Preseason rankings may not mean much, but it’s always a lot better to be included than not. And for Oklahoma football fans, the narrative keeps getting better the closer we get to the opening kickoff of the new season.
Although the Sooners are ranked No. 4 in the country in both of the major preseason polls (Associated Press and the Coaches Poll), I haven’t seen preseason projections that that include Oklahoma among the four teams to make this season’s College Football Playoff. That is, until this week, the final countdown to the official start to the season for most of the country.
Several college football writers for CBS Sports and a pair of ESPN staff writers have elevated the Sooners to college football’s final four party this season, and the one CBS writer even went a step further.
Dennis Dodd, Jerry Palm, Tom Fornelli and Chip Patterson, all with CBS Sports, this week projected the Sooners as one of this year’s College Football Playoff teams. Patterson was the only one of the four, however, that had Oklahoma advancing beyond the national semifinal round, something the Sooners have not been able to do in three previous Playoff appearances.
Patterson not only has OU advancing to the national championship game, but winning it all, with Alabama graduate transfer Jalen Hurts leading the Sooners to victory in what would be an epic championship showdown with his former team.
Meanwhile, in an ESPN article this week (“Preseason college football bowl projections”), Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach both had Oklahoma returning to the College Football Playoff for what would be a third straight season under Lincoln Riley. Bonagura has the Sooners facing Alabama in one of the national semifinal games, and Schlabach has OU playing Georgia in what would be a rematch of the 2017 Playoff game between the two schools that went to double overtime.
Neither, however, had the Sooners getting beyond the first Playoff game.
These may just be preseason projections, but it’s an emotional uplift to know that there are those jumping on the Sooner bandwagon just ahead of the games starting up for real.