Conference Championship week has arrived in college football and no team is safe, but especially not these five teams that should be on upset alert.
Conference Championship Week has arrived in college football, the week that the entirety of the regular season has been building for. To be sure, there are several rescheduled or added games that will be played throughout the country on Saturday as teams still vie for bowl berths and things of the like. However, the majority of the attention from fans will definitely be paid to the teams trying to win their conference title.
Starting on Friday with the MAC Championship Game between Northern Illinois and Buffalo and the Pac-12 Championship Game between the Utah Utes and Washington Huskies, the action is going to get off to a fun start, but that will just be an appetizer to the fantastic slate of games on Saturday, featuring a litany of top-tier teams squaring off for conference supremacy.
With the stakes hanging in the balance, the level of familiarity between these foes and the simple fact that teams have to be the highest of quality to make it to this point, there are going to be some fantastic games this week. More importantly for the chaos of it all, though, there could also be some upsets. As the College Football Playoff field has yet to be set, nothing would bolster the resume like a huge upset win in the conference championship.
Despite how dominant many of the higher-ranked teams in this week’s matchups have been this season, they are still susceptible in this type of matchup. And with that in mind, let’s take a look at five teams that should be put on upset alert in Conference Championship Week.
5. Oklahoma Sooners
Rank: 5 | Opponent: 14 Texas Longhorns | Time: Saturday, Dec. 1, Noon ET
Saying that the Texas Longhorns have a chance to beat the Oklahoma Sooners in Part 2 of the Red River Showdown is probably the easiest inclusion on this list when looking throughout college football, simply because it’s an upset that we’ve already seen happen once this season. When these teams met earlier in the year, we saw Sam Ehlinger and the Longhorns do just enough to stave off Kyler Murray and a heroic comeback effort from the junior quarterback.
In truth, we’ve had to see a lot of that type of play from Murray over the end of the season, even if the Sooners have not lost outside of their first meeting with Texas. In the kindest terms that the unit deserves, Oklahoma’s defense is an ungodly sieve that can’t stop anyone.
Over their last four games, the Sooners defense has allowed 46 points to Texas Tech, 47 points the Oklahoma State, 40 points to Kansas (perhaps the most egregious effort) and then 56 points to West Virginia. Again, Murray’s unreal efforts when the Sooners have possession have saved this team and have them in the College Football Playoff hunt, but the defense has been atrocious.
Subsequently, they have found themselves in close games, but have done enough to edge out their opponents. The only time that didn’t happen, however, was against Texas — so who’s to say that’s not in the cards again? The Longhorns will put up points, and so too will the Sooners. And as has been the case all year for OU, it’ll be a win that’s up for grabs in the final quarter, which puts them on upset alert, surely.