No. 6 — 1955 Oklahoma Sooners (11-0, 6-0), national champions
The 1955 season was virtually a repeat of the 1954 season, except that it ended with one more win. That additional win, number 11 on the season, a 20-6 thumping of third-ranked Maryland in the Orange Bowl, delivered a national championship, the second in the school’s history and the second under head coach Bud Wilkinson.
The Sooners romped through the 1955 season. A 13-6 win at North Carolina in the season opener was as close as any opponent would come against Oklahoma that season. The Sooner defense pitched five shutouts in the 1955 season, including four in a row in which Oklahoma outscored its four opponents by a combined score of 166-0.
Oklahoma teams didn’t throw many forward passes in Wilkinson’s offense, but they ran the football like a runaway freight train. In the 1955 season, four different Sooners rushed for more than 400 yards, with All-American Tommy McDonald and Clendon Thomas leading the way with 715 and 506, respectively.
The Sooners faced Maryland in the Orange Bowl in the 1953 postseason. That year, Maryland was ranked No. 1 in the country and OU was No. 4. In 1955, the tables were reversed, with Oklahoma holding down the No. 1 spot in the polls coming into its Orange Bowl rematch against No. 3-ranked Maryland. Both teams were a perfect 10-0, the only two unbeaten teams in the country among Division I teams entering their Orange Bowl showdown.
Oklahoma trailed 6-0 at halftime in its Jan. 2, 1956, Orange Bowl game with Maryland. But the Sooners poured it on in the second half to pull out a 20-6 victory for their 30th consecutive win (as part of the record 47-game win streak).
No. 5 — 2000 Oklahoma Sooners (13-0, 8-0), national champions
Y2K not only marked the calendar changeover from the 20th to the 21st century, but also the second full Oklahoma football season under head coach Bob Stoops.
Stoops’ first season produced a winning record, something Sooner fans had not seen for five years (seemingly an eternity by OU football standards), with a 7-5 overall mark and 5-3 in the Big 12. It was a promise for good things still to come.
A November 2000 Sports Illustrated cover said it all in referring to the return of Oklahoma football to its rightful place among the nation’s elite. “Back on Top” shouted the SI cover headline, featuring a photo of OU running back Quentin Griffin barreling through the grasping hands of Nebraska tacklers in a game in which the Sooners would unseat the Cornhuskers as the nation’s top-ranked team.
Oklahoma began the 2000 season ranked 19th in the Associated Press preseason poll, the first time the Sooners had made it into a preseason college football poll in five years. OU lived up to its preseason top-25 ranking, opening up with three dominant nonconference wins and defeated Kansas to go 4-0 heading into its Red River Rivalry game against Texas.
Over a three-week period, the Sooners defeated No. 11 Texas (63-14), No. 2 Kansas State (41-31) and top-ranked Nebraska (31-14) to vault into the No. 1 spot in the national rankings, a position they would hold on to for the remainder of the season, despite several close calls down the stretch.
Despite being the nation’s top-ranked team, Oklahoma was considered the underdog against No. 3-ranked Florida State in the BCS national championship game that season. That just served as added motivation for the Sooners. OU quarterback Josh Heupel outdueled Florida State’s Heisman Trophy quarterback Chris Weinke, and the Oklahoma defense shutdown the high-powered FSU offense, as the Sooners finished their perfect season with a 13-2 win over the favored Seminoles.
The Orange Bowl win gave Oklahoma its seventh national championship in football and first in 15 years.
No. 4 — 1975 Oklahoma Sooners (11-1, 6-1) national champions
The 1975 Oklahoma Sooners were coming off a national championship season (sanctioned only by the Associated Press because Oklahoma was on NCAA probation in 1974 and was restricted from being ranked in the Coaches Poll).
The Sooners lost just once in 1975, a shocking 23-3 upset against an unranked Kansas Jayhawk team. That loss was Barry Switzer’s first loss in as many seasons as the Oklahoma head coach.
Oklahoma faced seven teams ranked in the top 25 in the 1975 season at the time the game was played, culminating in a 14-6 victory over No. 5 Michigan in the Orange Bowl to capture the Sooners fifth national championship and second in a row under Switzer. OU was still on NCAA probation in 1975 (the last of its three-year probationary period), but the postseason restriction and exclusion from the Coaches Poll were lifted for the 1975 season.
Following the loss to Kansas in game nine of the 1975 season, Oklahoma came from behind late to eek out a 28-27 win at Missouri, and a week later defeated No. 2-ranked Nebraska 35-10 to win its third consecutive Big Eight crown under Switzer and 27th conference championship all-time.
The Sooner stars that season were running backs Joe Washington and Horace Ivory, who combined for 1,520 rushing yards in the Sooner high-octane Wishbone offense. Quarterback Steve Davis added 512 more yards on the ground.