\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe University of Oklahoma announced its home opener during the 2026-27 football season will now take place on a Friday, one day earlier than initially scheduled. The Sooners will now face UTEP in Norman on Friday, Sept. 4. The team’s only other Friday night regular season home game was two years ago against Temple. “Moving our home opener against UTEP to Friday night presents a unique opportunity to showcase Oklahoma Football,” said University of Oklahoma Vice President and Director of Athletics Roger Denny. The game will be streamed on the SEC Network+, and kickoff is set for 7 p.m. “The game will be streamed digitally, which allows us to be more intentional about selecting a date and kickoff time. Historically, early-season games in Oklahoma can present significant heat challenges, and a Friday night kickoff provides a more comfortable environment for our student-athletes, fans and game-day staff. It also allows our fans to enjoy an electric atmosphere in Norman while making the most of the remainder of Labor Day weekend. We’re excited to welcome Sooner Nation back to Owen Field for a rare Friday night game under the lights,” Denny said. The last time OU played on a Friday night, they defeated Temple 51-3. “Friday night games are rare for us, especially at home,” said OU Head Coach Brent Venables. “So the opportunity to open our season under the lights on a Friday evening on Owen Field is exciting for our team. I expect the environment to be absolutely incredible, and I know our players will feed off that electricity.”OU, which is starting its fifth season under Venables, has won 20 straight home openers.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tNORMAN, Okla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The University of Oklahoma announced its home opener during the 2026-27 football season will now take place on a Friday, one day earlier than initially scheduled. <\/p>\n
The Sooners will now face UTEP in Norman on Friday, Sept. 4. The team’s only other Friday night regular season home game was two years ago against Temple. <\/p>\n
“Moving our home opener against UTEP to Friday night presents a unique opportunity to showcase Oklahoma Football,” said University of Oklahoma Vice President and Director of Athletics Roger Denny. <\/p>\n
The game will be streamed on the SEC Network+, and kickoff is set for 7 p.m. <\/p>\n
“The game will be streamed digitally, which allows us to be more intentional about selecting a date and kickoff time. Historically, early-season games in Oklahoma can present significant heat challenges, and a Friday night kickoff provides a more comfortable environment for our student-athletes, fans and game-day staff. It also allows our fans to enjoy an electric atmosphere in Norman while making the most of the remainder of Labor Day weekend. We’re excited to welcome Sooner Nation back to Owen Field for a rare Friday night game under the lights,” Denny said. <\/p>\n
The last time OU played on a Friday night, they defeated Temple 51-3. <\/p>\n
“Friday night games are rare for us, especially at home,” said OU Head Coach Brent Venables. “So the opportunity to open our season under the lights on a Friday evening on Owen Field is exciting for our team. I expect the environment to be absolutely incredible, and I know our players will feed off that electricity.”<\/p>\n
OU, which is starting its fifth season under Venables, has won 20 straight home openers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The University of Oklahoma announced its home opener during the 2026-27 football season will now take place on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[919,7,123893,17392,148,27025,1191,1135,123895,123894,189,185,983,82580,381,4613],"class_list":["post-932386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-fan","tag-football","tag-friday-night-game","tag-home-opener","tag-kickoff","tag-light","tag-norman","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-vice-president","tag-owen-field","tag-season","tag-team","tag-temple","tag-unique-opportunity","tag-university","tag-utep"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116836121058087848","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}