Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football a Top-5 Associated Press poll fixture

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 10: Members of the Oklahoma Sooners spirit squad perform during the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 10, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Oklahoma State 48-47. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 10: Members of the Oklahoma Sooners spirit squad perform during the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 10, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Oklahoma State 48-47. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /
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The first Associated Press Top 25 college football poll appeared in 1936. Oklahoma football did not make its debut appearance as an AP Top 25 team until three games into the 1938 season.

The Sooner defense held a remarkable eight of the 11 teams it faced in the ’38 season scoreless — imagine that compared with the 33 points OU gave up on average last season — and by season’s end had climbed to No. 4 in the AP rankings.

The No. 4 spot is where Oklahoma is slotted in the Associated Press 2019 Preseason Poll.

We all know about the precarious nature of preseason rankings and projecting how teams will perform before a single game has been played, as well as the time-worn axiom, “it’s not where you start but where you finish that matters.”

Oklahoma has equaled or improved upon its AP preseason ranking in each of the previous four seasons:

2018 — AP preseason ranking (4); final ranking (4)

2017 — AP preseason ranking (7); final ranking (3)

2016 — AP preseason ranking (7); final ranking (5)

2015 — AP preseason ranking; final ranking (5)

It’s not a coincidence that those four years also happen to parallel the time that Lincoln Riley has been on the coaching staff at Oklahoma, the first two seasons as offensive coordinator and the past two as head coach.

This season marks the fifth time in the last 10 years that Oklahoma has begun the season ranked No. 4 or higher in the AP preseason poll, and it is the 17th time in the last 19 years that the Sooners have been ranked in the top 10 in the AP poll to begin the season. Since the 2000 national championship season, Bob Stoops’ second as coach at Oklahoma, the Sooners have appeared in the AP preseason top 25 every season.

Clemson and Alabama unquestionably have been the darlings of the college football world the last three or four seasons, but neither of those programs has been ranked No. 1 in the AP Preseason Top 25 than Oklahoma. The Sooners have been the preseason No. 1 team in the AP poll 10 times, according to Matt Brown of The Athletic. The last time OU was ranked that high to begin the season was in 2011. That is two more times than Ohio State and three more than Alabama.

Since the AP poll was first introduced, 83 years ago, only Alabama (118 weeks) and Ohio State (105 weeks) have been ranked No. 1 longer than Oklahoma (101 weeks), and no team in college football has been ranked in the top five of the AP poll more often than the Sooners.

A couple of years ago, the Associated Press published its Top 25 College Football Programs of All-Time. Ohio State and Oklahoma ranked No. 1 and No. 2 on the list.

The Oklahoma football program came into the national spotlight with Bud Wilkinson’s great Sooner teams of the 1950s and has been a solid fixture among the college football elite ever since.

Information in this article was sourced, in part, from the 2019 Oklahoma Football Media Guide.

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