The Oklahoma Sooners are paying for their failures.
The Sooners dropped 13 spots in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, which was released on Sunday, going from No. 11 to No. 24. The fall was an obvious consequence of losing to Michigan 17-10 on Saturday in Ann Arbor and dropping to 1-1 early in the season.
It was a close one-possession loss that might not seem as substantial deeper into the season, especially with Michigan ranked again at No. 19, but the immediate reaction is that the Sooners fell right where they belong after losing to an unranked team they were expected to dominate.
It was a hard set of rankings to examine, because not only are the Sooners near the bottom, but the Texas Longhorns are at the very top after narrowly beating then-No. 1 Ohio State in Austin. The silver lining is that if the Longhorns keep winning, OU will have a chance to happily take them down from that top spot at the Red River Rivalry on Oct. 10.
Week 2 AP Top 25 Poll
1. Texas
2. Georgia
3. Notre Dame
4. Indiana
5. Miami (FL)
6. Ohio State
7. LSU
8. Ole Miss
9. Texas A&M
10. Alabama
11. BYU
12. USC
13. Texas Tech
14. Penn State
15. Tennessee
16. SMU
17. Utah
18. Iowa
19. Michigan
20. Missouri
21. Oregon
22. Houston
23. Louisville
24. Oklahoma
25. Virginia
Sooners suddenly in danger of staying ranked with tough road ahead
Texas and OU are just two of nine SEC teams in the latest top 25. Five of those ranked teams — No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Georgia, No. 8 Ole Miss, No. 9 Texas A&M and No. 20 Missouri — are on the Sooners’ schedule ahead.
The Sooners will host New Mexico at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday in Norman, then hit the road to Athens to play No. 2 Georgia. After that is a bye week, then the Red River Rivalry. It’s looking like the Sooners will get the No. 2 team in the country, only to face the No. 1 team in back-to-back games.
We knew all offseason that the Sooners started the season with a treacherous stretch that was expected to include three ranked opponents within the first five games. Michigan’s controversial 13-12 win against Western Michigan ultimately erased the Wolverines as a ranked foe, but obviously that didn’t make a difference on Saturday.
The Sooners’ newest spot at No. 24 leaves no breathing room to still be ranked on the other side of this difficult stretch.
A loss to a dangerous New Mexico team would obviously leave OU unranked and dash all College Football Playoff dreams, but even losing to a top-3 team on the road would still be enough to drop the Sooners out of the Top 25 in a few weeks. Another loss to Texas would bury them even further in a hole that they would have seven games to dig themselves out of.
But this is what happens when a team loses a game it shouldn’t. The daunting schedule also can’t be an excuse.
The Sooners now must win games they otherwise didn’t need to, just to keep the respect as a ranked squad, let alone as a CFP contender.
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