Here’s how Oklahoma can still make the College Football Playoff

Oklahoma football can still make the College Football Playoff, here’s how.

The College Football Playoff is still possible for Oklahoma football, if you can believe it.

For the second season in a row, the Oklahoma Sooners have lost to Chris Klieman’s Kansas State Wildcats in Big 12 play. Falling at home 38-35 vs. a K-State team that was 0-1 coming into play is not ideal for Boomer Sooner Nation, but there is still a chance this college football blue-blood can reach the College Football Playoff. It won’t be easy, but here is how the Sooners can pull it off.

There’s no margin for error if Oklahoma football wants to make the playoff.

Thus far this season, Oklahoma is 1-1 (0-1) on the season. Though they have a blowout win over Bobby Petrino’s Missouri State Bears, that does next to nothing in the College Football Playoff Selection Committee’s eyes. It’s pretty simple really for OU to get into the four-team field once again. They must win out, go 8-1 in Big 12 play, win the Big 12 championship and probably pray.

Here is Oklahoma football’s remaining 2020 Big 12 schedule.

• Oct. 3: at Iowa State Cyclones
• Oct. 10: vs. Texas Longhorns (Dallas, TX)
• Oct. 24: at TCU Horned Frogs
• Oct. 31: at Texas Tech Red Raiders
• Nov. 7: vs. Kansas Jayhawks
• Nov. 21: vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys
• Nov. 28: at West Virginia Mountaineers
• Dec. 5: vs. Baylor Bears

Yes, Oklahoma must win their remaining nine games, including the Big 12 Championship Game in Arlington, Texas. Not only will it not be easy, but the Sooners might be crossed before Halloween is over with. They have to play on the road vs. the Iowa State Cyclones, vs. the arch-rival Texas Longhorns in Dallas and on the road vs. the TCU Horned Frogs and the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Urban Meyer isn’t buying the optimism, however, writing off the Sooners on the FOX postgame show.

“I don’t think they can make it,” Meyer said of Oklahoma. “Shortened season, you’re going to have some COVID issues. There’s going to be things that show up and I think it’s going to be really, really hard for them to make the playoff.”

Heading into the season, K-State was viewed as somewhere between the seventh and ninth-best team in the Big 12. They were in that group with Texas Tech and the West Virginia Mountaineers, ahead of the Kansas Jayhawks, but behind TCU and the Baylor Bears. We like Klieman at K-State, but the talent discrepancy had them as a middle-of-the-pack at-best team in the Big 12.

So Oklahoma needs to win out and see other teams such as Texas, Oklahoma State, Baylor, TCU and West Virginia have great seasons. They also would prefer Kansas State to lose as few games as possible. The more ranked teams the Sooners go up against, the better their slim chances of getting into the playoff remain. Unfortunately, they will no longer get the benefit of the doubt.

There is only one way Oklahoma can reach the playoff, but the Sooners control their own destiny.

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