How much Oklahoma will pay, receive for 2023 non-conference football opponents

Unless your team gets upset, you don’t often hear the figures when it comes to what teams pay or receive to schedule a contest. However, George Stoia of Sooner Scoop just shared exactly what Oklahoma is going to pay, and actually receive one year in a specific case, for their non-conference slate this fall.

Stoia shared the figures earlier this afternoon on Twitter. According to his numbers, their opener against Arkansas State will cost them over $1.3 million while their matchup with SMU the following week will cost them less at $400,000. Their third game at Tulsa, though, which is part of a series, comes with a rather different payment plan.

What Oklahoma will pay/receive for its non-con opponents this year:

Arkansas State: -$1.35M
SMU: -$400K
*Tulsa: +$300K

*Tulsa will pay OU $300K this year. OU will pay Tulsa $300K in 2030. And then OU will pay an additional $1M in 2033 for the entire series, so $1M total.

— Summer of George (@GeorgeStoia) August 18, 2023

The series with the Golden Hurricanes comes with three payments. The home team will start this season by actually paying the Sooners to come to Chapman Stadium. Then, in 2030, OU will pay back the same amount when Tulsa comes to play in Norman. Finally, 2033, when they make their second trip to Memorial Stadium, is when they’ll get their big payout of one million dollars from Oklahoma.

Up front, a stretch that Oklahoma is hoping is a 3-0 start will cost them $1.45 million. By the time that Tulsa gets what they’re owed in ’33, though, this tab will ring up to $2.75 million for the Sooners.

Oklahoma schedules Houston for home-and-home series

Oklahoma’s schedule is going to kick up a notch next fall when they head into the Southeastern Conference. However, the Sooners are keeping in touch with their Big 12 roots to a degree based on their latest announced opponent for 2024.

Per George Stoia of Sooner Scoop, Oklahoma has scheduled a home and home with the Houston Cougars. This news came via Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione in a statement. Houston will come to Norman next fall and play on September 7th. A return visit to TDECU Stadium won’t then come until 2028 for OU.

Source: Oklahoma will play Houston at home in 2024 to fulfill the SEC's Power 5 non-conference requirement. It will be a home-and-home with the #Sooners traveling to Houston in 2028.

— Summer of George (@GeorgeStoia) August 11, 2023

Oklahoma and Houston won’t be meeting in the Sooner’s final year in the Big 12 this season. Seven of the Cougar’s nine conference games are against former members of the Big 12, including Texas and Oklahoma State, but they dodged the Sooners. That face might be a driving factor in how this came together.

The two schools have met four times ever with the last game coming in 2019. Oklahoma boasts a 3-1 record in those contests with the Cougar’s only win coming in a game in 2016.

As part of Stoia’s report, he added that the school has also scheduled Maine for ’24. They will join the Cougars as well as Temple and Tulane as Oklahoma’s non-conference opponents.