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We know OU’s College Football Playoff equation — win and the Sooners are in.
Beat Missouri this week in Norman, then beat LSU the next week at residence and OU soccer is certain for the playoff. We suspected that might be the case after OU’s win at Alabama, however we obtained affirmation when the newest playoff rankings have been launched.
The Sooners are No. 8. It’s a spot the place, in the event that they lose both of those final two video games, they’ll fall out of the rankings, but in addition a spot the place in the event that they win each video games, they may both maintain the road or rise.
So, we all know how the Sooners make the playoff.
But we don’t know who they may play.
That’s the place the enjoyable is available in.
Oh, I think Brent Venables and Co. aren’t fascinated about who would possibly await them within the first spherical of the playoff. Too a lot on the road towards Missouri and LSU. They’ve obtained to have that one-game-at-a-time mentality.
But we don’t.
We can look forward at what is likely to be on the horizon — first-round video games will probably be performed Dec. 19 and 20, by the way in which — and what we spy with our little eyes are some monumental, mammoth matchups.
The first one is the one which got here out of the newest rankings.
Notre Dame at OU.
Remember, these first-round playoff video games are held on campus, and the groups ranked fifth by eighth will host the video games. So, with the Sooners at No. 8 and the Irish at No. 9, they might play within the first spherical in Norman.
What a matchup.
The two bluebloods have performed 11 instances since their first matchup in 1952, and Notre Dame has received 9 of these video games, together with the 7-0 victory in 1957 that ended OU’s 47-game successful streak and shocked the faculty soccer world.
But OU received the final time the 2 performed, a 35-21 victory in South Bend in the course of the 2013 season.
Between the 2 packages, they’ve mixed to win 20 nationwide championships. The Irish have 13, the Sooners seven.
Everything a few first-round playoff matchup between these two can be boffo.
And hey, the playoff choice committee would possibly flip the 2 (the committee has confirmed itself to be goofy over time) and ship OU to Notre Dame, however that appears unlikely. Notre Dame’s remaining video games are towards Syracuse and at Stanford. OU’s final two opponents are higher, so no first-round matchup at Notre Dame.
But how cool would that be? December soccer in South Bend? Touchdown Jesus adjoining lower than per week earlier than Christmas?
Still, the golden domes and the crimson and lotions operating round on Owen Field can be spectacular, too.
But what of different OU opponents?
It appears fully doable that OU would possibly transfer up forward of Oregon, which is ranked No. 7. Even although the Sooners have two losses to the Ducks’ one, OU additionally has three wins towards groups ranked within the committee’s high 25 and can get one other if it beats Missouri.
Oregon has zero such wins.
As our man Joe Mussatto identified, the Ducks being ranked forward of the Sooners is nonsense.
Of course, OU would possibly transfer forward of Oregon with some assist from an unlikely hero: Lincoln Riley. The former Sooner coach takes his Southern Cal bunch, at the moment 8-2 and ranked fifteenth, to Oregon this week, and if the Trojans win, the Ducks are certain to fall.
What’s extra, a USC win units up the chance that the Trojans make the playoff, and (do you see the place I’m going with this?) USC at OU within the first spherical isn’t out of the query.
Yes, Lincoln Riley and the Trojans might need to return to Norman.
It’s wealthy, I inform ya. Rich!
Now, a number of issues must occur to make that so. Texas Tech, for one, would wish to win the Big 12 Championship Game, preserving BYU out of the playoff and giving USC an opportunity to sneak in. Or if Alabama, nonetheless prone to make the SEC Championship Game, have been to lose in Atlanta, the Crimson Tide would possible drop out and supply a gap for the Trojans.
Of course, there’s a slim likelihood that Alabama is likely to be the crew to return to Norman.
If the Sooners beat the Crimson Tide once more, Kalen DeBoer’s head would possibly explode.
Then once more, right here’s an attention-grabbing thought: Texas at OU within the first spherical of the playoff.
Yes, the Red River Rivalry on campus!
OU and Texas haven’t met on considered one of their campuses since 1923, and the final time they performed one another in Norman was 1922. But if Auburn wins at Alabama (appears doable with the wacky historical past of the Iron Bowl) and Texas beats Texas A&M in Austin (once more, something can occur in a rivalry recreation like this), the Longhorns would possibly properly discover their approach into the playoff and right into a first-round matchup towards the Sooners.
Be nonetheless, my coronary heart.
Listen, likelihood is excessive that OU has a juicy matchup within the first spherical of the playoffs, and if the Sooners do, it is going to go down as the most important residence recreation in program historical past. The greatest school soccer recreation ever performed in our state.
Of course, the Sooners must deal with their enterprise this week and subsequent. Watching these must-win video games will probably be grand.
But the place they may lead within the playoff could possibly be some critical first-round enjoyable.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni could be reached at [email protected]. Like her at fb.com/JenniCarlsonOK, observe her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and assist her work and that of different Oklahoman journalists by buying a digital subscription as we speak.
OU vs. Missouri
KICKOFF: 11 a.m. Saturday at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman (ABC)
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