Sooners start year of juggling schedules getting opener moved forward

Oklahoma has gotten approval from the NCAA to move its season-opening game against Bobby Petrino’s Missouri State team up to Aug. 29 in a year where schedules will be fluid.

Nobody really even knows how many games Power 5 conferences are going to try and squeeze in but going through all this to have the Big 12 go to conference games only seems to be a waste of everybody’s time.

It could be a clue. Maybe it’s not.

While some people like to look at the knee-jerk reactions in the Big 10 and Pac 12 have gotten everybody looking at 10-game seasons, it might be a little premature. The Pac 12 has tried for the last century to do everything the Big 10 does.

Maybe the SEC, Big 12 and ACC will follow along, but don’t count on it.

At this point, the normal pre-planning required for a school to host a game is a little different. Fans aren’t really much of a consideration although it should be up to each individual and how much risk they’re willing to take.

In Arkansas, even with a positive test regardless of your age or health the odds of survival after Saturday’s numbers are 99%.

For the athletes at the UA down to the pee wee level, the chance of dying or even getting seriously ill has so many zeroes on the right side of the decimal it’s literally negligible. Folks who are at-risk should stay away from as many people as possible.

The Sooners, though, aren’t quite ready to just throw the green light up high and tell fans to start making their travel plans.

“If the season is indeed permitted to start as scheduled, the benefit of extra time between games will help our teams manage any variety of possible circumstances that may occur,” Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione said in a statement. “Our original schedule had an open date between the second and third games, so now we will have a span of five weeks to play three games.

“It provides us a more gradual approach to safely manage the conditions of these unprecedented times. We’re thankful to Missouri State for their cooperation during this process and to the NCAA for allowing both teams to start the season a week earlier.”

The Sooners won’t be playing a 10-game conference-only schedule. They already play the other nine schools in the conference.

It does give them some flexibility in the scheduling, though.

Which is probably going to be the first shuffle in what’s going to be a schedule that could change frequently.