Wimbledon is over, the British Open and the Tour de France have concluded for this
year, and the 2024 Summer Olympics start in a few days. Oh, and the Little League
World Series is coming up.
All of that can mean only one thing — college football season is almost here.
Yet another year looms at the corner of Lindsay and Jenkins, and this season will be
different than anything we’ve seen before, now that the SEC is a reality and the Big 12 is
in the rearview mirror.
As usual, the travel arrangements have long since been made. In fact, I got hotel
reservations for most everything the day they announced the actual schedule back in
December. Of course, as I have mentioned before, the cheapest hotel room I could find
in Oxford, Miss., was $600 a night, which means we are staying elsewhere for that one.
I have to confess — this season seems really strange to me going in, because we
have three road trips to places I have never been before, and that hasn’t happened to
me in literally decades.
Playing most of these teams isn’t new — I’ve seen us play every team in the current
SEC before except South Carolina and Mississippi State, and that’s only because we’ve
never played South Carolina or Mississippi State. But Auburn, Ole Miss, and LSU —
that’s all new territory as far as heading there for a road game.
I have had conference road game logistics dialed in for many years, and for good
reason. I mean, the fewest number of road games I have been to at any single
conference opponent (other than Texas, of course) with whom we have shared a
conference for more than a year is five, best I can tell.
Last year we had one new destination in BYU. Yes, we hadn’t ever played at
Cincinnati’s stadium, but we had played them in Cincinnati before, at least, so I had
some experience there.
And I even have some road game experience in the SEC, as well. So when we go to
Tennessee and Alabama next season, those won’t be new venues — I’ve seen us win at
both places. Missouri and A&M are familiar as well, for obvious reasons. But that leaves
11 new venues to visit over the next few years, and I’m looking forward to each and
every one of them.
Football road trips are always more fun when you can squeeze in other stuff. Last
year in Cincinnati, we managed to catch the Reds’ last home game while we were there,
plus the Bengals on Monday Night Football against the Rams.
Our first road trip this season we will do much the same. We are staying in Atlanta for
the Auburn game, and plan to catch the Braves on Friday night (and against my wife’s
Royals, to boot) and the Falcons on Sunday sandwiched around OU-Auburn on
Saturday. Auburn is about 90 miles from Atlanta, so it’s like going to Tulsa, which is
easy. Hope to make it to Toomer’s Corner while we are in town.
After that, it’s off to Oxford a few weeks later for Ole Miss. We are staying in Memphis
for that one. Looking forward to seeing the scene in The Grove and generally checking
out the genteel Southern way of college football.
No cooking allowed in The Grove, though, I’m told. The Greeks wear suits and
dresses to the games, I heard. That’s what they were doing in Tuscaloosa when we
played Bama there about 20 years ago.
The next SEC road game after that is Missouri, and I sadly have way too much
experience there. I am proud to say I have never spent a night in Columbia, Mo., and
that’s not about to change.
Back in the day, we used to fly Southwest into Kansas City, then drive over. Now, you
can’t fly Southwest into Kansas City from OKC without going somewhere else (options
included Denver, Vegas, Houston, Washington, D.C., and other equally nonsensical
places) first, so we will be non-stopping it into St. Louis.
The last road game of the season is at LSU. The bad rap LSU fans got after the 2004
Sugar Bowl was well-deserved, but that was a product of the unique circumstances of
that game. I had no problem with the LSU people when we played them in Atlanta in
2019.
Looking forward to seeing a game in Death Valley at night — and maybe getting
invited by some nice locals to have some gumbo or jambalaya or something like that.
Before I go, just want to give a plug for Sooners Helping Sooners. They are running a
fundraiser at Riverwind on August 9. Coach Switzer will be there, along with Billy Sims,
Joe Washington, JC Watts, and a few more past OU stars. It’s a great organization
dedicated to helping Sooners after their OU careers — check them out at
We are down from months to weeks in the countdown to kickoff, and soon we will be
down to days. It’s almost here, and I am really feeling it. And we get to kick off a day
early — first Friday home game in school history. See you there!
(The Road Warrior is your typical OU fan in the stands. OK, maybe not so typical
since he’s been in the stand for every Oklahoma football game, home and away, for 416
consecutive games, dating back to Oct. 12. 1991)
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