Where will Oklahoma rank nationally after first three seasons in the SEC?
By Chip Rouse
Most college football experts would agree that Oklahoma football program two years into the Brent Venables era is still a work in progress.
That's actually good news if you're an Oklahoma fan because the Sooners are a top-20 team right now and expected to keep getting better over the next few years.
Just think how much has changed in college football in the past three years. Conference realignment has reemerged, with teams moving in and out of all five power conferences and decimating the Pac-12.
Conference structures based on geographical alignment and proximity is a thing of the past. Now we have West Coast teams playing conference games on the East Coast and Big 12 schools spread out over four different time zones. The way things are going, at some point in the not too distant future we may only have two major super conferences at the FBS level.
NIL (name, image, likeness) and the transfer portal have completely changed the face of college football recruiting. Who knows how things will evolve over the next three years, but it's a pretty fair bet things will be different, and it won't be exactly the way it is today.
With the plethora of preseason top 25 rankings and predictions that are already out and still to come ahead of the 2024 college football season, Josh Pate of 247Sports and the "Late Kick Live" podcast has taken a bit different approach in projecting the top 15 teams in college football looking three years ahead.
The criteria Pate used in creating the ranking included recent results, talent acquisition (high school recruiting and the transfer portal) and overall synergy and culture.
Pate's top 15 college football programs over the next three years includes seven SEC teams, led by Georgia and Alabama at Nos. 1 and 2, four teams from the newly expanded Big Ten, three from the ACC and Notre Dame.
Oklahoma is ranked No. 8 overall and fourth among the SEC teams behind Georgia, Alabama and No. 5 Texas.
Interestingly, the two rankings are relatively similar, except for slight differences in the order and three teams that are on the Cumulative 2024 Preseason Top 15 compiled by 247Sports (Ole Miss, Missouri and Utah) but are not on Josh Pates top 15 looking at 2024 and beyond (2025 and 2026).
The takeaway for Oklahoma football fans is that Pate is among those college football experts who see the Sooners getting progressively better over the next several years under Brent Venables.
Below is what the the 247Sports Cumulative 2024 Preseason Top 15 college football rankings look like in comparison to Pate's top 15 teams over the next three seasons.
247Sports Cumulative 2024 Preseason Top 15
1. Georgia Bulldogs
2. Ohio State Buckeyes
3. Texas Longhorns
4. Oregon Ducks
5. Ole Miss Rebels
6. Alabama Crimson Tide
7. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
8. Missouri Tigers
9. Michigan Wolverines
10. Penn State Nittany Lions
11. LSU Tigers
12. Florida State Seminoles
13. Utah Utes
14. OKLAHOMA SOONERS
15. Clemson Tigers
Josh Pate's Top 15 over next three seasons
1. Georgia Bulldogs
2. Alabama Crimson Tide
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Oregon Ducks
5. Texas Longhorns
6. Florida State Seminoles
7. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
8. OKLAHOMA SOONERS
9. Michigan Wolverines
10. Texas A&M Aggies
11. LSU Tigers
12. Tennessee Volunteers
13. Miami Hurricanes
14. Clemson Tigers
15. Penn State Nittany Lions