Despite entering the SEC with a historical resume second only to the Alabama Crimson Tide among the 16 current members of that conference, a large majority of college football experts are of the opinion that the Sooners have some serious catching up to do to be a bona fide conference or national championship contender in the power-heavy SEC.
Regardless of the veracity of that assertion, there is little question, from an historical perspective, Oklahoma is one of the winningest and most successful college football brands. In fact, if you were to rank the current SEC teams on an all-time basis, the conference would be dominated by just two teams; Alabama and Oklahoma. The supporting evidence speaks for itself:
- 945 all-time wins (fifth most all-time)
- 50 conference championships (No. 1 all-time)
- 47-game winning streak, 1953-57, an NCAA record and longest in history of college football
- 27 11-win seasons (No. 2 all-time)
- 7 national championships ( tied for 3rd in AP poll era)
- 7 Heisman Trophy winners (tied for No. 1 all-time)
Most OU football fans are probably aware of these major accomplishments, but here are a couple more that you may not be aware of:
- Since the end of World War II (1946-present), no other FBS college program has more wins than the Oklahoma Sooners (701). The next closest is Alabama with 670.
- A number of college teams have been playing football longer than Oklahoma (Michigan, Rutgers, Minnesota and Notre Dame, for example), but no team has scored more total points than the Sooners, No. 1 in that category with 38,333.