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Expectations are always high for the Oklahoma Sooners on the college football landscape, and while an eight-win campaign is welcomed at almost any other Division I program, the 2014 season won’t be remembered quite as fondly for folks in Norman who fully expected the Sooners to be in the mix for a spot in the sport’s inaugural four-team national playoff.
Nevertheless, Oklahoma still finds itself in the mix for a nice bowl game, even if it isn’t exactly what Sooner fans were hoping for. Sitting at 8-3 for the season, the Sooners are still an attractive option for any postseason selection committee, and should find themselves spending the holidays in a nice, warm destination once all is said and done.
The only question is where coach Bob Stoops’ team will land. The Big 12 has automatic bowl tie-ins to the Liberty Bowl, Russell Athletic Bowl, Texas Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl, Alamo Bowl and Cactus Bowl. As a whole, the conference finished with six eligible bowl teams. If Baylor lands a spot in the College Football Playoff, every other Big 12 team will move up one spot in the bowl pecking order. Should TCU sneak into the playoff as well, it would bump every other team up still another slot.
For Oklahoma, who finished fourth in the Big 12, each scenario presents a couple of possibilities. Even if TCU is left out of the playoff mix, the Horned Frogs are going to be selected for one of either the Cotton, Orange, Fiesta or Peach Bowls. If Baylor falls out of the playoff, they too are in line for one of those four games. However, if both teams somehow qualify for the playoff, the Sooners could jump into contention for one of the better at-large bowl berths.
Where does that ultimately leave Oklahoma? Realistically, there is little wiggle room for the Sooners to move much higher in the Big 12’s bowl pecking order since they finished fourth in the league. Baylor and TCU are ahead of Oklahoma since they both finished 7-1 in conference play, while the Sooners went 5-3. The same can be said of Kansas State as the Wildcats also won seven conference games.
For Oklahoma, that means while Baylor and TCU figure to appear in one of the premier at-large bowl games regardless of whether they qualify for the playoff, Kansas State will also get slotted ahead of the Sooners in the order of teams picked. Since Kansas State isn’t expected to gain a spot in one of the at-large bowls unless both TCU and Baylor qualify for the playoff, the Wildcats would automatically be put in the Alamo Bowl against a team from the Pac-12.
If that situation ends up playing out, the Sooners would then fill the next spot in the Big 12’s order of bowl appearances.
In other words, Oklahoma’s postseason fate is probably a foregone conclusion since the next available slot in the Big 12 bowl pecking order is the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando. The biggest question for the Sooners is who they’ll be facing on Dec. 29. About the only thing Oklahoma knows for sure is that they’ll be taking the field against an ACC team.
Prediction: Russell Athletic Bowl vs. Clemson.
Matt Johnson is a sports writer for www.rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter at mattytheole or “like” him on Facebook.
