Oklahoma football history 101: Regular season all about making postseason

Editor’s note: Throughout the 2019 season, we will dig back in time to provide you with compelling facts, figures and insights that you may or may not be aware of from 125 years of Oklahoma football.

Oklahoma did not participate in a postseason bowl game for four consecutive seasons from 1995 to 1998. That was a most unusual occurence in OU’s illustrious champhionship history.

Since then, however, the Sooners have appeared in a bowl game in 20 consecutive seasons. That ranks third among active bowl streaks in college football. Only Virginia (26) and Georgia (22) have a longer active string of postseason bowl appearances.

Prior to 1940, only five bowl games existed (Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Sun Bowl), which meant that only the best teams in the country had the opportunity every year to continuing playing beyond November.

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That number, as reported last season by FanSided’s Kareem Gantt, has now grown to a ridiculous 41 bowl venues last season, with 82 FBS teams (out of 129 total) going bowling. Only a couple of teams in every major conference don’t meet the bowl eligibility requirements (six wins minimum) in any season and are forced to sit home over the holidays.

The twelve regular-season games have become all about managing the schedule and making sure you put yourself in position to meet the necessary requirement to make the postseason.

According to NCAA Division 1/FBS bowl records, only four teams have made more all-time bowl appearances than Oklahoma’s 52 (Alabama 70, Georgia and Texas 55 and Nebraska 53). And the Sooners’ 29 wins in 52 bowl appearances ranks fourth nationally, behind Alabama (70), USC (34) and Georgia (31).

Oklahoma did not make its first postseason bowl appearance until the 1938 season. The Sooners were unbeaten at 10-0, champions of the Big Six Conference and ranked No. 4 in the country heading into a showdown in the Orange Bowl with unbeaten and No. 2-ranked Tennessee.

Despite riding the momentum of a 14-game winning streak, the Sooners managed less than 100 yards of offense, and Tennessee handed OU a 17-0 defeat in its very first bowl appearance.

The Sooners would make only two more bowl appearances (both wins) through the 1949 season, but in OU’s glory days in the 1950s under Bud Wilkinson, the Crimson and Cream appeared in six bowl games, five of them in the Orange Bowl, winning four of them.

Oklahoma has appeared the most times in the Orange Bowl, posting a 12-8 record. The Sooners have made eight Sugar Bowl appearances, winning six of the eight.

The Sooners’ 52 bowl appearances includes nine BCS bowl appearances (in the 16-year run of the BCS, from 1998 to 2013), four appearances in BCS Championship Games (winning it all in 2000) and three trips to the College Football Playoff in five seasons.