Oklahoma football: CBS Sports analyst projects Sooners to return to Playoff in 2022
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football fans who are not happy with the Sooners’ No. 9 ranking in the first Coaches Poll rankings of the 2022 season will love hearing CBS Sports analyst Jerry Palm’s prediction of the Sooners’ season.
Palm is predicting Oklahoma as one of the four teams to make this year’s College Football Playoff. He has the Sooners grabbing the fourth and final playoff spot, joining No. 1 seed Alabama, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Georgia.
In this playoff scenario, OU would play Alabama in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 31. The other national semifinal game would be contested between Ohio State and defending national champion Georgia in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, on Dec. 31. The national championship game is scheduled for SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, on Jan. 9.
Here is some of the reasoning behind Palm’s selection of OU to make this season College Football Playoff:
“The Sooners’ streak of six consecutive conference championships came to an end last season. OU lost on the road at Baylor, the eventual champion, and Oklahoma State. Coach Brent Venables replaces Lincoln Riley, who took off for USC and brought some players (and coaches); however, the cupboard is far from bare at OU.
“It will be a still challenge getting back to the top of the league, but the Sooners get the Bears and Cowboys at home.”
This would be a lofty but not unattainable goal for Venables’ new-look Sooner team, particularly with their favorable 2022 schedule. If a Big 12 team makes it into the CFP, the second-place Big 12 team would earn a berth in the Sugar Bowl against the second or third-place team from the SEC because of the contract the Sugar Bowl has with the Big 12 and the SEC.
Palm’s current projection has Baylor representing the Big 12 in the Sugar Bowl.
An Oklahoma-Alabama pairing in one of the playoff national semifinal games would be a rematch of the 2018 College Football Playoff game between those same two schools. Alabama and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa won that game 45-34 over the Sooners and Heisman-winning quarterback Kyler Murray.