OU Football: Sooners Open as Underdogs in Bulk of SEC Schedule

Oklahoma’s move to the SEC means many things for the Sooners, including an abundance of marquee matchups. 

Next season, OU and Texas will make the move from the Big 12 to the SEC and look to have an instant impact in the nation’s premier college football conference. That will not be an easy task for Brent Venables and the Sooners, who missed the Big 12 Championship in the past three seasons after winning six straight titles.

As college football inches closer to the beginning of a new season, Circa Sports released betting lines for select games it considers to be the games of the year. With a gauntlet of a schedule in the SEC, the Sooners had six games featured on the list.

All conference matchups, OU’s first entry on the list comes in its first SEC game when it hosts Tennessee as a two-point favorite. To cap a four-game home stand to begin the 2024 season, the Sooners are favored against the Volunteers in a matchup that could help vault the Sooners up the rankings.

However, Circa Sports’ confidence in the Sooners ends in September, with OU listed as underdogs in the remaining five games. Beginning with the annual Red River Shootout matchup against Texas in mid-October, OU opens as eight-point underdogs in the game’s first 2:30 kickoff in recent years.

The Sooners will finish October at Ole Miss, with the Rebels opening as a five-point favorite. OU will get a break against Maine to begin November before finishing the season with its toughest three-game stretch.

OU will visit former conference foe Missouri as two-point underdogs before finishing with games against the two heavyweights of the SEC West. The Sooners host Alabama as two-point underdogs and end the regular season at LSU as five-point underdogs.

Although the adjustment to a new, deeper conference will come with challenges, if the Sooners can’t overcome the odds, a five-loss season would be a disappointing start to a new era.

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