Oklahoma football: OU one of 4 ESPN predicts could go undefeated
By Chip Rouse
The last time an Oklahoma football team finished a season undefeated was in 2000, and that brought with it the school’s seventh national championship.
The easiest way to ensure a place in the College Football Playoff is to go undefeated, including winning your conference championship.
Oklahoma has posted seven undefeated football seasons since 1936, the first year of the Associated Press college football poll. Five of those seasons ended in national championships. Over than same time period, the Sooners finished with one or fewer losses 24 times, but only twice in the past two decades.
The Sooners have 11 undefeated seasons all-time in years that included five or more games. Eight of those undefeated seasons were from OU teams that played for legendary head coaches Bennie Owen and Bud Wilkinson (who had four each).
The point being it is extremely difficult to go through a college football season undefeated, especially for teams in one of the five Power Conferences.
In the seven years of the College Football Playoff, only 11 of the 28 teams total have entered the playoff undefeated and only three of those teams ended the year without a loss, and all three have occurred in the last three years (Clemson in 2028, LSU in 2019 and Alabama in 2020).
In preparation for the start of the 2021 season, which kicks off later this month, the ESPN computers have been crunching new numbers for an updated Football Power Index. And for those who might not have seen ESPN’s new FPI, Oklahoma is given the third best chance to go undefeated this season.
Clemson has the best chance, at 34.3 percent, according to the ESPN analytics group, followed by Ohio State (21.9), Oklahoma (17.7) and Alabama (15.6).
Additionally, the FPI gives the Sooners a 68.2 percent chance of winning their seventh consecutive Big 12 championship, a 66.4 percent chance of making the playoff, a 36.0 percent probability of making it to the national championship, which is something they haven’t been able to do in four previous semifinal appearances, and a 17.7 percent chance of winning it all this season.