[mm-video type=video id=01fgt6xtcv1hskanr3vd playlist_id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fgt6xtcv1hskanr3vd/01fgt6xtcv1hskanr3vd-c24e6b73e273695647ecbbe600613e6d.jpg]
Though the Oklahoma Sooners have started the 2021 season 4-0, there are a lot of folks selling their OU stock. It hasn’t been a head-turning, impressive 4-0 with close wins of Tulane, Nebraska, and West Virginia. Their average margin of victory in those games is five points, and certainly not what one would expect from a national title contender.
A team that once looked destined for the College Football Playoff is now on the outside looking in with these latest bowl projections from USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith.
After the week four win, Smith has dropped the Sooners out of the playoff and playing in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1. It would be a bitter disappointment if the Sooners found themselves on the outside looking in of the College Football Playoff this year after all of the preseason expectations surrounding this team.
The top four teams in his projections; Alabama, Georgia, Oregon, Iowa. Interestingly, those are the top four teams in the AP Top 25 poll right now.
The projections have the Crimson Tide beating Iowa and the Bulldogs beating Oregon to set up an all-SEC College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
If these projections were to hold up through the rest of the season, the Sooners would play a familiar foe in the Sugar Bowl in the Florida Gators. Oklahoma last played the Gators in the Cotton Bowl last season and sent them back to Florida with a 55-20 loss.
Smith still projects that Oklahoma will win the Big 12 title, but in these projections, they either lost a game or didn’t look impressive on the way to a seventh straight conference championship.
It’s a long season, and there’s still a lot of football to be played. The Sooners can still find themselves in the College Football Playoff at the end of the year if they can navigate the Big 12 landscape unscathed. They may not have looked convincing in three of their four wins, but there’s time to change that with eight more regular-season games and the Big 12 championship.
It all starts with their foe from the last couple of seasons as the Sooners hit the road for the first time in 2021. They’ll face Kansas State in Manhattan this week to beat the Wildcats for the first time since 2018.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.
[vertical-gallery id=40057]