Oklahoma football: Chaos is not on OU’s wish list this week

When Oklahoma football was sitting at No. 7 in the College Football Playoff rankings several weeks ago, a little chaos ahead of them was a very welcome consideration.

Since then, the Sooners have moved up and into the catbird’s seat in the Playoff picture, sitting in the No. 5 spot, just outside the coveted top four.

With No. 1 Alabama facing No. 4 Georgia in the SEC Championship game on Saturday, the conventional wisdom is that an Oklahoma victory over Texas in the Big 12 Championship would be the ticket the Sooners have been hoping for and would allow them to move up and replace the loser of the SEC title game in the Playoff bracket.

All very simple, right, and the predictive path for the Sooners to return to the College Football Playoff.

But…what if? What if Georgia were to rise up and avenge it’s national championship game loss of a year ago by beating the seemingly invincible Crimson Tide? Given that unlikely but very possible scenario, Georgia would secure its ticket to the Playoff, and it is an almost certainty that the Playoff selection committee would keep Alabama in the Playoff mix because — come on, let’s all face it — the Crimson Tide have easily been the most dominant team in the country all season.

If the intent of the selection committee is to put the best four teams in the Playoff, how could you leave out Alabama after losing to the No. 4 team in the country, particularly in a very close game.

That’s when the unwanted chaos would kick in. Here’s another scenario that could end up turning OU’s Playoff hopes on its head. Should Alabama follow form and defeat Georgia, but in a very close game — say by three or fewer points, and not until late, or after several overtime sessions — it’s not at all unthinkable that the CFP committee could send two SEC teams to the Playoff. That would be one of the worst ways the Sooners could be shut out of the Playoff.

Oklahoma Sooners Football

It appears that both Notre Dame, which boasts a perfect 12-0 record and has no games remaining before the postseason, and Clemson, which is a 23 1/2-point favorite over Pittsburgh in the ACC Championship game, are locks for this year’s Playoff. Clemson was upset by Pittsburgh in the regular season a year ago, but on paper Saturday’s game shouldn’t even be close. Should a miracle occur, however, and Pittsburgh finds a way to pull one of the biggest upsets of the season, that would be another domino down that could clear the path for Oklahoma.

None of this matters, though, unless the Sooners are able to even the season score by beating a very good Texas Longhorn team. No simple task, no matter how many points the prolific OU offense is able to put up on Saturday.

And we haven’t even mentioned Ohio State. The Buckeyes played their best game of the season in blowing out Michigan last weekend and obliterating the Wolverines’ Playoff hopes (another rivalry game, by the way). The Playoff committee will be watching to see if OSU can deliver a similar effort against Big Ten West Division champion Northwestern in that conference’s championship game.

Flash back to Ohio State’s 59-0 massacre of Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game several years ago that enabled the Buckeyes to jump over Big 12 co-champions TCU and Baylor and slip into the Playoff. This could be another chaos table-setter that could pop the Sooners’ balloon should they win a close battle with Texas, only to see Ohio State totally decimate Northwestern like it did to Michigan.

So much build-up anticipation. So many ways things can go right…or wrong.

All Oklahoma can do is take care of its own business and wait to see how the other championship chips fall. It will all become very clear come Sunday, when the final 2018 College Football Playoff rankings are released.