Oklahoma football: Five games that could have changed OU gridiron history

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: The Georgia Bulldogs celebrate with newspapers after the Bulldogs beat the Oklahoma Sooners 54-48 in double overtime in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal Game at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: The Georgia Bulldogs celebrate with newspapers after the Bulldogs beat the Oklahoma Sooners 54-48 in double overtime in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal Game at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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NORMAN, OK – NOVEMBER 23: Kicker Gabe Brkic #47, offensive lineman Brey Walker #70, and linebacker Jake McCoy #41 of the Oklahoma Sooners run onto the field for a game against the TCU Horned Frogs on November 23, 2019 at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK – NOVEMBER 23: Kicker Gabe Brkic #47, offensive lineman Brey Walker #70, and linebacker Jake McCoy #41 of the Oklahoma Sooners run onto the field for a game against the TCU Horned Frogs on November 23, 2019 at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /

Looking back, there are many games that could have — perhaps even should have — changed the course of Oklahoma football history.

We’ve selected five that are particularly noteworthy because of how history would have read differently had the outcome of the game been reversed.

There undoubtedly are three or four dozen games in 125 seasons of college football the Sooners would like to have back, and probably just as many games that ended in an Oklahoma victory that easily could have gone the other way.

Just as we forever remember the wins that led to even bigger celebrations, we seemingly are destined never to forget the losses that leave those bigger asperations unfulfilled.

Football analysts like to make the distinction between good losses and bad losses. In reality, however, there should be little distinction, because a loss is a loss and it all counts the same.

While it does in fact count the same in the loss column, all losses are not created equal. Some are definitely bigger and more costly than others. And that is precisely the premise of this article.

The five games that follow would have changed the course of Oklahoma football history had the outcome been different. We’ve not only called them out for you, but also ranked them from 1 to 5 in order of historical significance, with 1 being the most significant: