Following their second and final bye week of the 2024 season, the Oklahoma Sooners are preparing for a battle against the Alabama Crimson Tide. It’ll be the final home game of the year for OU, and it could be the penultimate game of the season if the Sooners can’t find a way to split their last two contests.
A 5-5 record overall and a 1-5 mark in Southeastern Conference play in head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]’ third season is a far cry from what is expected from this program. Year 1 in the [autotag]SEC[/autotag] has been a disaster, and there are a multitude of questions surrounding the program going forward.
One area where the fall of Oklahoma can be seen is in USA TODAY Sports’ weekly 1-134 rankings of each team at the NCAA Division I FBS level of college football. A team regularly in the top five or ten in the past quarter-century has fallen completely out of the top 25.
Staff writer Paul Myerberg ranks the Sooners as the No. 44 team in the country, up one spot from a week ago, with OU on an open date in Week 12. That’s good for twelfth in the SEC, behind Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M, South Carolina, LSU, Missouri, Vanderbilt and Florida. There are 13 of the 16 SEC teams in the top 50, with Arkansas at No. 46.
Oklahoma is, interestingly enough, listed between two programs who had coaches on the hot seat, before confirming that they will indeed return next year. No. 43 Florida will be retaining head coach Billy Napier and No. 45 Baylor will stick with head coach Dave Aranda.
It’s a generous ranking from Myerberg to say the least, as Oklahoma has looked like one of the worst teams in the Power Four at multiple points this season. It’s not a pretty sight to see yourself suddenly looking up at the Gators, who have struggled mightily for the last four years. The Bears, meanwhile, have cratered over the last three years before a bit of an uptick midway through this season.
That’s not where you want to be if you’re the Oklahoma Sooners. It’s just one more signal that things have to get moving in the right direction again, or else OU will fall dangerously behind the curve in the SEC.
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