There will be no easy Friday nights when Sulphur opens a new era of football this September, a season that will include a brutal three-game opening stretch of teams loaded with state championship trophies.
The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association recently released the new district classifications for all football classes, putting Sulphur in Class 3A-2, the same district as last season.
The schedule will apply for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, then the district alignment process will be revamped for the 2028 and 2029 season.
Sulphur’s traditional rivalry games with Washington and Davis to start the season haven’t changed, but the Bulldogs will add Texas powerhouse Gunter to the non-district slate. Those three opponents combined sport a total of 15 state championships, giving the Dogs arguably one of the toughest non-district schedules in the state.
Corey Cole
Sulphur’s 2026 football schedule is shown above as they enter this year’s season with six new opponents.
This week, head Sulphur coach Corey Cole, who took over program’s reins after the 2022 season, offered his insight into the new schedule. The Dog’s will open the season on September 4 against traditional rival, Washington.
“Washington has made the championship game five years in a row and has won three championships during that stretch and the last two games against us have been incredibly good,” he said.
Sulphur ended the Warriors’ 45-game winning streak in last September’s opener, and went on unimpeded to the state championship game where they lost to Lincoln Christian in another nail-bitter.
After Washington, the Dogs will focus on old foe Davis in the Murray County Bedlam series. “Davis has seven total state championships with their most recent in 2024, and the Murray County Bedlam match-up is always one of the best in the state,” said Cole.
Another team familiar with state championship programs is Sulphur’s third and final non-district opponent. “Gunter, Texas has five state championships in the last 10 years and is one of the premier programs in Texas, and this will be one that everyone in southern Oklahoma and north Texas will be excited for,” said Cole.
He said the Dogs, state runner- up winners the last two years, have not changed their goals and outlook on their upcoming season.
“Our goals remain unchanged - we want to win a district championship, practice on Thanksgiving, and play in the last game of our classification. To achieve these goals, we believe that you must play a very tough non-district schedule and play the best competition possible so that our kids will be tested and we can find our weaknesses and areas that we need to improve in before district play begins. Our goal is to not be 3-0 to start the season, our goal is to make sure we are getting better every day and every week and putting our kids in tough physical games against Washington, Davis, and Gunter, TX will definitely push us to our limits.”
Following the tough-as-nails three-game opening stretch to start the season, the Dogs will settle into the Class 3A-2 district with only two teams on the slate from a year ago.
“Only Lone Grove and Seminole return from the previous year, and both teams made the playoffs a year ago with Lone Grove finishing as the runner-up behind Sulphur in what has been a very tough district,” said Cole The Bulldogs will add Madill, Idabel, Kingston, Star Spencer, and Pauls Valley to the new district.
“Kingston has been a quarter- finalist team the past two seasons in 2A-1, and Idabel has been a playoff team in 3A the last two years including a quarter finalist appearance at Sulphur in 2024,” said Cole. “Madill and Pauls Valley have always been familiar opponents to the Bulldogs as both have been in the district many times through the years.”
The Bulldogs are coming off a 13-1 season from a year ago and are 25-3 under Cole’s leadership.
“Spring football is just around the corner and our kids are ready to get back to work,” said Cole.
2026-27 OKLAHOMA CLASS 3A DISTRICT FOOTBALL TEAMS
