The Oklahoma Sooners are two weeks away from kicking off their 2025 season. OU’s first game will come at home against Illinois State on August 30th. The Sooners are looking to keep their 26-season streak of making a bowl game alive this year, but they hope to achieve much more than just another bowl game in 2025.
Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach cover college football for ESPN, and they released their preseason bowl projections on Friday morning. Both believe that Oklahoma will make it to a 27th-straight bowl game, but will fall short of the College Football Playoff.
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Bonagura has the Sooners slated to play in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, which will be played in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 30th. Oklahoma’s projected opponent in that game is Minnesota, out of the Big Ten.
The Sooners are undefeated all-time against the Golden Gophers, with both wins coming in the late-Barry Switzer era. OU won a close 13-7 contest on the road in 1985 on its way to a national title, then dominated Minnesota 63-0 at home in 1986.
Missouri beat Iowa in the 2024 edition of the Music City Bowl.
Meanwhile, Schlabach has Oklahoma renewing an old conference rivalry with Baylor. He has the Sooners and the Bears facing off in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, which will be played in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 2nd.
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The two teams have faced off 33 total times. OU owns a 28-5 advantage in the series, but Baylor has won the last two matchups, which came in 2021 and 2022. The two teams played two thrillers in 2019, with Oklahoma ruining Baylor’s undefeated season by coming back from a 28-3 deficit in Waco in the regular season to win 34-31. The rematch came in the Big 12 Championship Game, where the Sooners won in overtime 30-23, bumping the Bears out of the College Football Playoff race and securing a spot themselves.
Arkansas beat Texas Tech in the 2024 edition of the Liberty Bowl.
A berth in the Music City Bowl or the Liberty Bowl certainly isn’t where Sooner Nation hopes this season will end up. However, the opportunity to play a historic team from the Big Ten or get some revenge against an old league foe would, at least, be a fun consolation prize if that’s how 2025 turns out.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Who does Oklahoma play in ESPN’s preseason bowl projections?
