Life is hard for the Oklahoma Sooners right now, and it doesn’t get any easier.
The latest AP Top 25 Poll dropped on Sunday afternoon, and obviously the Sooners are nowhere to be found for the second straight week after dropping to 2-2. As if OU, which was supposed to be a College Football Playoff contender this season, being unranked wasn’t discouraging enough, who is in the rankings doesn’t give much hope for a brighter future.
The Sooners are heading into their bye week before finishing their season with eight SEC games in a row without a break. Of the eight opponents left on OU’s schedule, six were inside the newest top 25, including No. 1 Texas, No. 8 Florida, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 16 Mississippi State, No. 24 Kentucky, and No. 25 Missouri.
That also doesn’t include No. 2 Georgia, which just whipped the Sooners 41-13 on Saturday in Athens. OU’s first suffered loss, Michigan, fell out of the top 25 after losing to Iowa in a thriller.
The only unranked matchups currently ahead for the Sooners are both home games against South Carolina and Texas A&M. Obviously, rankings will shift as the SEC cannibalizes itself, but these current standings make it clear that OU could be destined for a 4-8 season without mounting any upsets.
Week 4 AP Top 25 Poll
1. Texas
2. Georgia
3. Notre Dame
4. Miami
5. Ohio State
6. Indiana
7. Alabama
8. Florida
9. Ole Miss
10. BYU
11. LSU
12. Texas Tech
13. Utah
14. Iowa
15. Oregon
16. Mississippi State
17. Tennessee
18. USC
19. Oklahoma State
20. Houston
21. SMU
22. Boise State
23. UCLA
24. Kentucky
25. Missouri
Oklahoma is dealing with the reality of the SEC
After a week off, the Sooners will head to Dallas for the Red River Rivalry against top-ranked Texas. The Longhorns are 4-0 after just beating then-No. 14 Tennessee in the road, so after also getting a bye week, they should still be No. 1 on Oct. 10.
Knocking off a rival when it’s on top is an exciting opportunity for the Sooners, but it is also, no doubt, a daunting task that could put OU below .500.
The Sooners then return home to host Kentucky before going to Mississippi State. There are no easy wins in the SEC, but those two matchups felt as uncomplicated as a conference contest could be when the season started. But while the Sooners have underachieved in 2026, Kentucky and Mississippi State keep exceeding expectations.
While on what could be a grueling four-game losing streak by this point, the Sooners finally get what will definitely be an unranked matchup against South Carolina on Halloween. Shane Beamer might not even still be coaching the Gamecocks. If Brent Venables loses this one, then he might need to suffer the same fate.
Then it’s back-to-back projected top-10 matchups against Florida in The Swamp and Ole Miss at home.
Life might seem easier the next week at home against Texas A&M, but the Aggies had the same high expectations as OU coming into 2026, so Mike Elko could right the ship by then with a talented and experienced roster. Texas A&M was a top-10 team just over two weeks ago.
The season finale will be a trip to Missouri, which is just barely ranked, but will have home-field advantage and treat OU like a big-team rival.
With all those challenges ahead, ESPN now ranks OU with the No. 10 remaining strength of schedule in college football. That's what happens when everyone on your schedule emerges as a bigger threat than you are.
This is life in the SEC that the Sooners signed up for three years ago, though. There’s no longer a Kansas to act as a pseudo bye week to get an easy win or figure things out on the fly. Your new Kansas is Kentucky, and the Wildcats just handled Texas A&M 31-21 two weeks ago before cracking the top 25 this week.
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