium, Oklahoma will get its first road experiences at some of the conference's toughest places to play.

In addition, getting Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina in Norman will be a unique experience after over 100 years of facing similar conference opponents in the Big Eight and later the Big 12. That's not even including the annual trip to Dallas to face Texas.

Still, not including Texas, the Sooners have played a combined 107 games against the seven teams on its 2024 conference schedule, going 76-30-1 in those games. The only team on the schedule that the Sooners have never faced is South Carolina.

Here's a breakdown of the Sooners' seven new conference opponents:

Alabama (Home)

Oklahoma has faced Alabama four times since the start of the 2000's with three wins over that span. The last meeting between the two teams came in the 2018 College Football Playoffs, a 45-34 win for the Crimson Tide.

The Sooners defeated the Crimson Tide 45-31 in the 2014 Sugar Bowl and had a pair of wins in a home-and-home series in 2002 and 2003.

The first of those regular season meetings happened in Norman, when the then-second ranked Sooners saw eventual Heisman winner Jason White go down with a knee injury, but scored twice in the final 2:11 of game time, including on a 47-yard scoop-and-score by safety Eric Bassey that sealed a 37-27 win.

Roles are expected to be reversed by the time the Crimson Tide return to Norman in 2024.

The Crimson Tide, with their recent stretch of dominance, will likely enter as the favorites entering that game, much like the Sooners were in 2002, two years removed from a national title and during a stretch of three national championship appearances in five years.

Oklahoma leads the all-time series 3-2-1.

Auburn (Away)

Few teams got as tough of a draw in the recent conference schedule release than the Tigers.

Auburn is one of just two teams that has to face both Alabama and Georgia on the road in 2024. While the dates for conference games have not been released yet, it's obvious the Tigers will be battling through a brutal schedule.

Auburn hired Hugh Freeze to take over the program last November after going 9-12 in two seasons under Bryan Harsin. Freeze has shown he can bring in talent, ranking third in the 247Sports' 2023 Transfer Portal Rankings with 21 commitments.

Oklahoma has faced Auburn twice, both coming in wins at the Sugar Bowl. Most recently Oklahoma faced Auburn in the 2017 Sugar Bowl, a 35-19 win in a game that featured touchdowns from Baker Mayfield, Samaje Perine, Dede Westbrook, Mark Andrews and Joe Mixon.

LSU (Away)

It's not a true SEC conference schedule without a trip to Death Valley.

Few places have been as difficult for opposing teams as LSU's Tiger Stadium. The Tigers have 478-165-19 all-time record at home, but Tiger Stadium is perhaps best known for its night games.

Since the turn of the century, LSU has gone 96-15 in home night games. But the tide appears to be changing for the Tigers as they've found a new level of success in home day games as well, going 20-2 in such games from 2010 to the start of last season.

Of those 20 wins, 11 came against ranked opponents and 19 were against conference foes.

Like OU head coach Brent Venables, LSU's Brian Kelly will also be entering his third season at the program when the two teams meet in 2024. Kelly faced the Sooners twice while the head coach at Notre Dame, winning in Norman in 2012 and losing in South Bend, Ind. in 2013.

The two programs have met three times, but never in the regular season. LSU won the last two meetings in the 2019 CFP and the 2004 national championship game.

LSU holds a 2-1 lead over the Sooners all-time.

Missouri (Away)

Longtime conference mates in the old Big Eight and then the Big 12, Oklahoma and Missouri met 96 times from 1902 to 2011, but haven't seen each other since Missouri left for the SEC.

They met in back-to-back Big 12 Championship Games in 2007 and 2008, both of which were won by Oklahoma. The Sooners have only lost to Missouri four times since 1970, but each of those four losses were in Colombia.

The Tigers found most of their success in their new conference in the first few seasons in the SEC. They won the SEC East in 2013 and 2014, but haven't posted a winning record in the conference since.

Ole Miss (Away)

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby was brought on by Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin in his first season at the program. Lebby coached the Rebels for three seasons before moving on to Oklahoma.

The Sooners' first-ever visit to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will mark Lebby's return to Oxford and his first game against his former head coach. Kiffin is 23-13 in three seasons at Ole Miss, and seems to consistently field teams that can knock off the conference's top teams.

In 2021, the Rebels won 10 games for the first time in the program's history.

The Sooners only game against Ole Miss came in the 1999 Independence Bowl, a 27-25 loss that kicked off a 20-game OU winning streak.

South Carolina (Home)

Both South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer and quarterback Spencer Rattler could see a return to Norman if both remain with the program until 2024.

Beamer was an OU assistant coach from 2018-20 before being offered the head job at South Carolina. The Gamecocks upset Florida and Auburn in his first season at the helm and earned their first bowl berth in three seasons.

Rattler threw for over 3,000 yards with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in his first season after transferring from Oklahoma to South Carolina. He helped lead the Gamecocks to upset wins over Tennessee and Clemson in back to back weeks.

This will be Oklahoma's first-ever meeting with South Carolina.

Tennessee (Home)

Like South Carolina, Tennessee is also expected to be lead by a former Oklahoma assistant coach in Josh Heupel.

Heupel was a national championship winning quarterback at Oklahoma and was a quarterback coach for a pair of Heisman Trophy winners. The Sooners played a home-and-home with Tennessee in 2014 and 2015.

In 2015, the Sooners won a double overtime-thriller, 31-24, in Knoxville. The Sooners hold a 3-1 all-time record against the Volunteers.

Tarik Masri is the interim sports editor for The Transcript covering OU athletics and area sports. You can reach him by emailing tarik@normantranscript.com