Oklahoma football: Crystal-balling OU’s place in AP, SI preseason polls
By Chip Rouse
We’ve seen all the way-too-early top-25s and what the college football preview publications are saying about the 2021 season. Now it’s time to see what the Associated Press, the Coaches Poll and Sports Illustrated have to say about Oklahoma football in the coming season.
The three aforementioned media outlets are typically the last to weigh in on the subject and, as, such, will have the final word on how the teams perceived to be college football’s 25 best will stack up heading into the 21st season of the new millennium.
All due respect to Phil Steele, Athlon Sports, Lindy’s and College Football News, the top-25 preseason rankings that everybody waits for every season are the ones issued by the Associated Press, the Coaches Poll and, of course, Sports Illustrated.
Of course, the poll that matters the most — the College Football Playoff rankings — doesn’t come out until late October. So, we’ve got some time to wait for that one.
In the meantime, in the next few weeks we will see how SI, AP as well as the 62 head coaches who make up the voting panel for the weekly Coaches Poll view the top 25 best teams heading into the 2021 season.
Oklahoma has been featured in the top-10 a number of times in the Sports Illustrated preseason top 25, but the last time the Sooners were positioned in the No. 1 spot and appeared on the SI cover in that publication’s college football preview issue was 2002.
Sports Illustrated and ESPN are two national sources that jump on the bandwagon early, immediately after the national championship game is played every January. and issue a way-too-early top-25 forecast for the next college football season.
This past January, SI’s way-too-early top-25 ranked Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and Oklahoma in the top four spots. ESPN viewed things a bit differently, with Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Georgia ranking one through four.
I think the 2021 edition of Oklahoma football has gained some momentum since January — irrespective of the news cycle they’ve commanded over the past 10 days with their planned move to the all-powerful SEC. And my guess is that we’ll see the Sooners as high as No. 2 or 3 when the next and final wave of preseason college football rankings come out this month.
As much as I would like to see Oklahoma in the spot just below defending national champion Alabama leading into the new season, I’m also mindful of the “be careful what you wish for” curse when it comes to OU preseason football rankings.
The Sooners have a long history of doing worse than expected when they enter the season with extremely high expectations and media headlines placing them at the top of the field or just below. They are much better at exceeding expectations.
Regardless, I really would like to see them ranked ahead of Clemson, Georgia and even Ohio State to begin the 2021 season. And then maybe they can validate that positioning with a top-four finish and a College Football Playoff win…or two…come January.