Oklahoma football: Which of OU’s legenday head coaches won most conference titles?
By Chip Rouse
No major college football team is better at winning conference championships than the Oklahoma football Sooners.
And that’s an indisputable fact.
In their 125-year history, the Sooners have won 49 conference titles, including 13 in the last 20 years. Broken down further, Oklahoma won two conference championships while members of the Southwest Conference prior to the 1920s, one league title in the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, five league trophies in the Big Six Conference, 12 as members of the Big Seven, 16 in the Big Eight and 13 in the Big 12.
All but seven of OU’s 49 conference championships have come in the last 73 years, or since 1947, Bud Wilkinson’s first season in a 17-year stint as the Sooners’ head coach.
An interesting Oklahoma football fact: The Sooners have won more conference championships since the 2000 season (13) than they have lost home games (10).
The closest team to Oklahoma in the number of conference championships won is Nebraska with 46, followed by Michigan with 42, Ohio State 41 and Southern California 40.
Wilkinson was the third winningest coach in Sooner football history, in terms of games won, but he leads all Oklahoma head coaches in the number of conference titles. Wilkinson won the Big Six championship in his very first season in Norman and proceeded to capture 12 consecutive league titles after that.
In the 11 years between 1947 and 1958, Wilkinson’s Oklahoma teams never lost a conference game. The last of his 14 conference championships was in 1962. That year, the Sooners were a perfect 7-0 against Big Eight opponents, fueling a comical reference to OU’s conference domination as “Oklahoma and the seven dwarfs.”
Barry Switzer is next in line in the number of conference titles. His Sooner teams won 12 in 16 seasons from 1973-88, including eight in a row between 1973 to 1980, his first eight seasons as head coach.
Bob Stoops won more games overall (190) than any Oklahoma head coach, including 10 conference championship in his 18 seasons. And his successor, Lincoln Riley, is a perfect three for three in league titles in his three years at the Sooner helm.