Sooners lagging behind six other SEC teams in 2024 Preseason Coaches Poll

The first college football Coaches Poll of the 2024 season was released today, and the SEC, including newcomers Oklahoma and Texas, are prominent among the nation's top-25 teams.

The Sooners are ranked No. 16. That's the good news. The not so good news is that seven SEC teams are ranked ahead of Oklahoma. That includes top-ranked Georgia, which received 47 of the 55 first-place votes by the nationwide panel of head coaches who participate in the voting.

The SEC placed the most teams in the top 25 with nine. The Big Ten was next with six teams represented.

Three teams from the SEC are ranked in the top 5. Texas is No. 4, behind No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Oregon, and Alabama. No. 6 Ole Miss follows Alabama. Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State and Florida State round out the top 10 in that order.

Missouri and LSU, out of the SEC, check in at the No. 11 and 12 spots in the initial Coaches Poll of the 2024 season, and Tennessee is No. 15 just ahead of the Sooners. The only other SEC team included in the top 25 is Texas A&M at No. 20.

Five Big 12 teams are ranked in the top 25, with Utah, which is in its first season as a member of the Big 12, the only team from that conference ranked ahead of former Big 12 member Oklahoma. Kansas State is No. 17, Oklahoma State No. 18 and Arizona No. 21.

The formidable challenge the Sooners face -- or if you were Brent Venables, you'd most likely look at it as an opportunity -- is that they play six of the seven SEC teams ranked ahead of them during the course of the 2024 season (two at home, three on the road and Texas on a nuetral field in the annual Red River Rivalry game in Dallas).