For the Oklahoma Sooners who are 3-5 in SEC play, they haven't even made it through the hardest part yet.
With the unveiling of a new set of rankings from the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, the Sooners will now take on two top-5 conference opponents this week in No. 1 Auburn and No. 4 Tennessee.
And this week comes right in the middle of a streak against five-straight ranked opponents for OU. The Sooners already played then-No. 13 Texas A&M and then-No. 24 Vanderbilt last week, splitting the games with a win against Vanderbilt. Then, next week, OU will get No. 15 Missouri on the road.
By the end of the two weeks, it looks like Vanderbilt will be the only team OU plays that wasn't inside the top 15 of the AP Top 25.
This is the type of schedule the Sooners asked for in football when they left the Big 12 for the SEC last year. However, Porter Moser thought he was escaping the toughest conference in college basketball, only to join the SEC in its prime on the court with 12 ranked teams.
That five-game stretch already looked daunting at the start of last week. It was like a room full of toddlers trying to pop the Sooners' NCAA Tournament bubble.
Then it got worse.
Auburn just kept winning. The Tigers will host OU at 8 p.m. CT Tuesday night on a 13-game winning streak. Even in this loaded conference, Auburn is still 8-0 in SEC play.
And then Tennessee bounced back. After back-to-back losses to Auburn and then-No. 12 Kentucky, the Volunteers upset then-No. 5 Florida on Saturday. And Tennessee blew the Gators out, 64-44.
With Florida, Houston, Iowa State and Michigan State all losing above them, the Volunteers jumped four spots from No. 8 to No. 4 this week.
So that's how the Sooners got dealt the task of jostling with two top-5 teams in one week.
Deficits to a pair of top-5 teams alone wouldn't trash OU's NCAA Tournament invitation, but if there's another loss to Mizzou next week, a 1-4 stretch after already enduring another four-game losing streak during conference play would be an unavoidable blotch on the Sooners' resume.