NORMAN — Mark your calendars, Oklahoma’s 2026 schedule is here. The conference schedule includes different opponents from OU’s first two seasons in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Texas A&M. The Sooners will still play South Carolina, as well as its three permanent opponents — Texas, Mississippi and Missouri.

Here are three keys for OU’s defense against Alabama.

The Oklahoma Sooners are trying to finish the 2025 college football season with a championship run that begins with a first-round playoff matchup with the Alabama Crimson Tide on Dec. 19 in Norman. After a 10-2 season, the Sooners found out during the SEC schedule reveal when they'll play their 2026 opponents.

The schedule will be tough, regardless of what happens with these teams this offseason. The SEC is tough every single week, no matter the team. We saw that with the Sooners this season. They won so many one-score games, even against teams that weren’t that great, like the LSU Tigers.

Though the matchups were already known, the Sooners got the dates for their first nine-game SEC football schedule on Thursday night.

Fresh off a loss to Ole Miss at home, the Sooners were in need of a change. With two losses already in the season, OU needed to power through the rest of the schedule to make the playoffs — and they did just that.

As OU readies for Friday’s College Football Playoff game against Alabama, the Sooners have an advantage almost no other Power Four playoff team has.

The Southeastern Conference announced its 2026 football schedule Thursday evening, completing Oklahoma's 12-game 2026 regular season football slate.

A brutal November awaited with consecutive matchups against preseason No. 24 Tennessee, No. 8 Alabama, Missouri and No. 9 LSU. And while the magnitude of the games shifted a bit as the season went on, it still was as tough of a closing stretch as there was in college football.