Oklahoma football: OU 12th in final CFP rankings, left out of New Year’s Six bowl
By Chip Rouse
The top-four playoff teams along with the final College Football Playoff rankings for 2023 were revealed on Sunday. Oklahoma football remains unchanged from a week ago at No. 12.
This proved to be a knockout factor for the Sooners, who will miss out on one of the four prime college bowl games that combined with the two College Football Playoff national semifinal games make up what is known as the New Year’s Six bowls.
The six bowls that make up the New Year’s Six bowl rotation are the Sugar, Rose, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach Bowl.
It now appears that what has been the consensus projection all for a number of weeks now, the Alamo Bowl, is where the Sooners will be headed this postseason. That probability will be confirmed later on Sunday.
Because of the guidelines that define which teams qualify for a New Year’s Six bowl assignment, the No. 12 spot in the final CFP rankings is a precarious spot in the selection process. While it makes some sense that the next eight teams in the final CFP rankings would constitute the teams for the four New Year’s Six bowls, there is one other key factor that enters into the equation: The highest-ranked team from the Group of Five conferences is guaranteed a New Year’s Six bowl berth.
This year, that team is the Liberty Flames, No. 23 in the CFP rankings and champions of Conference USA with a 13-0 record. Because the highest-ranked Group of Five team did not fall in the top 12, Oklahoma, the team occupying the 12th spot in the final 2023 playoff rankings gets left out of the mix for a NY6 bowl destination.
The Sooners were in competition with No. 10 Penn State and No. 11 Ole Miss for a New Year’s Six bowl bid. All three finished with 10-2 overall records.
Texas earns the No, 3 seed on the College Football Playoff. The Sooners (10-2) are the next highest-ranked Big 12 team at No. 12. Oklahoma State (9-4) fell back two spots, to No. 20, after its loss to Texas in the Big 12 Championship, and Kansas State (8-4) is at No. 25.