Oklahoma football: Reshuffling Big 12 in final month sprint to finish line
By Chip Rouse
With four regular-season games remaining — think of it as the fourth quarter of the 2022 college football season — the question for Oklahoma football is how high can the Sooners go?
That question has been almost rhetorical in seasons past because Oklahoma seemingly always has been in top contention for the conference crown if not in the conversation for a College Football Playoff spot (remember the Sooners did once make four playoff appearances in a row).
But this hasn’t been your typical Oklahoma football season. After losing three games in a row to begin the Big 12 schedule — and not in a pretty way, I might add — the Sooners came very close to falling below .500 in a season for the first time in almost forever (actually it has been since 1998).
Consecutive wins in the past two games has put at least a temporary hold on that fate, as OU heads into the homestretch of the season with a 5-3 overall record.
light. Related Story. How will Big 12 race will shake out in 2022?
Before the season started, we projected what the final standings would look like in the Big 12 when all the dust and surprises of the regular season had finally settled. A lot has naturally happened in the first nine weeks of the 2022 season, and we thought it time to recalibrate, taking into account the conference standings as they are today and how we believe things will play out during the championship month of November leading up to the Big 12 Championship game on Dec. 3.
TCU is in the driver’s seat with an 8-0 overall record and 6-0 in the Big 12 as we enter the deciding month of November. Kansas State is close behind at 5-1 and coming off a sensational 48-0 blowout of Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State dropped to 3-2 and is tied with Texas and Baylor, all with identical conference records.
There are some big matchups coming up in the next four weeks, including Baylor at Oklahoma and Texas at Kansas State this coming weekend, K-State at Baylor and TCU at Texas the weekend of Nov. 12, Oklahoma State at OU for Bedlam on Nov. 19, Baylor at Texas on Nov. 25 and TCU at Baylor on Nov. 26 to close out the 2022 regular-season schedule.
Here is how I project the outcome of November games in the Big 12 (the winner in bold face):
November 5
Texas Tech @ TCU
Baylor @ Oklahoma
Oklahoma State @ Kansas
West Virginia @ Iowa State
Texas at Kansas State
November 12
Oklahoma @ West Virginia
Iowa State @ Oklahoma State
Kansas @ Texas Tech
Kansas State @ Baylor
TCU @ Texas
November 19
Texas @ Kansas
Kansas State @ West Virginia
TCU @ Baylor
Texas Tech @ Iowa State
Oklahoma State @ Oklahoma
November 25
Baylor @ Texas
November 26
West Virginia @ Oklahoma State
Oklahoma @ Texas Tech
Iowa State @ TCU
Kansas @ Kansas State
Projected final Big 12 standings
Conf. Overall
TCU Horned Frogs 8-1 11-1
Kansas State Wildcats 7-2 9-3
Oklahoma State Cowboys 6-3 9-3
Texas Longhorns 6-3 8-4
Texas Tech Red Raiders 4-5 6-6
Oklahoma Sooners 4-5 7-5
Baylor Bears 4-5 6-6
Kansas Jayhawks 2-7 5-7
Iowa State Cyclones 2-7 5-7
West Virginia Mountaineers 2-7 4-8
TCU over Kansas State for Big 12 Championship and spot in Allstate Sugar Bowl