OU Football Continues Climb in National Polls, Now at No. 16
By Chip Rouse
After dropping out of the national rankings after losing big to Ohio State in the third game of the season, OU football is slowly working its way back up the in the weekly college polls.
The Sooners claimed their third consecutive win in Big 12 action on Saturday, defeating Kansas State 38-17. That win advanced the Oklahoma record to 4-2 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12 and moved the Sooners up a couple more spots in both the Associated Press and the Coaches Poll this week.
Oklahoma is up to No. 16 in both national polls this week. Just three weeks ago, the Sooners dropped out of the top 25. That was after beginning the season in the No. 3 spot in both polls.
So over the course of seven weeks, the Sooners have toppled backward some 24 to 26 spots in the national rankings, depending on what poll you follow, and are now back up nine positions entering Week 8 and the midway point in the 2016 college football season.
Oklahoma and Baylor are the only two Big 12 teams currently ranked. Four Big 12 teams began the season ranked in the top 25. Baylor currently remains undefeated at 6-0 and has moved into the top 10 in both major national polls.
TCU and Oklahoma State are the two other conference teams that began the 2016 season among the nation’s top 25, but both have subsequently fallen out of the rankings.
Alabama is a near unanimous choice at No. 1 in both national polls, followed by Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson and Washington.
Although Baylor is ranked higher than Oklahoma in the two human polls, ESPN’s Football Power Index, which serves as a predictor of a team’s performance moving forward for the rest of the season, has the Sooners at No. 11 this week, eight spots higher than the Bears.
The FPI gives the now 4-2 Sooners at 54.6 percent chance of winning the Big 12 football crown this season. Baylor chances of holding down the No. 1 spot in the Big 12 at season’s end, according to the FPI, is 16.9 percent.