Oklahoma football: CBS’ Jerry Palm projects OU No. 3 in 2023 Big 12 bowl order
By Chip Rouse
According to the Las Vegas oddsmakers, as many as 10 of the 14 Big 12 teams this season could become bowl eligible, including Oklahoma football, seeking its 25th consecutive postseason bowl appearance.
Although coming off of a 2023 season in which the Sooners managed just six wins in a 13-game schedule, which barely qualified them for a bowl appearance, the Las Vegas sportsbooks are projecting Oklahoma for nine-plus wins this season. That seems highly achievable, given an unusually soft 2023 schedule for the Sooners as they embark on their final season in the Big 12 before moving to the SEC beginning in 2024.
And the consensus among the myriad of preseason polls that have flooded the media marketplace during the offseason is for the Sooners to finish second in the Big 12, trailing only archrival Texas, whose win total, along with Oklahoma, is projected at 9.5.
The winner of the Big 12 Championship — which has been the Sooners 14 times in the 27-year history of the Big 12 — automatically qualifies for one of the Big 12’s contracted bowl assignments. That could be either the College Football Playoff or one of the New Year’s Six Bowls if the Big 12 champion does not make the playoff.
As an example, last season TCU, the Big 12 champion, appeared in the CFP. Runner-up Kansas State went to the Peach Bowl and faced Alabama.
When the Sugar Bowl is the site for one of the CFP semifinal games, which it is in the 2023 season, and a team from the Big 12 is not one of the four playoff teams, the Big 12 champion will be assigned to one of the other New Year’s Six bowls, which this season will be either the Fiesta, Orange, Peach or Cotton Bowl.
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports projects two Big 12 teams going to New Year’s Six Bowls this season. Neither of those teams is Oklahoma, however. Palm has the Sooners finishing third in the conference this year, which would land them in the third spot in the Big 12’s 2023-24 postseason bowl pecking order: the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28 in San Antonio.
Palm projects an Alamo Bowl Oklahoma matchup with the Washington Huskies out of the Pac-12. The Huskies will be on the move after this season, just like the Sooners, heading over to the Big Ten.
According to Palm’s crystal ball, Texas will win the Big 12 this season and finish No. 6 in the final CFP standings, just missing out on a playoff spot. He has the Longhorns going to the Peach Bowl to face Clemson. Kansas State is Palm’s choice as the Big 12 runner-up, and he has the Wildcats winding up in the Cotton Bowl to face off against Penn State.
All of this is pure conjecture, of course, at this point in time. A lot can happen between now and bowl selection Sunday in early December. The one thing we can confirm at this time is that Oklahoma is 1-0 in games in the Alamo Bowl. The Sooners defeated Oregon 47-32 in 2021 in their only Alamo Bowl appearance out of 56 overall postseason bowl games in their history.