OU Football Has Been, Is and Always Will Be a Bona-fide Blue Blood
By Chip Rouse
We’re finally there – into the single digits, that is – until the full-fledged start of the season for OU football and the rest of the ever-popular college game. Nine days and counting…
And you can tell that all the media types that write and speak about college football for a living are running real short of things to say as prologue to the actual games.
How else would you describe ESPN conducting a survey to determine which programs have had the greatest impact on the history of college football and, therefore, are most worthy of the moniker “Blue Bloods”?
I know you can’t stand the suspense. Surprise, surprise: Oklahoma made the cut.
ESPN canvassed 12 of its staff members who cover college football and asked them to rate every current FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) school, on a scale of one to ten, on the basis of how much of an impact each school has had on the history of college football.
Five schools received perfect scores of 10 across the board. The Sooners were one of those, along with Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State and USC. A murderer’s row of college football elite, without question.
The remainder of the top 10 in the ESPN “Blue Blood” survey, all with scores of 9.17 or better, include Michigan, Texas, Nebraska, LSU and Penn State, pretty solid brand names in their own rite.
In describing Oklahoma’s blue-blood worthiness, one of the ESPN staff writers wrote this about the Sooners:
"“The Sooners have won 72 percent of their games since taking the field in 1895, and they’ve won 75 percent of their conference games. With seven national titles and 14 undefeated seasons, Bob Stoops’ program is a lock for blue blood status.”"
The survey also concluded that schools like Clemson, Michigan State, Texas A&M and even TCU might not be blue bloods, “but they are getting closer to the sport’s elite.”