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Oklahoma football: ESPN places Sooners 13th in 2023 post-spring SP+ Power Rankings

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - APRIL 23: Head coach Brent Venables of the Oklahoma Sooners stands with his team for the alma mater during their spring game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on April 23, 2022 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - APRIL 23: Head coach Brent Venables of the Oklahoma Sooners stands with his team for the alma mater during their spring game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on April 23, 2022 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /
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As ESPN staff writer Bill Connelly astutely noted in an article posted on the sports and entertainment network’s website Thursday morning, we are officially 100 days away from Sept. 2, the first big weekend of the 2023 college football season, including the season opener for Oklahoma football.

The Sooners open at home on that date, hosting Arkansas State, the first of back-to-back home dates to kick off the 2023 season and year two of the Brent Venables era of Sooner football. SMU is the opponent in Week 2.

Connelly’s post on Thursday this week provided narrative for ESPN’s revised SP+ Power Rankings for the coming college football season. Back in February, on Valentine’s Day, the 14th of the month, ESPN issued what it labeled the 2023 preseason or way-too-early SP+ rankings looking ahead to the college football season a good six months down the road.

Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama and Penn State (notably three Big Ten teams and two from the SEC) were the top three teams in that early projection. Texas was the first Big 12 team listed in the ranking, at No. 9. Oklahoma was at No. 14.

Because of the number of transfers changing teams and other big moves in college football that have occurred in the three-plus months since February, it seemed like a “pretty good time,” ESPN said, for an update to the numbers that go into the SP+ rankings. T

There isn’t a lot of change in the rankings in the post-spring edition except for LSU replacing Penn State in the No. 5 spot, with the Nittany Lions dropping back to No. 8, and a two-spot rise by USC to No. 7 from No. 10. The Sooners were also among those moving up, if only one spot, from 14 to 13.

The ESPN SP+ evaluation tool ranks all 133 FBS teams. Teams are provided an overall numerical rating, as well as an offensive ranking and a defensive ranking, all based on three basic evaluation criteria: returning production, recent recruiting (which includes incoming recruits in the class of 2023 and also transfer additions) and recent history (going back two to four years).

Oklahoma’s overall post-spring rating was 19.7, only slightly better than 18.9 rating back in February. According to the ESPN analysis of the Sooner offense and defense, however, it is patently clear that the offensive strength and potential of the Sooners in the coming season is what is propping up their overall ranking. The SP+ analytics have Oklahoma as the sixth best offense in the nation (ranked 9th in February) coming into the new season.

The OU defense, although expected to be better in year two under Venables, is still the Sooners’ Achilles heel. The 2023 Oklahoma defense is projected as No. 37 among the 133 FBS teams. That’s dramatically better, however, than the Sooners’ standing of No. 122 out of 131 FBS teams in total defense last season.

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