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Oklahoma football: Early 2021 projections have Sooners in high company

By Chip Rouse

Dec 30, 2020; Arlington, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley holds up the trophy after the game against the Florida Gators at ATT Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 30, 2020; Arlington, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley holds up the trophy after the game against the Florida Gators at ATT Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports /
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The college football season ended Monday night, which means the focus now quickly turns to the 2021 season, and the experts are heaping piles of love on Oklahoma football.

When the final whistle sounds on the national championship game every season, like clockwork, the very next day begins the cascade of way-too-early top-25 projections for the next college football season.

Here’s the super good news for Oklahoma fans this 12th day of January, some eight months before the start of what we all hope will be a more normalized 2021 college season. The Sooners are reaping high favor as a serious national title contender next season.

If you’re a passionate Sooner fan, you’re probably saying to yourself, what else is new? We always have high expectations not just double-digit wins, but of playing and winning on the final day of every college football season.

The expectations are part of the standard that has been established for Oklahoma football, one of the elite brands in the sport.

Oklahoma missed the College Football Playoff this season after making three consecutive appearances prior to 2020. But if you place any stock in the way-too-early forecasts looking ahead to next fall — and based on how the big-name suspects finished out the current season and what they have coming back — it appears that OU’s Playoff absence should be just a one-season hiatus.

Here is what the rundown looks like of the projected top five teams for 2021, according to several way-too-early New Year’s top-25 forecasts issued by some national news outlets:

CBS Sports

  1. Clemson
  2. Oklahoma
  3. Georgia
  4. Alabama
  5. Ohio State

ESPN

  1. Clemson
  2. Alabama
  3. Oklahoma
  4. Georgia
  5. Ohio State

Sporting News

  1. Alabama
  2. Clemson
  3. Ohio State
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Georgia

The Athletic

  1. Alabama
  2. Oklahoma
  3. Clemson
  4. Georgia
  5. Texas A&M

Rivals

  1. Oklahoma
  2. Georgia
  3. Alabama
  4. Clemson
  5. Ohio State

247Sports

  1. Alabama
  2. Oklahoma
  3. Clemson
  4. Georgia
  5. Ohio State

FanSided

  1. Alabama
  2. Oklahoma
  3. Georgia
  4. Clemson
  5. Ohio State
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