Oklahoma's best win this season came on the road just over a month ago against the same team it will face on Friday in the College Football Playoff. Similarly, Alabama's biggest win came earlier in the season against eventual SEC champion Georgia. Both wins were made more impressive because they occurred on the road at two of the more difficult places to play in all of college football.
Alabama defeated Georgia 24-21 "between the hedges" in Athens on Sept. 27, handing the Bulldogs their only loss in the regular season. Those same two teams met for a second time this season on Dec. 6 as combatants in the SEC Championship Game. The rematch turned out much differently, with Georgia claiming a decisive 28-7 victory and underscoring the notion that it's difficult to defeat a team twice in the same season.
Can OU avoid what happened to Alabama in the Tide's recent rematch with Georgia?
Less than two weeks after Georgia evened the score in its rematch with Alabama, Oklahoma hopes to avoid a similar fate when it hosts that same battle-scarred Alabama team in the opening game of the 2025 College Football Playoff on Friday.
Teams that lost in the regular season are 17-7 all-time in postseason and bowl game rematches. Purdue was the last team to win both a regular-season and postseason game against the same opponent, beating Central Michigan in the 2007 Motor City Bowl. Regular-season winners have lost nine consecutive rematches since then.
In the 11-year history of the College Football Playoff, there have been only two rematches of regular-season games. The losing team in the regular season prevailed in the postseason both times.
Alabama defeated Georgia in the regular season in 2021, but lost by 15 points when the two teams played again a month later in the national championship game. Last season, in the first year of the expanded 12-team playoff format, Oregon beat Ohio State by one point in the regular season but was doubled up in the playoff sequel.
One precedent that does favor Oklahoma heading into Friday's playoff game with Alabama: The Sooners were underdogs in the last two games against the Crimson Tide and both times managed to defy the odds.