The Oklahoma Sooners are staring at a very different kind of November than the one they had in mind when the 2026 season kicked off.
What was supposed to be a run back toward the College Football Playoff has turned into a survival test. OU has four losses entering the month, and with four games left in the regular season, the path to the postseason is suddenly narrow. The Sooners now need to split their final four games just to get bowl eligible, and that puts a 27-year bowl streak in real danger.
According to USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith, Oklahoma is still projected to land in a bowl - but just barely. Smith has the Sooners headed to the Las Vegas Bowl on December 31st, where they would face Washington.
That matchup would carry a little extra wrinkle. The SEC and Big Ten alternate sending a team to the Las Vegas Bowl each season, with the SEC getting even years and the Big Ten getting odd years. The same setup applies to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, with the SEC in odd years and the Big Ten in even years.
Washington, meanwhile, would fill the legacy Pac-12 spot for the bowl even though it now plays in the Big Ten. The 10 former Pac-12 teams remain eligible for Pac-12-affiliated bowl games, along with the teams currently in the Pac-12.
If that projection holds, it would set up a rare meeting between Oklahoma and Washington. The programs have played three times before.
Washington beat OU 28-17 in the 1985 Orange Bowl, denying the Sooners at least part of the national title picture that season. BYU ended up winning the championship, while Oklahoma claimed the national title the following year under Barry Switzer.
The Sooners won the other two meetings. They took a 37-20 win in Norman in 2006 and rolled to a 55-14 victory in Seattle in 2008.
For Oklahoma, even a Las Vegas Bowl appearance would mean something very different than it would have in August. At the start of the season, that would have felt like a letdown. Now, it would mean the Sooners found enough in November to keep the streak alive and reach a 28th straight postseason game.
In the SEC bowl picture, the playoff teams are removed from the selection pool, and the Citrus Bowl gets the top SEC team left out of the CFP. After that comes a group of six bowls - the Gator Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Liberty Bowl, Music City Bowl, ReliaQuest Bowl and Texas Bowl - that work with the SEC and school officials to sort out the best matchups. The Birmingham Bowl and Gasparilla Bowl then choose from any remaining bowl-eligible SEC teams without a destination.
For now, though, the headline is simple: Oklahoma is projected to be bowl-bound, but the Sooners still have work to do before that becomes reality.
In Other News...
Oklahoma Defense Suddenly Has A Brent Venables Problem
Oklahomas defense took a jarring step backward in the loss to South Carolina, surrendering 521 total yards in a game Brent Venables called uncharacteristically poor. The Sooners were exposed in the basics, most notably in space, where missed tackles piled up and the unit never found the kind of edge it usually tries to bring under Venables.
The tackling issues were especially hard to ignore because they cut across the entire defense, with 25 misses showing up on the film and linebacker Kip Lewis among the players hit hardest by the grading. Even with the offense getting a lift from Ivan Carreons career-high 88 yards and two touchdowns, the defensive breakdowns left Oklahoma with a much bigger concern to sort through moving forward. [Read more 🡒]
OU's Record Looks Different Once You See What They've Faced
The first College Football Playoff rankings of 2026 offered a reminder that Oklahomas record has to be viewed through the lens of who the Sooners have been playing. A 4-4 start looks ordinary on paper, but the schedule has been anything but, with seven ranked opponents on the slate and several of the sports heavyweights already on the resume.
Georgia, Texas and Ole Miss are part of the list of top-25 teams Oklahoma has already faced, which helps explain why this season has been so difficult to read from the standings alone. The Sooners came in with preseason expectations of being much better positioned, but with the CFP picture already looking remote, the bigger question now is whether they can steady themselves enough to finish with a winning record against what remains. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Heads To Florida With One Huge Offensive Mystery
Oklahoma heads to Gainesville for a matchup with No. 25 Florida that carries a little extra weight for a program still trying to settle its offense. It will be the Sooners first regular-season game on Floridas campus, and it comes at a time when the staff has already made a major change by firing offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and elevating tight ends coach Jason Witten into the play-calling role.
The bigger question now is what the offense looks like under that new arrangement, especially with quarterback decisions still hanging in the air. For a team trying to find stability on the road against a ranked opponent, the Sooners are not just dealing with a new voice on the headset, but possibly a different look under center as well. [Read more 🡒]