Oklahoma football: Sooners’ 5 best Big 12 Championship wins

ARLINGTON, TX - DECEMBER 02: The Oklahoma Sooners pose for a team photo after winning the Big 12 Championship against the TCU Horned Frogs 41-17 at AT
ARLINGTON, TX - DECEMBER 02: The Oklahoma Sooners pose for a team photo after winning the Big 12 Championship against the TCU Horned Frogs 41-17 at AT /
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ARLINGTON, TX – DECEMBER 2: A general view before the Oklahoma Sooners play the TCU Horned Frogs during the first half at AT&T Stadium on December 2, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX – DECEMBER 2: A general view before the Oklahoma Sooners play the TCU Horned Frogs during the first half at AT&T Stadium on December 2, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) /

There have been 16 Big 12 Championship games in football in the 22-year history of the conference, and Oklahoma football has been a participant in 10 of them.

The Sooners did not make their first appearance in the Big 12 title game until 2000, four years after the conference was formed. Oklahoma captured its first Big 12 football championship in its first title appearance as a member of the newly formed conference, defeating Kansas State in a closely contested 27-24 affair.

Oklahoma was ranked No. 1 in the country at the time of the championship win over K-State and went on to beat favored Florida State in the 2001 BCS National Championship game, winning the school’s seventh national title in the AP era (since 1936).

Since that first Big 12 championship, the Sooners have won eight more times in nine appearances. The Big 12 stopped holding a conference championship game in football for six years after the 2010 season. The game was resumed last season, with Oklahoma defeating TCU 41-17.

Oklahoma also won Big 12 titles in 2012 (a shared title with Kansas State) and 2016, during the absence of a conference championship game, for a grand total of 11 to date.

On Saturday, the Sooners will be gunning for a fourth consecutive Big 12 championship, something no Big 12 school has ever done in football and very few Power Five schools have accomplished. Only seven schools in the history of college football have won four consecutive football championships, according to an article by sports columnist Berry Tramel in the Oklahoma City Oklahoman.

Both Oklahoma and Clemson can do that this year.

The closest challenger to OU’s 11 Big 12 football championships is Texas with three. One of those two teams is going to add another conference trophy on Saturday.

Here, in ranked order, are the five best Oklahoma victories in the Big 12 Championship: