Miami-Oklahoma moved to October

by Kartik Krishnaiyer
Canes Rising Staff

The Oklahoma Sooners, losers of the BCS title game at Dolphin Stadium will return to Miami Gardens on October 3rd for a primetime ABC game. The Miami-OU game originally scheduled for September has been moved due to the Marlins Baseball schedule, yet another reason Miami's move out of the Orange Bowl is making the program lose some of its luster.

The move of the Oklahoma game means that a distinct possibility exists that the Miami-Florida State game will be moved to Labor Day again. Money speaks louder than logic these days thanks to ESPN. Both Miami and Florida State fans seem universally against the idea of a traditional October rivalry game being played at the beginning of the year. But ESPN does not care and these days they make the rules.

The Gator Way: Scheduling Cupcakes

Okay, I know I am about to take a beating for this post. But with Miami making the long trek to Norman this week, and FSU making the long trek to Boulder next week it is the appropriate time to look at the scheduling habits of the "big three" Florida schools.

Miami's trip to Oklahoma is no doubt an attractive matchup for the TV networks. ABC will broadcast the game at Noon ET this week, as a national telecast with no regional games alongside it. This will come a week before Florida State travels to play Colorado. At the same time Florida has used the NCAA's new 12th game to schedule every directional school possible as a home matchup into the future. Florida's last trip outside the state to play a non conference opponent was in 1991, the year before I began my schooling at UF. I'm now 33 so I to think the Gators have not left the state for a non-SEC game in half of my lifetime is striking. Since Florida last left the state, Miami has made road trips to UCLA, Washington, Baylor, Penn State, Arizona, Arizona State, Houston, Louisville, Louisiana Tech Tennessee and a neutral site game against Ohio State. (among others) Florida State has made road trips to , Notre Dame, Southern Cal, Iowa State, Louisville, and neutral site games with Texas A&M and BYU. (among others)
In the next few years Miami will travel to Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Kansas State and Pittsburgh while Florida State travels to Oklahoma, Colorado, Southern Cal and West Virginia. Florida on the other hand has scheduled zero home and home series with teams from outside the state of Florida.

Florida is the best Football team in the state at the time of this writing and the school with the largest fan and alumni base as well. Wouldn't it be nice if they scheduled like a power instead of scheduling like a pansy?