SEC expert Paul Finebaum sees a different 2024 Oklahoma team than most of his peers

Oklahoma is coming from a conference it totally dominated in college football to one where it becomes one of many teams that are the Sooners' equal if not even better.

The Sooners won their seventh and most recent national championship in a perfect 13-0 2000 season. Since then, though, five different SEC teams have won 14 national championships, including a remarkable seven in a row from 2006-12.

"To be the best, you have to play the best," legendary Sooner head coach Bob Stoops always said. Oklahoma is certainly going to get that opportunity as a new member of the conference long considered the best in college football. In the upcoming 2024 season alone, Oklahoma is scheduled to face six SEC teams expected to rank ahead of the Sooners when the Associated Press and Coaches Poll preseason top-25 rankings come out this month.

Most college football experts have Oklahoma finishing seventh or eighth in the SEC standings this season with an 8-4 or 7-5 overall record. The Sooners were picked to finish eighth in the SEC Preseason Media Poll.

Earlier this week, On3's JD PicKell, on his "The Hard Count" podcast, sent shock waves throughout Sooner Nation by projecting that Oklahoma would win just six games and finish with a 6-6 record in its maiden season in the SEC.

ESPN analyst and SEC champion Paul Finebaum, who at one time was highly critical of Bob Stoops and Oklahoma, especially the former Oklahoma head coach's suggestion that the Big 12 was a stronger conference top to bottom than the SEC, has a much different view of how well the Sooners will do this coming season, despite an incredibly challenging conference schedule.

"I think Oklahoma is a 9-3 team. I've been out there a couple of times this year, in April and July, and had a chance to be around coach Brent Venables and the rest of the staff. I'm really high on what's happening out there."

- ESPN and SEC analyst Paul Finebaum

If Oklahoma is fortunate enough to pocket as many as nine wins in 2024 while navigating one of the more difficult schedules in the country, the Sooners would almost certainly secure one of the 12 spots in the newly expanded College Football Playoff.

The ESPN College Football Power Index gives OU just a 5.1 percent chance to win the SEC, but a 36.6 percent chance to make the CFP this season for the first time since 2019.