Oklahoma football: Sooners drop several spots in national polls

Oklahoma football’s down season followed form in the two weekly polls after the Sooners 37-33 loss to Oklahoma State.

The Sooners dropped three spots, to No. 13 in the Associated Press Top 25 and two spots into the No. 11 position in the Coaches Poll. Meanwhile, Bedlam winner Oklahoma State is up to No. 5 in both national polls, just outside of the four spots designated for the 2021 College Football Playoff participants.

Oklahoma State (11-1) and No. 9 Baylor, the two teams who handed Oklahoma its two losses this season, will face each other on Saturday in the Big 12 championship game in Arlington, Texas. It will be the first time since the reinstatement of the Big 12 title game in 2017 that the Sooners have not played in the conference championship.

The top four teams this week are No. 1 Georgia, Michigan, Alabama and Cincinnati, although in different order in the two weekly polls. Undefeated Georgia (12-0) is the top-ranked team in both polls. Michigan, Cincinnati and Alabama follow in that order in the AP poll, while the Coaches Poll has Alabama, Michigan and Cincinnati as the next four.

It’s reasonable to expect that these same four teams will command the top four spots when the new CFP rankings are released on Tuesday night. The bigger question, from a Big 12 perspective, is where Notre Dame and Oklahoma State will be ranked this week in the playoff rankings. Because Alabama and Georgia face off for the SEC championship on Saturday, the No. 5 position in the final this week’s CFP rankings will be of prime importance.

Of course, Oklahoma State will have to win the Big 12 championship for that to happen.