This season is the 12th year of the College Football Playoff. Over that time, a total of 64 teams -- including five Oklahoma teams -- have taken part in this exclusive tournament to determine the national champion. A total of 28 schools make up the 64-team playoff history.
Oklahoma's five playoff appearances (including 2025) are tied with Georgia for the fourth most all-time. Four of the Sooners' playoff appearances were during the time (2014-23) when the format was limited to four teams. Beginning with the 2024 season, the playoff was expanded to include a dozen teams. This year will be OU's first in the expanded 12-team bracket.
ESPN college football writer Bill Connelly took on the task of assigning a ranking to all 64 CFP participants to date, including the 12 participating this season.
Sooners near bottom of ESPN's all-time playoff team rankings
"It is an awkward mix of 40 teams that cleared one bar during the four-team playoff era and 24 teams that cleared a lower bar in the 12-team playoff era," Connelly wrote.
The top-10 all-time playoff teams, according to Connelly's methodology, which is based on both objective and subjective analysis, were 1) 2020 Alabama, 2) 2019 LSU, 3) 2022 Georgia, 4) 2023 Michigan, 5) 2018 Clemson 6) 2021 Georgia, 7) 2017 Alabama, 8) 2018 Alabama, 9) 2024 Ohio State and 10) 2014 Ohio State.
It's probably not surprising to see Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State represented multiple times among the top-10 teams in playoff history, given that those three schools have combined for 21 playoff appearances and seven national championships. Of note, however, LSU has made just one playoff appearance in 2019. Many consider that national champion LSU team, with quarterback Joe Burrow, and wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson, to name just a few, one of the greatest college teams of all-time.
If you're looking for where Oklahoma's five playoff teams rank, you have to drop down to No. 31 in ESPN's all-time playoff ranking. That's where you will find the 2017 Sooner team, quarterbacked by Heisman winner Baker Mayfield, which lost to George in the national semifinals. Thirteen spots later, at No. 44, you'll find the next highest-ranked OU playoff team, the 2015 Sooner team, followed by the 2018 Oklahoma team at No. 45.
The 2019 edition of Oklahoma football, with Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts at quarterback, was ranked 56th among the 64 teams. That Sooner team, seeded No. 4 in that season's four-team playoff, got the privilege of playing top-seeded and eventual champion LSU (No. 2 overall in the all-time playoff rankings) in the semifinals. LSU won easily, handing Oklahoma one of its worst postseason losses in program history, 63-28.
While finishing so low in ESPN's ranking of the 64 all-time playoff teams is not a rousing tribute to Oklahoma's five playoff teams, it is more a reflection of the fact that the Sooners have yet to win a playoff game. The closest they've come to advancing beyond the first game was losing to Georgia in 2017 in double overtime.
The 2025 Oklahoma playoff team is all the way down to No. 57 in the ranking. This will either improve or perhaps get worse depending on what happens in this year's playoff. The one glimmering light if you're a Sooner fan is that OU's opening-round playoff opponent, Alabama, was ranked one spot behind the Sooners.