Oklahoma football: The Athletic weighs in with its 2022 preseason Top 1-131
By Chip Rouse
In just a few days for a few teams and nine days for the start of the 2022 Oklahoma football season, all the preseason rankings will be rendered superfluous,
Once the season officially gets underway, what the Sooners and other teams do on the field week in and week out will determine where they fall or rise in the weekly national rankings. And even then, the only ranking that effectively means anything is the one issued by the 13-member College Football selection committee, which will come out for the first time on Nov. 1 after Week 8 of the 2022 season.
It seems by now that everybody and their brother who has anything at all to do with the college football universe has come out with a projection of the top-25 teams to kick off the 2022 season.
Well, not everybody, obviously, because the team at The Athletic this week released a different variation of the preseason college pecking order with a ranking of all 131 teams who currently make up the FBS, or the highest level of college football.
Guess who is No. 1? Alabama, of course. followed, in order, by Ohio State, Georgia and Clemson. Bet you can’t guess which team anchors down the 131 spot? UMass.
Oklahoma comes in at No. 10, with No. 9 Baylor ranked just ahead of the Sooners and Oklahoma State right behind, at No. 11.
Utah, at No. 5, Michigan, Notre Dame and Texas A&M round out the The Athletic preseason top 10.
The staff at The Athletic offers the following caveat regarding its top-10 ranking:
"“If it was possible to show, the gap between Nos. 3 and 4 would be massive. You can make a case for close to a dozen teams to be ranked fourth after Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia, but there has to be someone”"
Regarding the Big 12, Chris Vannini of The Athletic says that picking a winner in the Big 12 this season feels impossible, with Baylor, OU and Oklahoma State appearing to be the front runners.
"“The Sooners brought in Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables to be the head coach,” Vannini writes, “but with UCF quarterback transfer Dillon Gabriel and his former offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, the Sooners should still have an explosive offense.”"
Here is how The Athletic ranked the remaining teams in the Big 12:
No. 30 — Texas Longhorns
No. 32 — Kansas State Wildcats
No. 40 — TCU Horned Frogs
No. 48 — Iowa State Cyclones
No. 53 — West Virginia Mountaineers
No. 61 — Texas Tech Red Raiders
No. 89 — Kansas Jayhawks
Future Big 12 members:
No. 19 — Cincinnati Bearcats
No. 20 — Houston Cougars
No. 21 — BYU Cougars
No. 29 — UCF Knights