Oklahoma Football: How the Sooners can win the Big 12

While the immediate goal for Oklahoma football is to reach the Big 12 title game, the Sooners have bigger ideas on their minds at the moment.

Oklahoma has climbed back up to No. 6 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, giving themselves a chance to crack the Top-4 if other teams flatter late in the final few weeks.

At the same time, the Sooners control their own destiny in regards to reaching the Big 12 championship. Since a 48-45 loss to rival Texas last month, Kyler Murray and OU have rolled past TCU and Kansas State, while surviving an old west shootout with Texas Tech last week.

Oklahoma is 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the league, tied with West Virginia for the top spot. The two meet the day after Thanksgiving on Friday, Nov. 23, but first, Oklahoma State and Bedlam await the Sooners.

While a loss to either the Cowboys or Kansas next week wouldn’t completely ruin Oklahoma’s chances at playing in the Big 12 thanks to a September win over Iowa State, they could be in trouble if Texas wins out.

The Longhorns, with two conference defeats, would be tied with Oklahoma if they win out and would earn the tiebreaker thanks to that victory by three points last month even if the Sooners top West Virginia. Texas would also move on by not losing again with Iowa State on its schedule.

If Texas loses again and Oklahoma wins its next two before falling to West Virginia, there would again be a rematch between the Sooners and Mountaineers with OU advancing on the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Cyclones.

Any defeat, though, between now and the end of the year would in all likelihood end Oklahoma’s shot at reaching the Top-4 in the College Football Playoff.

The Sooners have won the past three Big 12 titles, including last year when they advanced to the CFP before falling to Georgia in double-overtime. They won 46 conference championships overall since first joining a league with the Southwest Conference in 1915.

Murray leads the team, throwing for over 300 yards six times this year, including a high of 432. He has 2,689 yards passing and 31 touchdowns, with another 574 yards and seven scores on the ground.