Oklahoma football: OU-Bama looking like real postseason possibility
By Chip Rouse
Although the Oklahoma football hopes to make this year’s College Football Playoff field remain alive, in practical terms the odds are stacked heavily against the Sooners.
With the SEC and Big Ten virtually assured of two of the four Playoff spots and the same thing for defending national champion Clemson, that leaves only one spot up for grabs. Georgia currently sits in the No. 4 spot in the CFP rankings, but still must face No. 1 LSU in the SEC Championship..
Oklahoma surely will jump over Minnesota in the Playoff rankings this week after the previously unbeaten Gophers lost to Iowa this past weekend, and could also move ahead of Penn State if the selection committee deems the Sooners’ comeback win on the road over 13th-ranked Baylor more impressive than the Nittany Lions’ narrow win at home over an unranked but good Indiana team.
That would place the Sooners at No. 8. The bigger problem is that of the three teams ahead of OU, two are from the Pac-12 conference. Oregon, which hasn’t lost since the opening game of the season (to Auburn), and Utah are both 9-1 and will meet for the conference championship. The winner will likely remain ahead of the Sooners, even if Oklahoma wins out.
If the Sooners win out — which is far from a sure thing with a game at No. 22 Oklahoma State and an almost certain rematch with Baylor in the Big 12 title game still ahead — they could pass Alabama. But in order to jump over a one-loss Pac-12 champion, those final three wins probably would have to be decisive enough to overcome the uncertainties that hinder the Sooners’ current Playoff resume.
This is a long way of saying Oklahoma is in better position to represent the Big 12 in the New Year’s Six Sugar Bowl, where, if the season ended today, the opponent would be Alabama. That matchup would be highly intriguing on multiple levels. First, it would be a rematch of last year national semifinal game pitting Kyler Murray and the Sooners against top-ranked Alabama and Heisman runner-up Tua Tagovailoa.
It also would conjure up memories of the 2014 Sugar Bowl between the same two teams. In that game Oklahoma quarterback Trevor Knight had the game of his career, passing for 348 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Sooners to a stunning 45-31 victory over an Alabama squad that was alleged to be upset about being left out of the BCS National Championship.
An OU-Bama pairing in the postseason would also be epic because it would pit Sooner quarterback Jalen Hurts against his former team, although without Tua, the player who replaced Hurts as the Crimson Tide starting QB. Tua’s season-ending injury over the weekend certainly takes much of the luster off of such a dream matchup, but wouldn’t diminish the territorial value that such an inter-conference battle between national powers would hold for both teams.
To even make it to the Sugar Bowl, however. Oklahoma must win the Big 12 Championship, and that will reguire the Sooners to beat Baylor a second time, which they were remarkably fortunate to do the first time over the weekend.
One thing is abundantly clear: If OU plays like it did in the first half at Baylor on Saturday night, it probably won’t be so lucky the second time around.
On the other hand, if the Sooners prevail in their final two regular season games — at home on Saturday against TCU and at Oklahoma State a week later — and can sustain how they played in the second half against Baylor, both on offense and defense, in the Dec. 7 rematch, who knows where Oklahoma might be playing its final game(s) of the 2019 season.