Oklahoma football: Does this OU team have one-loss Sooner Magic?

The loss to archrival Texas was a big blow to the hopes of Oklahoma football for a return trip to the College Football Playoff this postseason, no question about it.

Just like a win is a win, a loss is a loss, and there’s nothing the Sooners can do to change what’s already happened. But it’s just one loss, and there is something Oklahoma can do about what happens in the 2018 season from here on out.

The sky may have dropped down some, but it hasn’t fallen. The Texas loss definitely knocked the Sooners down, but not out. After all, it isn’t as if Oklahoma hasn’t been in this similar situation before. Twice before in the last three seasons, OU has gone down to defeat in the first half of the season, only to pick itself up, brush itself off and finish what it set out to do by taking care of business the rest of the way.

In 2015, the Sooners lost to Texas in the fifth game of the season, but won out from there on the way to a Big 12 championship and become the Big 12’s first representative in the College Football Playoff. And last season, Iowa State surprised the Crimson and Cream, taking the Sooners down on their own home field, again in game five. OU recovered from that by winning eight straight games, claiming an 11th Big 12 championship and earning the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff.

Does the 2018 edition of the Sooners have that same Sooner Magic running through their blood? Only time will tell, but the countdown begins this weekend in what is expected to be another hard-fought, tight Big 12 battle at TCU.

One thing that’s missing this year from past seasons in which the Sooners have fought their way all the way back into national title contention after suffering one loss is the number of ranked opponents on the remaining schedule. In 2015, OU faced a trio of ranked teams to close out the regular season, two of which were in the top 10 at the time the game was played. That was not the case last season, but the Sooners defeated top-10-ranked TCU twice in a three-week span, including in the Big 12 Championship game.

This season, West Virginia, currently ranked 13th in both major national polls, is the only ranked team Oklahoma will play between now and the end of the regular season. If the Sooners win out, however, they will likely meet up again with Texas, currently ranked seventh in the Associated Press poll, with a chance to avenge their earlier loss in a Red Rive Showdown II, this time for the Big 12 championship.

A lot can still happen, of course, with six games remaining to play, but one thing that is near certain is the Sooners can ill afford another loss if they want to play for the Big 12 championship. Winning the Big 12, incidentally, is the only hope they have of making it back to the College Football Playoff.  A two-loss conference champion, however, has never made it into college football’s version of the Final Four.

Assuming their will be at least one team each from the SEC, ACC and the Big Ten that makes it into this year’s Playoff, the Big 12 and Pac 12 champions will be vying for the final spot. And if Notre Dame continues on its unbeaten path, the Big 12 and Pac-12 will be on the outside looking in.

Even if Oklahoma is able to run the table over the final six games and wins the Big 12 title, however, the Sooners are probably going to have some help from the teams ranked ahead of them in the College Football Playoff rankings, that are revealed for the first time this season on Oct. 30.

Here’s some good news to end on for Sooner fans: Oklahoma has a 20 percent chance of winning out, according to ESPN Analytics, the best odds of any of the one-loss Power Five teams currently. Also, EPSPN projects the Sooners have a 77 percent chance of making it into the Playoff if they go 12-1 (which included winning a fourth consecutive Big 12 championship.