Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma football: Sooners head a Big 12 bowl belly flop

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - SEPTEMBER 29: An end zone pylon during the Baylor Bears vs. Oklahoma Sooners game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 29, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Baylor 66-33. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
NORMAN, OK - SEPTEMBER 29: An end zone pylon during the Baylor Bears vs. Oklahoma Sooners game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 29, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Baylor 66-33. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /
facebooktwitterreddit

It was not a good bowl season for Big 12 teams, and the 35-point Oklahoma football belly flop against LSU was the saddest of the lot.

Six Big 12 teams, or 60 percent of the conference, went bowling this season, with both the Sooners and Baylor earning New Year’s Six Bowl assignments. But only one of the six, Texas, came away with a win.

The 1-5 postseason record by the Big 12 this season was the worst of all five Power conferences and the poorest showing by Big 12 bowl participants since the conference was formed in 1996.

Three of the five Big 12 losses in bowl games this season were against teams out of the SEC.

Texas A&M overcame a 14-0 deficit to Oklahoma State, scoring 24 unanswered points and holding on for a 24-21 victory in the Texas Bowl.

Top-ranked LSU dismantled the No. 4 Sooners, rolling up a 63 points in a decisive 63-28 win in one of the College Football Playoff national semifinals. The 63 points put up by the Ferrari-like LSU offense was the most against an Oklahoma team in 22 years. Nebraska scored 69 in a 69-7 win against the 1997 Sooner team coached by John Blake.

Georgia completed the SEC trifecta over the Big 12, defeating Big 12 runner-up and seventh-ranked Baylor 26-14 in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s night.

Notre Dame won easily over Iowa State, 33-9, in the Camping World Bowl last Saturday in Orlando, Florida, and Navy upended Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl on New Year’s Eve in Memphis, Tennessee.

Texas, which finished the 2019 season with a disappointing 7-5 record, was the lone survivor among the Big 12 bowl teams. The Longhorns exerted their physicality and a vicious running attack against the nation’s 12th-ranked team and the No. 1 rushing defense for a dominant 38-10 win over Utah.

Before this postseason, the previous worst bowl season by the Big 12 was in 2003, when the conference sent eight teams bowling (when the conference was at 12 members) but came away with only two wins in the eight games, including a 21-14 loss by Oklahoma to LSU in the BCS National Championship that season.

Unfortunately .500 or worse in postseason bowl competition has pretty much been the norm for teams out of the Big 12. Only 10 times since the conference came into being have Big 12 teams compiled a record of better than .500.

Over the past decade, Big 12 teams have compiled a bowl record of 35-38, and the conference is a collective 84-89 all-time in bowl competition.

Oklahoma missed the postseason the first three years after the Big 12 was formed. Since Bob Stoops was named the Sooners’ head coach, in 1989, Oklahoma has made 21 consecutive bowl appearances, including four appearances in the BCS championship game and four trips to the College Football Playoff. After its 2000 national championship victory, however, Oklahoma is 0 for 6 in national championship competition.

As successful as the Sooners have been in the Big 12 era, though, their postseason record (9-11) has unimpressive. And when they have been among the final two or four teams competing for college football’s biggest prize, they are fast becoming known as the team that somehow manages to get there but can’t win the big one.

Home/OU Football