Oklahoma Finishes Strong, But Now the Waiting Begins
Oklahoma did everything it could. Now, the Sooners are left to sit and wait.
Brent Venables and his squad wrapped up a gritty, grind-it-out regular season with a 17-13 win over LSU, pushing their record to 10-2 overall and 6-2 in SEC play. It was the final stamp on a November to remember - a month that saw Oklahoma win on the road at Tennessee and Alabama, and defend home turf against Missouri and LSU. That closing stretch turned heads, and it’s why the Sooners hold steady at No. 8 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, released Tuesday night.
The win over LSU didn’t move the needle in the rankings, but it didn’t need to. Oklahoma entered the week at No. 8, and the committee saw enough in the Sooners’ comeback win to keep them right there.
Now comes the real drama.
Oklahoma is firmly in the mix for a spot in the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff - their first CFP appearance since 2019 and the first under Venables. But the big question this week isn’t just if they get in.
It’s where they’ll play. The Sooners are in contention to host a first-round playoff game in Norman on Dec. 19 or 20.
That would be a massive moment for the program, the fanbase, and honestly, for the state of Oklahoma.
Venables, for his part, isn’t getting caught up in the logistics.
“I’d just love an invitation,” he said after the LSU win. “I don’t care if it’s on the road.
And I say I don’t care - of course I would love to be here - but I spend no time looking at that. I’m going to fight for this or that?
I don’t know. They’re not listening to me.
There’s plenty of things to look at for them to make the decisions they make. I’m sure it’s not easy.
Wherever they ask us to play, we’ll show up.”
If the current rankings hold, Oklahoma would host Alabama in the first round - a rematch of that mid-November showdown in Tuscaloosa. That game went the Sooners’ way, and a second win over the Crimson Tide would send Oklahoma to the quarterfinals for a likely matchup with No.
1 Ohio State. That game would almost certainly be played at the Rose Bowl, given the Big Ten’s long-standing ties to Pasadena.
Of course, all of this is still hypothetical. The final College Football Playoff rankings - and the official 12-team bracket - will drop Sunday at 11 a.m. CT, following conference championship weekend.
And there’s still plenty of football left to be played that could shake up the field.
The SEC Championship between No. 3 Georgia and No.
9 Alabama is the headliner, but the Big 12 title game between No. 4 Texas Tech and No.
11 BYU also carries major implications. Depending on how those games shake out, Oklahoma could move up, down, or stay put.
What can’t be denied is the resume Venables and his team have built. A 10-win campaign in the toughest league in the country, including a non-conference win over Michigan - currently No. 4 in the Big Ten - is no small feat.
The Sooners are also sitting 13th in ESPN’s SP+ rankings, driven by a defense that ranks third nationally. Add in a top-four mark in defensive efficiency and the second-best special teams unit in the country (per ESPN’s Football Power Index), and you’ve got a team that’s not just winning - it’s winning in all three phases.
Offensively, Oklahoma hasn’t been as explosive - 54th in efficiency - but they’ve controlled games when it’s mattered most, ranking ninth in game control. That’s the kind of stat the committee looks at when evaluating how dominant a team has been, not just whether they won.
The Sooners’ strength of record is ninth in the FBS, and they’ve faced one of the toughest schedules in the country. Two of their wins came against teams currently ranked in the CFP top 25 (Alabama and Michigan), and five came against teams ranked at the time of the matchup: Michigan, Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri.
That’s a battle-tested group. And they know it.
“No matter what - if we play home, we play away - we’ve been through the mud,” said defensive tackle Gracen Halton. “Just got to get it out.”
There’s nothing left for Oklahoma to prove on the field this week. All that’s left is to wait and see where the chips fall.
But make no mistake: this team has earned its seat at the table. Whether that table is in Norman, Pasadena, or somewhere else entirely, the Sooners are ready to show up - and show out.