By JOHN E. HOOVER Sports Columnist on Nov 20, 2012, at 7:09 PM Updated on 11/20 at 7:54 PM
GAME POINT
Between innings at the Women’s College World Series on Tuesday, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione discussed various ...
I’d been planning this for weeks. I couldn’t chicken out now, no matter how silly it might sound.
So tonight, I asked ...
West Virginia baseball coach Randy Mazey said something during a conference call on Tuesday that I was going to use to take ...
A few randomizations and ruminations about the Big 12 Conference’s release of its 2013 football schedules on Tuesday:
* It’s the earliest anyone around here can remember the league nailing down the upcoming season. November 20? That beats the last three years — February, April and February — by a bunch. From someone who likes to plan ahead, thank you very much, associate commissioner and scheduling czar Tim Allen.
* The new schedule — which will be tweaked to accommodate the desires of television networks — has one anomaly.
TCU must go back to Oklahoma State in 2013. (Still no word on who the Cowboys will start at quarterback.)
While every other team switches between four or five home games, the Horned Frogs have five road games this year and five road games next year because they filled in Texas A&M’s spot on the schedule and the Aggies had a prior arrangement with Oklahoma State before leaving for the SEC.
* Bob Bowlsby told me consideration would be given to West Virginia, which travels more than 1,200 miles for its games into Texas. Did the Mountaineers receive any favors? Decide for yourself.
WVU’s first league game is Sept. 7 at Oklahoma, wedged in between home games against William & Mary and Georgia State. That seems like a nice gesture, though that’s a tough time of year to play a perennial conference favorite a thousand miles away.
The Mountaineers’ next three Big 12 games include two home contests mixed in with a road trip to Baylor and an open date.
But they also have a stretch of three out of four on the road: at Kansas State, at TCU, Texas in Morgantown and at Kansas. Travel-wise, that’s rough. But at least they get to finish in Lawrence long after the Jayhawks have turned their attention to Bill Self’s basketball team.
* OU and OSU both have open dates on Sept. 21 and again on Nov. 30.
The Cowboys’ first one comes before their game at WVU, and their second comes in between two home games (Baylor and OU).
The Sooners’ first comes before their game at Notre Dame and their second comes in between two road games (Kansas State and OSU).
Tulsa should benefit from the lack of state coverage elsewhere. The Golden Hurricane host Iowa State that weekend. Tulsa also visits OU the week before. It’s a banner couple of weeks for the Golden Hurricane to make statewide headlines and get some folks in the stands for a change.
* Bill Snyder has full control of Kansas State’s non-conference schedule again. The Wildcats come off a near-national championship run (OK, maybe they’re not out of it yet) with home games against North Dakota State, Louisiana and Massachusetts.
* Besides OU’s Sept. 28 game at Notre Dame, the Big 12’s most attractive non-conference matchups are Oklahoma State versus Mississippi State at Reliant Stadium in Houston (Aug. 31), TCU against LSU at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington (Aug. 31), Iowa State at Tulsa (Sept. 21), Iowa at Iowa State (Sept. 14), Tulsa at Oklahoma (Sept. 14), Texas at BYU (Sept. 7), Ole Miss at Texas (Sept. 14) and Maryland versus West Virginia at Ravens Stadium in Baltimore (Sept. 21).
* OSU’s Sept. 14 game against Lamar is the Cowboys’ latest home opener since 1998.
* OU’s Sept. 7 game against West Virginia is the Sooners’ earliest conference opener in school history. The previous? Last year against Missouri, Sept. 24.
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
