Oklahoma's Brent Venables and Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss can debate until the cows come home on who has the better team, but it was patently clear that the Rebels were the better team on Saturday.
Yes, the Sooners had ample opportunities to make plays that could have changed the outcome of the game with Ole Miss, but the brutal fact is they didn't make the plays when they needed to and Ole Miss did.
The loss to then-No. 8 Ole Miss (7-1) delivered a serious but not yet fatal blow to Oklahoma's College Football Playoff chances this season. It was the Sooners' (6-2) second loss in the last three games, and the four remaining games on the schedule are especially daunting with three of the opponents currently ranked in the top 25 in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls.
Sooners still in CFP hunt with loaded schedule ahead
With the loss to Ole Miss and the ominous prospects of what still lies ahead for Oklahoma, many fans and experts have already written off the Sooners as legitimate playoff contenders, but that sentiment is not shared by the OU players.
Junior safety Peyton Bowen said he and his teammates have faith in OU's ability to bounce back from the Ole Miss loss and make the adjustments necessary to close out the season on a high note.
"No one's getting down on themselves," Bowen told reporters after practice on Monday. "We know that we can still do this thing, go to the playoffs and have every ability to do whatever we want."
While some are looking at Oklahoma's November schedule -- at Tennessee, at Alabama, and home against Missouri and LSU -- as an impossible task, the Sooners are viewing it as an opportunity to control their own destiny by taking care of the business directly in front of them and let the chips fall as they may.
From a realistic point of view, it's probably a big stretch to think that the Sooners will run the table and finish with 10 wins, which would include wins over six ranked teams over the course of the season. Three more wins, however, would give them nine and, given the strength of schedule, should put them in the conversation for a playoff spot.
Given the health issue of Missouri starting quarterback Beau Pribula and all the chaos and struggles surrounding the LSU program, Oklahoma should be favored at home against those two teams. That leaves the trip to Tennessee this weekend followed by Alabama two weeks later as the two biggest games of the 2025 season for the Sooners.
If somehow Oklahoma were able to steal a road win as an underdog at either Tennessee or Alabama, admittedly a very tall order, the chances of finishing out the season with nine wins becomes a realistic probability. And with that, the Sooners not only would likely be headed to a premier bowl game, if not the College Football Playoff, but it most assuredly would extend Brent Venables' job at Oklahoma.
Something certainly to ponder.
After Oklahoma's Week 8 win at South Carolina, the Sooners' chances of making it into the 12-team playoff field, according to ESPN's College Football Power Index, were at 42.9%. That placed OU at No. 11 among teams with the highest percentages to make the playoff.
After the loss to Ole Miss, the Sooners' playoff chances plummeted to 19.6% and No. 17 on the projection list. Interestingly, the team immediately ahead of Oklahoma in this week's Playoff Predictor is Tennessee at 22.6%.
Six SEC teams are currently projected to make the playoff if the season ended today. Oklahoma has already lost to two of the teams (Texas and Ole Miss) and a road date at Alabama looms on Nov. 15.
"It's one game at a time," Bowen said. "We can't waver. We're a talented group and a top team in the country. We have to show that week in and week out and go win those games."