Oklahoma football: Sooners finish No. 15 in final Associated Press poll
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football lost some ground after its Alamo Bowl loss to Arizona but still finished 15th in the final Associated Press Top 25 of the 2023 season.
The Sooners were ranked 12th previously in the AP poll conducted after the conference championship games and prior to the bowl season. That represents a major improvement from the final AP rankings of the 2022 season in which the 6-7 Sooners finished outside of the rankings.
Michigan retained the No. 1 spot in the final AP poll after defeating No. 2 Washington 34-13 in the national championship game on Monday.
Texas claimed the No, 3 spot, the highest-ranked of five Big 12 teams that finished in the top 25. Besides Texas and Oklahoma, Oklahoma State was No. 16, Kansas State, No. 18 and Kansas No. 23. Both K-State and Kansas were unranked previously.
Six SEC teams next season (including Texas) rank ahead of the Sooners, and five of them (Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Ole Miss and LSU...all but Georgia) are on the 2024 Oklahoma schedule.
The SEC led all conferences with six teams ranked in the top 25. That number jumps to eight if you include Oklahoma and Texas, who join the SEC next season. Six of the eight SEC teams that are on the Sooners' schedule next season are ranked in the final AP Top 25.
The Big Ten and ACC both have four teams ranked in the final AP poll and the Pac 12 has three teams.
Oklahoma's final three games next season are at No. 8 Missouri, at home against No. 5 Alabama and at No. 12 LSU.