Although Oklahoma is getting a lot of love from national college football experts for a turnaround 2025 season, the media who cover the SEC aren't yet all that convinced.
The Sooners were ranked 10th in the 2025 SEC Preseason Media Poll that released Friday. However, there is a fairly sizable gap in the vote tabulation between OU and the teams ranked 11th through 16th.
Sooners ranked 10th in SEC Preseason Media Poll
Oklahoma was No. 8 in last season's SEC Preseason Media Poll, the Sooners' first as a member of the SEC. But a disappointing 6-7 overall record and 2-6 conference mark left OU tied for 14th in the final regular-season conference standings.
The Sooners' chief rival Texas is the favorite to finish first in the regular-season standings and win the SEC championship. Behind the Longhorns was Georgia, Alabama, LSU and South Carolina, respectively, to round out the top 5.
Texas, Georgia, Alabama and LSU garnered the most votes to reach the SEC championship game, with Texas and Georgia voted the most likely to face off for the conference championship on Dec. 6 in Atlanta for the second consecutive season. Oklahoma was one of 11 SEC teams that received votes to win the SEC championship.
SEC officials pointed out that only 10 times in the last 33 seasons (since 1993) has the favorite in the preseason poll actually won the conference championship game.
The teams finishing below the Sooners in the SEC Media Poll were, in order, Auburn, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State. Of those six teams, Oklahoma plays only Auburn and Missouri. Both of those games are in Norman. The Sooners do, however, play six of the nine teams ranked ahead of them in the preseason poll.
Being ranked close to the bottom third in the conference preseason media poll is a dramatic departure for an Oklahoma team that was the top-ranked team nine times in the preseason media poll in its final 13 years as a member of the Big 12.
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