Oklahoma football: Sooners slide to 7th in final AP Top 25 for 2019
By Chip Rouse
Despite making the College Football Playoff for a third consecutive year, Oklahoma football finished lower this season in the final Associated Press rankings than in either of Lincoln Riley’s previous two seasons as the Sooners’ head coach.
Oklahoma finished seventh in the final Associated Press football poll for the 2019 season. That’s three spots lower than the Sooners’ No. 4 finish in each of the previous two years.
It seems the Sooners’ 63-28 blowout loss to eventual national champion LSU was enough to convince the 62 media representatives who make up the AP voting panel that Georgia, Oregon and Florida all deserve to be ranked higher than the Big 12 champions.
LSU, of course, finished No. 1, receiving all 62 first-place votes, followed by Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, Florida and OU. Alabama, Penn State and Minnesota rounded out the top 10. Four teams from the SEC and three from the Big Ten make up seven of the top 10 teams.
While Oklahoma’s final ranking was its lowest since the 2016 season OU finished No. 5 in the AP final poll in 2016), Alabama’s No. 8 placement is the Crimson Tide’s lowest ranking since the 2010 season.
The Sooners’ No. 4 ranking to begin the 2019 season was their highest all season. The lowest they were ranked in the 2019 season was 10th in Week 10.
Two other Big 12 teams finished in the final top 25: Baylor was 13th and Texas, the only Big 12 team to win in the postseason, squeezed into the final spot, at No. 25.
Oklahoma ended up a spot higher, at No. 6 in the final Coaches Poll for the season.