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Oklahoma football: AP Preseason Top 25 to be released Aug. 15

By Chip Rouse

HONG KONG, CHINA - 2020/12/31: A microphone of Associated Press (AP), an American non-profit news agency is placed outside the Court of Final Appeal as they wait for the verdict of Jimmy Lai's bail. (Photo by Chan Long Hei/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
HONG KONG, CHINA - 2020/12/31: A microphone of Associated Press (AP), an American non-profit news agency is placed outside the Court of Final Appeal as they wait for the verdict of Jimmy Lai's bail. (Photo by Chan Long Hei/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
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Only one college football team (Alabama) has been ranked more weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 poll than the Oklahoma football team since that poll was introduced in 1936.

The Sooners rank fourth for the most weeks holding down the No. 1 spot at the top of the AP poll during the college football season.

In the last six months, there have been multiple way-too-early college football top-25 projections, post-spring updates to those early top-25 predictions and even pre-preseason top-25 forecasts.

The Associated Press has announced that it will release the 2023 College Football Preseason Top 25 on Aug. 15.

The question for Sooner fans is where Oklahoma will fall when the votes of the 62 media members who vote in the first official AP college football poll of the season are tallied? The expectation, you see, among Oklahoma football fans is that their beloved Sooners will be one of the top 25 teams to begin the season. Even if it follows a season in which OU finished a very sub-standard 6-7 and outside of the final AP rankings for the 2022 season.

There is empirical evidence to support why Oklahoma football fans feel that way. The Sooners have appeared in every preseason AP Top 25 poll since the beginning of the 2000 season. The Sooners started out that season, Bob Stoops’ second at OU, at No. 19 in the AP poll but finished the season as national champions.

Ironically, this is Brent Venables second season as head coach of the Sooners, which is another reason OU fans are so optimistic. Oklahoma began the 2022 season ranked No. 9 in the AP college football poll.

Twice in the last 23 seasons, Oklahoma has been ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 (2003 and 2011). The Sooners finished the 2003 season at 12-2 and ranked No. 3 after losing the Big 12 title game to Kansas State followed by a loss to LSU in the BCS national championship game. OU ended the 2011 season with a 10-3 record and ranked 16th in the final AP poll.

Three times since 2000, Oklahoma has started out at No. 2 in the AP preseason poll and three times at No. 3. In all, the Sooners have been ranked in the top five to start the season a dozen times over the last 23 years.

On Aug. 15, we’ll see how the AP voters feel about Oklahoma’s turnaround chances in 2023.

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