Oklahoma and Ohio State schedule home-and-home series for 2016-17 schedule

Ben Cornfield | March 5, 2013 at 11:16 am | 0 Comments

Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops walks down the tunnel prior to the game against the Texas Christian Horned Frogs at Amon G Carter Stadium. (Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

In 2016, Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops will be jogging out of the tunnel to face the Ohio State Buckeyes in a regular season game for the very first time. (Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

According to the Oklahoma Sooners’ official athletics website, when the program hosts Ohio State in 2016, it will be Boomer’s first regular-season meeting against a Big Ten team in 30 years.

With college football switching to a playoff system in 2014, teams are working to schedule big-time out-of-conference opponents to beef up their strength of schedules. Thus, Ohio State will be making a visit to Norman in 2016 in a game that should already be getting fans of both powerhouse programs excited.

The last time a Big Ten team visited, however, Minnesota did not exactly represent, getting crushed 63-0 back in 1986.

As for the Ohio State-Oklahoma matchup, the 2016 meeting will be the third time the schools have met on the gridiron. The first meeting between these two teams came back in 1977, when Barry Switzer’s No. 3-ranked Sooners beat Woody Hayes’ No. 4 Buckeyes in a 29-28 nail-biter. That game has gone down in Sooners’ lore merely as “The Kick”, and why not?

After going up by a commanding 20-0 score, the Sooners tried to give the game back to Ohio State, committing several turnovers en route to falling behind, 28-20 late.

From there, Switzer’s squad scored but failed to convert on a two-point conversion. Down 28-26 with less than two minutes remaining, the Sooners recovered an onside kick, drove the ball into Ohio State territory, setting up Uwe von Schamann for a 41-yarder with only six seconds remaining.

The young man nailed it, quieting the Buckeye faithful and earning himself a place in Oklahoma lore.

If the 2016 game in Norman (and the 2017 battle out in the The Shoe in Columbus) can provide the same type of intense and elite game play, fans of college football everywhere will be thanking the scheduling gods for quite some time.