In 43 days, the college football landscape will undergo another seismic shift. Ten major teams, including the Oklahoma football program, will kick off an all-new era in their history.
With spring practice games now in the books and with under 100 days -- that's right, double digits -- to go before the official start of the 2024 college football season, fans and CFB experts alike are beginning to get a better idea of what the coming season will look like amid all the change and what surprises or status quo we might expect.
The Big Ten is adding four former Pac-12 teams to the fold (USC,UCLA, Oregon and Washington), the Big 12 is doing the same (Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado). For the Big 12, it will be eight new teams in the past two years. And, of course, Oklahoma and Texas will move from the Big 12 to become the newest members of the SEC.
The media outlets that wasted no time after the final whistle how sounded ending the 2023 college season putting out projections on who the top 25 teams will be in a season still some eight months away have begun adjusting their original way-too-early predictions. The college sports staff at USA Today is among those that have begun sharpening their focus on the coming season.
This may surprise some people, even some Sooner fans, but USA Today, as of earlier this month, still has Oklahoma projected at No. 8. That's the good news. The not so good news is that four other SEC teams are ranked ahead of the Sooners among the top-10 teams. Georgia and Texas are Nos. 1 and 2, Alabama is 5, Ole Miss 6 and Missouri No. 9 in the post-spring revision.
Here's what Paul Myerberg and Erick Smith had to say about OU in their May 8 article for USAToday.com:
"The Sooners improved from six wins to 10, including a win over Texas, in Brent Venables' second season. QB Jackson Arnold had a strong spring and the receiving corps should be outstanding Purdue transfer Deion Burks, a star in the spring, a major addition. The defense will continue its improvement with LB Danny Stutsman and DB Billy Bowman two standouts who opted to return for another season. Whether it's ready for the grind of the SEC is the team's biggest question."
Other college football experts have raised questions about how effective Arnold will be as a first-time starter at QB for the Sooners, also about the offensive line that had to replace four starters in the offseason. History, however, has shown that Oklahoma has faced those questions numerous times in the past decade and has always found ways to overcome them.
USA Today is still holding with its way-too-early January projection, which also had Oklahoma at No. 8 -- one of the few, if any, to rank the Sooners as high as the top-10.
There is little question that Oklahoma will be competing in a tougher football lreague this fall, but that doesn't mean that the Sooners won't continue to be one of the best programs in college football in 2024