Oklahoma Football: Rival Cowboys Elevated Above Sooners in ESPN Post-Spring Top-25

Fans of Oklahoma football aren’t going to like hearing this.

In the third edition of ESPN’s way-too-early college football projections for 2017, what it is calling the Post-Spring Top 25, the Sooners are holding steady in the No. 8 position.

That’s all well and good, but here’s the rub: Oklahoma State is ranked two spots ahead of Oklahoma at No. 6.

The previous ESPN 2017 top-25 projections had Oklahoma State at No. 10. The other especially noteworthy change in the top-10 portion of the ESPN forecast for the 2017 college football season is the reordering at the top of the rankings, with Ohio State moving ahead of Florida State and Alabama. The most recent ESPN way-too-early ranking had the Crimson Tide at No. 1 and Florida State at No. 2.

USC, Penn State, OSU, Clemson, Oklahoma, Washington and Auburn round out the top 10.

ESPN senior writer Mark Schlabach had this to say about the Sooners and the Cowboys, looking ahead to the fall:

"“Quarterback Baker Mayfield might be back, but the Sooners spent the spring trying to reload at the skill positions,” Schlabach writes.“Abdul Adams, Rodney Anderson, early enrollee Trey Sermon and juco transfer Marcelius Sutton shared carries this spring. Jeffery Mead a 6-foot-5 senior looks to be in line to replace Dede Westbrook as OU’s go-to receiver.“With eight offensive linemen with starting experience returning, the Sooners should once again have one of the country’s most explosive offenses.”"

“With quarterback Mason Rudolph and wide receiver James Washington deciding to return for their senior seasons, the Cowboys already looked primed to challenge Oklahoma for a Big 12 title,” Schlabach says.

“Then the Pokes added two graduate transfers (a Clemson cornerback and an offensive left tackle out of the University of California), who might be able to help right away…and an LSU receiver who sat out last season under NCAA transfer rules and appears ready to be another offensive weapon.

"“Of course,” Schlabach is quick to point out, “if the Cowboys are going to win their first Big 12 championship since 2011, they’ll probably have to beat the Sooners in the Bedlam Series, which they’ve done only twice since 2003.”"

Now that I’ve got you Sooner fans all in an uproar – a full four months before the kickoff of the 2017 season – you can take heart in knowing that another ESPN writer, Jake Trotter, who writes about the Big 12, has Oklahoma firmly at the top in his spring 2017 edition of the Big 12 Power Rankings.

Oklahoma State is No. 2, followed by Kansas State, West Virginia, Texas, TCU, Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Kansas.