The Oklahoma Sooners announced Saturday that they moved the season opener against the State of Missouri to August 29, a week earlier than scheduled.
The NCAA approved a waiver request from both schools to move the game, originally scheduled for September 5, to allow for scheduling flexibility amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The move now gives the Sooners a week off between each of their first three games, with their second game scheduled for Sept. 12 against Tennessee and the third game scheduled for Sept. 26 in Army.
“If the season is allowed to start as scheduled, the benefit of extra time between games will help our teams handle any variety of possible circumstances that may occur,” Oklahoma athletic 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 five weeks to play three games.”
“It provides us with a more gradual approach to safely managing the conditions of these unprecedented times. We are grateful to the State of Missouri for their cooperation during this process and to the NCAA for allowing both teams to start the season a week early.”
Despite the fact that two other Power 5 conferences made the decision to play only conference games this season, Big 12 has yet to make any decisions regarding scheduling changes, and league members still hope they can play the 12 games. The NCAA board of governors met on Friday to discuss the possibilities of the fall sports championships, but decided to delay any decision until August.
.
