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Oklahoma football: Which OU team is best of the rest in 21st century?

By Chip Rouse

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: Baker Mayfield #6 of the Oklahoma Sooners celebrates after Steven Parker #10 of the Oklahoma Sooners scores a 46 yard touchdown because of a fumble by Sony Michel #1 of the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: Baker Mayfield #6 of the Oklahoma Sooners celebrates after Steven Parker #10 of the Oklahoma Sooners scores a 46 yard touchdown because of a fumble by Sony Michel #1 of the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) /
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KANSAS CITY, MO – DECEMBER 4: Adrian Peterson #28 of the University of Oklahoma Sooners carries the ball against the University of Colorado Buffaloes in the Big 12 Championship game on December 4, 2004 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Oklahoma defeated Colorado 42-3 to win the Big XII Championship. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
KANSAS CITY, MO – DECEMBER 4: Adrian Peterson #28 of the University of Oklahoma Sooners carries the ball against the University of Colorado Buffaloes in the Big 12 Championship game on December 4, 2004 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Oklahoma defeated Colorado 42-3 to win the Big XII Championship. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

The past two decades may go down as the best in the long, illustrious history of Oklahoma football.

By itself, that statement may not seem that surprising, given that the Sooners have won 13 Big 12 championships in football since 2000, appeared in four BCS national championship games in the first 10 years of the new century and have been to four College Football Playoffs in the last five season. In addition to that, four Oklahoma players have been awarded college football’s highest individual prize, the Heisman Trophy, in the first two decades of the 2000s and three more have finished No. 2 in the Heisman voting.

Oklahoma’s 219 total wins and .817 winning percentage over the past 20 years is the best in two consecutive decades in the program’s long, distinguished history.

This got me wondering which of the great Sooner teams of the past two decades would come out on top in an eight-team tournament? The participants would be OU’s four BCS championship game teams (2000, 2003, 2004 and 2008) and the four Oklahoma teams that were part of the College Football Playoff (2015, 2017, 2018, 2019).

To seed the eight teams, I awarded the top seed to the 2000 team (the only one of the eight that won the national championship and the only undefeated team with a 13-0 record) and the No. 8 seed to the 2015 team (Baker Mayfield’s first season as the starting QB). The rest of the field was seeded on the basis of each team’s regular-season record and national ranking leading into the postseason:

No. 3 2017 (11-2)

No. 4 2004 (11-2)

No. 5 2003 (11-2)

No. 6 2018 (12-2)

No. 7 2019 (12-2)

With the help of the website WhatIfSports.com, the quarterfinal round featured 2000 vs. 2015, 2008 vs. 2019, 2017 vs. 2018, and 2004 vs. 2003 (which had two teams with Jason White as quarterback facing each other).

Here is how the opening round of the what-if simulation played out:

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