There aren’t many teams that have been as consistently good over the past two decades as the Oklahoma football program.
Since 2000, the Sooners are the third winningest team in college football. Oklahoma has won 219 games in the first two decades of the new century, and the Sooners’ record for each decade is virtually identical — 110-24 for 2000 to 2009 and 109-25 for the 10 years from 2010 to 2019.
Over the last 20 years, Oklahoma has won no fewer than eight games in a season and has nine seasons of at least 12 wins and a dozen seasons with 11 or more wins. During that time, the Sooners have played in four BCS championship games, four College Football Playoffs and won 13 Big 12 championships. including the last five in a row.
Bob Stoops’ overall record as the Oklahoma head coach for the first seven seasons of the last decade was 73-19 (.793). Lincoln Riley has elevated the Sooners another notch in his three seasons at the helm, posting three consecutive 12-win seasons and a winning percentage of .857. OU has never relinquished the Big 12 crown since Riley took over, and he has taken the Sooners to three straight College Football Playoff appearances.
About the only thing OU hasn’t achieved under Riley is win a College Football Playoff game and play for and win a national championship. Something tells me, though, that’s not too far off.
This past week, Sporting News published a ranking of the top-25 college football programs of the past 10 years. Rather than rank the teams on the basis of winning percentage and the eyeball test, the staff at SN devised a formula that awarded points for the following criteria: national championships (10 points), national title game appearances (5 points), College Football Playoff appearances (5), New Year’s Bowl Six and BCS bowl appearances (3) and Heisman Trophy winners (2).
Points were also awarded for overall winning percentage, All-Americans and NFL Draft first-round picks.
Crunching those numbers, Oklahoma came out the fourth-best college program of the last 10 years.
Bill Bender, the SN staff writer who wrote the article revealing the top-25 ranking, said this about the Sooners:
"“At a minimum, the Sooners are a New Year’s Day Six regular. (Lincoln) Riley has enhanced the model in Norman with Heisman-caliber quarterback play every season.”"
It’s not a big surprise that Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State are the top three teams ranked ahead of Oklahoma. Rounding out the top-10 are No. 5 LSU, Florida State, Oregon, Wisconsin, Georgia and Auburn.