Oklahoma football April Fools: Five worst championship losses in Big 12 era

Since the Big 12 was formed in 1996, no team has won more conference championships on the gridiron than the Oklahoma football team. And it’s not even close.

Winners of 13 conference titles in the 24-year history of the Big 12, the Sooners have also played in four national championship games in the BCS era (only Florida State has appeared in that many BCS championships) and participated in four College Football Playoffs. Oklahoma is the only Big 12 school that has made an appearance in college football’s version of basketball’s Final Four.

In addition to the four BCS Championship appearances and four CFP appearances, the Sooners also have appeared in eight New Year’s Six bowls. To that you can add 11 Oklahoma appearances in the 18 championship games the Big 12 has held to determine a conference champion in football (no championship game was held in the Big 12 between 2011 and 2016).

That’s a total of 27 prime-time, national television appearances by Oklahoma in the Big 12 era in games with a championship of some kind on the line. While the Sooners have dominated in Big 12 championship games, losing just once in 11 appearances.

Oklahoma is 5-4 in New Year’s Six Bowl games as a Big 12 representative, and it goes precipitously downhill when you get to BCS Championship and College Football Playoff games. The Sooners won a national championship in 2000 in their first BCS appearance, but from there are winless in six outings in the BCS/CFP eras.

We’ve identified the five worst championship-level losses by an Oklahoma football team in the 24-year history of the Big 12 and ranked them in ascending order, from five to one: