Oklahoma football: Sooners drop like a rock in College Football Playoff Top 25
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football Team 129 has the dubious distinction this week of becoming the biggest mover in week two of the 2023 College Football Playoff rankings, and not in a good way.
The Sooners fell from No. 9 all the way back to No. 17 this week as a result of their 27-24 loss to Oklahoma State in Bedlam. OU is sixth among the two-loss team, trailing both Kansas and OSU in the CFP rankings.
The No. 17 ranking matches Oklahoma’s ranking in this week’s Associated Press poll, where the Sooners sat at No. 6 just two weeks ago.
The top eight teams in the week two playoff rankings remain unchanged with Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan and Florida State, in that order, holding down the top four playoff spots and with undefeated Washington and one-loss Oregon, Texas and Alabama lurking in positions five through eight.
There is the expected November championship month chaos in the rankings, however in the second half of the top-25 standings. There was glimmer of good news for OU fans in this week’s playoff rankings. Lincoln Riley’s USC Trojans dropped out of the rankings, and former Sooner defensive coordinator Alex Grinch finally was shown the door.
Oklahoma State catapulted seven spots, from 23 to 15, making the biggest advance in this week’s rankings. Kansas got a boost of five spots, to No. 16, this week after escaping with a road win at Iowa State.
LSU and Notre Dame, both ranked in the top 10 to begin the season, suffered a similar fate to the Sooners, tumbling backward in the playoff rankings following weekend losses to Alabama and Clemson, respectively.
Oklahoma hopes to return to the winning track this weekend with a home game against West Virginia (6-3, 4-2). It is a 6 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.