Oklahoma football: Sooners hit No. 1 in one early 2021 preseason ranking

The last time an Oklahoma football team sat No. 1, at the top perch in the college football world, was the week of Sept. 18, 2011.

The Sooners were ranked fifth in the Associated Press preseason poll in 2020, fourth in 2019 and third to start the season in 2016, but they have never ascended to No. 1 at anytime since 2011.

Until a few years ago, no college team had spent more weeks at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 than Oklahoma.

In the past several years, both Alabama and Ohio State have passed the Sooners in that category. Alabama has been ranked No. 1 for a total of 130 weeks since the first AP poll in 1936. Ohio State is No. 2 with 105 weeks as the top-ranked team, and Oklahoma is third with 101 weeks as No. 1 in the AP rankings.

Looking ahead to the 2021 college football season — if you’re counting, Sooner fans, it’s just 122 days away — the usual suspects head the list of teams expected to contend for the national championship. You can probably name them yourself without too much difficulty: Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Georgia.

Don’t fret, Sooner fans, Oklahoma is prominent on that list, too. In fact, ESPN has elevated the Sooners to No. 1 in its post-spring Top-25 power rankings. Oklahoma was No. 3 in the previous way-too-early 2021 Top-25 rankings put out by ESPN in January after the College Football Playoff national championship game.

"“OU has more than enough playmakers on offense,” writes ESPN college football writer Mark Schlabach, ” and its defense might be just good enough to do it, especially with a more than manageable nonconference schedule.”"

Even though the Sooners appeared in four BCS national championship games and have made it into the same number of College Football Playoffs, it has been 21 years since Oklahoma’s seventh and last national championship.

A number of college football writers and analysts believe this could be Lincoln Riley’s best chance in five seasons as head coach of the Sooners to get past the semifinal round in the playoff, which his teams have failed to do in three previous appearances.

Once you get by that opening game, anything can happen.