Oklahoma football: Sooners move to No. 14 in both polls
By Chip Rouse
The Oklahoma football win over Oklahoma State boosted the Sooners to No. 14 in both national polls.
In the week that the first 2020 College Football Playoff rankings are set to be revealed, the Sooners are ranked as high as they’ve been since the second week of this very different and difficult college season.
Oklahoma jumped both Oklahoma State and Big 12 leader Iowa State this week to become the highest ranked Big 12 team as we begin Week 13 in the COVID-abbreviated college football season.
Iowa State (6-2, 6-1) sits right behind the Sooners, at No, 15 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the Coaches Poll. Oklahoma State (5-2, 4-2), ranked No. 14 heading into the Bedlam game with No, 18 Oklahoma, dropped seven spots, to No. 21, in the AP poll this week. The Cowboys are No. 22 in the Coaches Poll.
Texas (5-2, 4-2) are the only other ranked team from the Big 12. The Longhorns’ scheduled game with Kansas was postponed because of COVID, but they advanced two spots, to No. 20, in the AP poll (21 in the Coaches Poll), passing Oklahoma State in the process. Texas is responsible for OSU’s other loss this season.
The top eight positions remained unchanged this week in both polls, headed by No. 1 Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Clemson.
The Sooners are also climbing in the ESPN Football Power Index. They are up to No. 5 this week, trailing Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Wisconsin. The FPI, in the words of its organizers, is “a measure of a team’s strength and is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season.”
This speaks to how well Oklahoma is playing at this late stage of the season, winners of their last five games, averaging 50.2 points per game during that streak. The FPI gives Oklahoma a 51.1 percent chance of winning the Big 12 for a sixth straight season and 14th overall.