Oklahoma State’s 2024-25 schedule is complete.

On Thursday, the Big 12 announced the conference slate for next season. With men’s basketball taking on a new 20-game schedule, the conference is set for one of the most chaotic seasons in recent memory.

As the Steve Lutz era begins, OSU is looking to enter a more successful chapter after Mike Boynton made the NCAA Tournament only once in seven tries. With Lutz at the helm, OSU will navigate a solid nonconference schedule before starting Big 12 play against Houston in late December.

Cowboy Basketball’s 2024-25 Big 12 Schedule:

Dec. 30: Houston
Jan. 4: at West Virginia
Jan. 7: Kansas State
Jan. 11: at Utah
Jan. 14: at BYU
Jan. 18: Colorado
Jan. 21: Arizona
Jan. 26: at Texas Tech
Jan. 29: at Kansas State
Feb. 1: Utah
Feb. 4: at Houston
Feb. 9: Arizona State
Feb. 12: at TCU
Feb. 15: Texas Tech
Feb. 19: UCF
Feb. 22: at Kansas
Feb. 25: Iowa State
March 1: at Baylor
March 5: at UCF
March 8: Cincinnati

Under Lutz, the Cowboys have completely revamped their roster after losing most of last season’s contributors. With a mix of veterans and young players, OSU is likely to have some growing pains as it enters conference play.

Still, the Cowboys have plenty of players ready to prove they can compete in the Big 12, and OSU has an opportunity to be a surprise team next season. Any improvement from last season would be a step in the right direction, and a few upsets against some of the nation’s best could be significant for the program.

Meanwhile, the Cowgirls and Jacie Hoyt are set to begin their first season in a 16-team league. Unlike the men’s, Big 12 women’s basketball will stay at an 18-game slate next season.

After making the NCAA Tournament in her first season, the Cowgirls’ bad injury luck destroyed their chances of making it again last season. With a revamped roster, including some instant impact transfers, OSU could be a sneaky good team in the conference next season.

Cowgirl Basketball’s 2024-25 Big 12 Schedule:

Dec. 21: Iowa State
Jan. 1: at Baylor
Jan. 4: Kansas
Jan. 8: at Cincinnati
Jan. 11: West Virginia
Jan. 14: at Houston
Jan. 18: at UCF
Jan. 22: TCU
Jan. 25: at Texas Tech
Jan. 29: Arizona State
Feb. 1: at West Virginia
Feb. 8: Kansas State
Feb. 12: Arizona
Feb. 15: at BYU
Feb. 18: at Utah
Feb. 22: Colorado
Feb. 26: Cincinnati
March 2: at Kansas

READ MORE: Oklahoma State’s Playoff Hopes Rely on Week 5 Result

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NORMAN — Brent Venables has made his decision. 

True freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. will start this week at Auburn, and he’ll become the first OU true freshman quarterback to make his first start on the road since Troy Aikman against Kansas in 1984.

Auburn week was always going to be crucial for Venables’ No. 21-ranked Sooners (3-1, 0-1 SEC), as it was expected to be the first true road start for Jackson Arnold. 

Though the situation has gone differently than anyone expected at quarterback, the fact still remains that a first time road starter will have to take on a desperate group in the Tigers (2-2, 0-1).

“We as coaches gotta be the headlights for our players,” Venables said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “They’ve never been a two-year veteran yet. Mike hasn’t. He hasn’t played a whole bunch of college football. He hasn’t been to that stadium.”

Much like last week’s battle with Tennessee, Sunday wasn’t the first time Auburn was brought up to the offense. 

The Sooners dedicated bits and pieces of the offseason to looking ahead to SEC play, as OU is taking on eight new conference opponents for the first time this year. 

That prep work included a quick crash course on everything to expect inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. 

“(We) try to paint the picture. Accurate picture,” Venables said. “Pump in the crowd noise, tell him to focus on the things you can control. If he’s a strong-minded guy, he’ll do that. Try to think about the process. Think about managing things the right way, don’t try to do too much, and all those kinds of things.

“… We’ve been talking about going to Auburn for several months. So, if he’s been paying attention, this isn’t the first time he’s hearing about it.”

When he was at Clemson, Venables coached on the plains, so he has some experience to draw on to prepare his football team. 

“Got a great opponent… a great history and tradition in Auburn University,” Venables said. “… It’s electric. They’ve got tremendous tradition and pageantry. They’ll be deep. They’re hungry. Very much like what we saw here. Our fans were (just) amazing. It’ll be an environment like that.”

Oklahoma does have some experience to lean on in its quarterback room, however. 

Though he’s not in line to take snaps if everything goes to plan this weekend, Casey Thompson has been through the highs and lows of running an offense in college football. 

He’s dealt with transferring from Texas to Nebraska to FAU, he’s dealt with injuries and he’s battled through multiple quarterback competitions. 

The Sooners have leaned on Thompson to help both Jackson Arnold and Hawkins, and getting a young quarterback prepared to handle a hostile environment is no different. 

“He’s been there, done that,” Venables said of Thompson. “He’s started a gazillion games, played a lot of ball, been in a lot of meeting rooms, seen a lot of that kind of stuff happen, and so he’s got tremendous wisdom. 

“… He’s going to be a coach. He’ll be a fantastic coach. He’s kind of a coach now. But he’s been wonderful. He’s very intentional, constantly, about using the gifts that he has to make people around him better. … We have a great appreciation for Casey.”

Hawkins will have an excellent opportunity to build on his second half showing against Tennessee and make the quarterback job his own on Saturday. 

And Oklahoma is doing everything it can to prepare its new young starter to take on the unknown against the Tigers. 

“He’ll have to bear a heavy burden, like a lot of guys,” Venables said. “So you try to coach ‘em and prepare him in a week’s period of time.”

OKLAHOMA CITY — Hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans whose voter registration was deleted in recent years roughly reflect the overall layout of party affiliation in the state, though Democrats and independents were overrepresented among voters deleted for inactivity.

Of the voters removed in the past 24 months, 46.6% were Republicans, 31.2% were Democrats, 21.4% were independents and 0.79% were Libertarians, according to an analysis by Oklahoma Voice of records available from the state Election Data Warehouse. This generally tracks with party affiliation trends of Oklahoma voters who are still registered. 

Over the past two years, Oklahoma removed 241,113 people from voter rolls, according to the state Election Data Warehouse, which keeps detailed records of deleted voters for 24 months after removal. The state recently announced more than 453,000 voter registrations have been removed through routine auditing since Jan. 1, 2021, a span of time that extends beyond legally required recordkeeping.

More than 2.38 million people are registered to vote in Oklahoma. Most voters who have been removed can register again. Those who wish to cast a ballot in the Nov. 5 General Election must register by Oct. 11.

The most common reason that registrations were deleted is because the voter moved to a different county or state, according to Data Warehouse records.

The second-most common deletions were for inactive voters, a group that differs more noticeably from party affiliation lines. Others were removed because they have died, been convicted of a felony or were deemed in court to be mentally incapacitated, among other less-common reasons.

State records show 83,701 voter registrations were deleted for inactivity. Most of these Oklahomans haven’t voted since 2016 or before, data shows.

Just under half of deleted inactive voters were from the same four counties: Oklahoma, Tulsa, Cleveland and Canadian, the only four counties in the state with 100,000 or more registered voters. About 55% of inactivity deletions came from less populous counties, according to a review of Election Warehouse data.

Democrats and independents made up a larger share of deleted inactive voters than their proportion of Oklahoma voters overall. While Democrats represent about 27.5% of registered voters in the state, they made up 34% of registrations deleted for inactivity. 

The numbers are even more disproportionate for independents, who represent 30% of the deleted inactive voters but make up only 19.5% of total registered voters in Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, about 52% of Oklahomans are registered Republicans, and about 35% of voters deleted for inactivity were registered with the GOP.

It’s no surprise that Democrats and independents show greater inactivity than Republicans in Oklahoma, said Pat McFerron, a conservative campaign consultant and polling expert. 

The vast majority of consequential partisan elections in Oklahoma are decided in Republican primaries, well before Democrats and independents get the chance to weigh in, McFerron said. Very few General Election races in the state are competitive enough to be decided by 10% or less of the vote.

When pollsters like McFerron call inactive voters, many say they’re unlikely to vote because they’re not interested in government and politics, he said, and the other common response is “they just don’t think their vote matters.”

Only the Democratic Party in Oklahoma has opened its primary elections to independent voters. The state’s Republican and Libertarian parties have not.

Implementing open or unified primaries could help engage more people, McFerron said. These concepts would allow registered voters to participate in primary elections regardless of their party affiliation, and it could make every candidate accountable to every voter.

A campaign to bring open or unified elections to Oklahoma is underway. McFerron said he is working with the initiative.

“Oklahoma is now 50th in the nation in voter turnout for November elections, and if we don’t do something to change it, we’re going to continue to have less and less civic engagement,” McFerron said.

Democratic campaign consultant Adam Graham agreed that open primaries could be a significant help, as would automatic voter registration or other measures to make it easier to register to vote.

Campaign messaging also must improve, he said.

Candidates of both parties are pushing to the extreme ends of the political spectrum and are too focused on culture-war issues, Graham said. That leaves moderate voters feeling left out and less inclined to show up to the polls. 

“I think we’ve got to start giving voters a message from candidates that they are interested in hearing about,” Graham said. “Property taxes, groceries, schools, teachers being paid. We’ve got to get back to the nuts and bolts of state government.”