Already being overlooked by the playoff committee, Oklahoma football’s hopes of making the College Football Playoff field were crushed on Saturday afternoon in Waco.
The Sooners went into Baylor hoping to pick up a huge resume-building win and prove to the committee that they were worthy of a top-four spot with a 10-0 record, but that didn’t come to fruition. Baylor had one of its best games of the season, taking down the No. 8 Sooners for their first loss of the season.
Sitting at 9-1 now and already being underestimated by the playoff committee, the Sooners are likely to drop a handful of spots maybe to No. 13, or so, and with two games left in the regular season and a possible conference title game, they don’t have enough time to rise 10 spots in the rankings.
As if the loss wasn’t bad enough, Caleb Williams’ sudden Heisman campaign was essentially ended due to a horrible game against Dave Aranda’s Bears. He finished with just 146 yards and two interceptions on 10-of-19 completions and he was benched in the third quarter for Spencer Rattler who finished just 4-for-6 with 36 yards.
Saturday was essentially a nightmare scenario for Lincoln Riley.
Oklahoma football now playing for NY6 spot
The playoff is likely out of the question because the committee already wasn’t impressed with the Sooners before the loss, so this will drop them to a spot that won’t be made up by the end of the season. Imagine the Sooners are even No. 12, they would have to do enough in three games (two regular-season games and Big 12 title game) to jump eight spots. That’s unprecedented.
Now, the Sooners are pretty much just fighting for a New Year’s Six bowl and they’ll have to do so with another quarterback controversy on their hands.
Oklahoma benched Williams despite his newfound Heisman campaign and Rattler probably believes that he’s back in the conversation for QB1. That’s going to be a storyline to monitor over the next few weeks.
For now, Oklahoma is no longer a playoff contender which is a wild thing to say after it lost its first game.