A week ago, it appeared Oklahoma's chances of making this year's College Football Playoff were an extreme long shot. Now, after the Sooners' road win over then-No. 14 Tennessee, they find themselves right back in the playoff hunt.
On Tuesday night, we will find out where Oklahoma stands entering Week 11 of the season and relative to the playoff when the the first of six College Football Playoff rankings are revealed. The Sooners' huge primetime win at Tennessee on Saturday night couldn't have been better timed.
Oklahoma awaits initial College Football Playoff rankings
Oklahoma went from No. 11 in the Associated Press Top 25 after winning at South Carolina two weeks ago to No. 18 after losing at home to then-No. 8 Ole Miss the following weekend. The win at Tennessee over the weekend boosted the Sooners back up to No. 11 in the AP Poll and No. 12 in the Coaches Poll, and at this stage, with another four weekends to go, definitely in the 12-team playoff conversation.
College football writer Paul Myerberg of USA Today ranked Oklahoma No. 11, a jump of nine spots, in his re-rank of the 136 FBS teams, which came out on Monday. Four SEC teams ranked ahead of the Sooners with No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Georgia and No. 7 Ole Miss in Myerberg's re-ranking.
ESPN's Heather Dinich ranked Oklahoma at No. 12 this week among the Power Four teams, one spot back of Texas. The problem with that is, if the Sooners were No. 12 when the final playoff standings come out, they would be left out of the field to make room for the fifth highest-ranked conference champion, which is guaranteed a playoff spot along with the four Power Four conference champs.
Bill Connelly, one of Dinich's ESPN colleagues, broke down the College Football Playoff contenders into tiers and currently has the Sooners as the top team in Tier 4 with a 27% chance of making the playoff. Fourteen other teams were ranked ahead of Oklahoma.
The current ESPN College Football Power Index ranks Oklahoma as the nation's 16th-best college team based on predicted performance going forward for the remainder of the season. The Sooners are ranked No. 16, but the FPI gives them the 11th-best chance to make the College Football Playoff at 34.1%.
All of these rolling rankings make for interesting discussion and debate, but in the end, the only one that matters is the one that comes out on Selection Sunday, Dec. 7. Beginning Tuesday night, a new set of playoff rankings will be released every Tuesday for five weeks, leading up to the final reveal on Dec. 7.