Oklahoma football: Sooners help another Big 12 team break into Top 25
By Chip Rouse
The Oklahoma football program should be receiving a lot of thank you notes, three weeks into the Big 12 schedule.
The Sooners have lost three straight Big 12 games — to Kansas State, TCU and on Saturday a 49-0 thrashing by Texas — for the first time since 1998. After each of those losses, the victor moved into the top-25 national rankings, passing Oklahoma, which was on its way down and out after reaching as high as No. 6 in the Associated Press poll.
Oklahoma dropped to 18th nationally after the Kansas State loss and dropped completely out of the top 25 after losing by 31 points to TCU. Following the pummeling by archrival Texas on Saturday, the Sooners now aren’t even receiving votes in either weekly national poll.
Kansas State is up three spots this week in the AP poll, to No. 17, and four spots to No. 16 in the Coaches Poll. TCU is up to No. 13 in the AP and 15th in the Coaches Poll, and Texas returns to the top 25 this week, courtesy of Oklahoma, tied for 22nd in the AP Top 25 and 24th in the Coaches Poll.
Kansas, the Oklahoma opponent this coming weekend in Norman, remained in the top 25 this week despite suffering its first loss of the season to TCU over the weekend. The Jayhawks are 19th in the AP poll and 20th in the Coaches Poll.
Baylor, which was idle over the weekend, ranks 23rd in the Coaches Poll.
Oklahoma State leads all Big 12 teams in the national rankings, checking in at No. 8 in the AP poll and No. 7 in the Coaches Poll.
In all, up to six Big 12 teams are ranked this week in one or both polls.
Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and Clemson remain one through five, respectively in the Coaches Poll. Georgia returned to the top spot in the AP poll this week, replacing Alabama, which dropped to third. Ohio State moved up one position to No. 3 and Clemson and Michigan changed places at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.
Check out the complete rankings in both weekly national polls by clicking here.