Oklahoma football: How Georgia’s Orange Bowl win has relevance for OU
By Chip Rouse
One week from today, the next FBS college football champion will be crowned. Oklahoma football will not be present for that ceremony, but the Sooners have been in that prized position seven different times.
No. 1 Alabama will get a rematch of the SEC championship game with No. 3 Georgia to determine the 2021 national champion. The Crimson Tide are seeking back-to-back national titles and their record 7th under head coach Nick Saban. Alabama has won 13 national championships in college football in the poll or modern era of the college game. That is five clear of the next closest championship team.
Only one other school not named Alabama has won more national championships in football in the modern era than the Sooners’ seven. Notre Dame has captured eight national titles.
And several of those national championship celebration by Oklahoma have taken place in the Orange Bowl in Miami, where Georgia punched its ticket this year to the national championship game, it’s second appearance in the College Football Playoff era, with a resounding 27-3 victory over Michigan on New Year’s Eve.
This year also marks the second time Georgia has qualified for the playoff. The first was in 2017, when the No. 3-seeded Bulldogs went up against No, 2-seeded Oklahoma. That contest, a double-overtime thriller won by Georgia, remains one of the best of the 23 playoff games contested to date in the now eighth year of the CFP format.
The playoff meeting between OU and Georgia, played in the historic Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, is the only time the Sooners and Bulldogs have ever met on the gridiron. Notably, that will all change two seasons from now, when OU will host Georgia the second weekend in September in the first of a scheduled home-and-home series. By the time that game is played — who knows? — Oklahoma may be a full-fledged member of the SEC.
Oklahoma may be the only team that has appeared at least one time in all six bowls that currently make up the rotation for the New Year’s Six bowl games (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach).
Because the Big Eight and Big 12 had a long-standing agreement with the Orange Bowl, Oklahoma has made the most postseason appearances in that venue. The Sooners are 12-9 all-time playing in the Orange Bowl. Next best for the Sooners, both in terms of winning percentage and total games, is the Sugar Bowl. When playing in the postseason in New Orleans, Oklahoma is 6-2 all-time.
Here is OU’s historic bowl record playing at one of the current New Year’s Six sites:
Orange Bowl (Miami) 12-9
Sugar Bowl (New Orleans) 6-2
Fiesta Bowl (Phoenix) 2-3
Cotton Bowl (Dallas) 2-1
Rose Bowl (Pasadena) 1-1
Peach Bowl (Atlanta) 0-1
The Sooners have won four of their seven national championships playing in the Orange Bowl (1956, 1976, 1986 and 2001) and one in the Sugar Bowl (1951). The have also lost potential national championships in the Orange Bowl (1978, 1987, 2004, 2005 and 2008).
Alabama will play Georgia next Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the national championship. That is a venue where Oklahoma has never played.