Brent Venables had the perfect response for Oklahoma's position in second CFP rankings

While Oklahoma fans and even college football spectators across the country are complaining about the Oklahoma Sooners' position in the College Football Playoff race heading into Week 12, OU head coach Brent Venables is not at all.

At 7-2, the Sooners were No. 11 in the second set of CFP rankings that were released on Tuesday evening, which put OU as the first team left out of the projected 12-team field after being replaced by a pair of conference champions outside of the top 12. The key argument for the Sooners being in that has stirred up several college football fans is their strength of schedule, which appears to be far superior than Notre Dame, which is ahead of OU and Texas despite also having two losses with a weaker schedule.

Brent Venables responds to controversy surrounding Sooners' College Football Playoff position

During Wednesday's SEC coaches teleconference, Venables wasn't even specifically asked about his thoughts on the Sooners' position in the rankings, but in just the setup for a different question regarding the benefits of strength of schedule, Venables made it clear that there's no crying about where the Sooners are in the CFP hunt.

"My mindset is we had a chance to win games, and we didn't," Venables said. "So we're in the position that we are, and we had complete and total control whether or not we won those games. So, you win, you take care of business, everything works out in the end. I firmly believe that."

The main question asked involved the SEC's recent move to a nine-game conference slate in 2026 in response to the CFP committee favoring strength of schedule when choosing the playoff field. There's no doubt the Sooners already have a loaded schedule schedule this season, but the committee apparently still needs more.

The newest CFP rankings made it clear that the committee still wants one more statement win from the Sooners, who can get that this weekend when they travel to No. 4 Alabama on Saturday. OU then hosts Missouri and LSU to conclude the season. According to ESPN's College Football Power Index, the Sooners' playoff chances will excel beyond 90% if they win out.

"The two components was the financial piece, and there's the strength of schedule piece that would have a chance to separate us from a lot of people," Venables said of the schedule change. "Again, you're dealing with the human element. I don't know the exact order of importance (when choosing playoff teams). They're making a lot of the decisions, and quite frankly, I'm gonna leave that to everybody else and just find a way to win this week."