Where did the Sooners land in CBS Sports' way-too-early bowl picks?
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After a 6-7 season and a loss in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2024, OU responded with a big season in 2025. When the season was all said and done, the Sooners went 10-3 and made the College Football Playoff, but they lost in the first round.
However, Oklahoma hasn't convinced everybody that they can return to the CFP in 2026. CBS Sports' Brad Crawford released way-too-early bowl projections for the 2026 season, and he had OU missing the playoff and instead having to settle for a bowl game.
Crawford believes that the Sooners will play in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl to finish out head coach Brent Venables' fifth season at the helm. His projected opponent for OU is the Louisville Cardinals.
"Pay attention to Louisville next season. Jeff Brohm has a roster he believes can scale the mountain in the ACC and potentially seize the program's first playoff appearance. The Sooners are coming off a breakthrough finish and surrounded returning quarterback John Mateer with weapons this offseason in the passing game. Oklahoma and Louisville have only met twice, the last meeting in 1999, one year before the Sooners were crowned national champions under coaching legend Bob Stoops." – Brad Crawford, CBS Sports.
Oklahoma got a taste of the playoff for the first time since 2019 last season, and the program is hungry to return to that stage and get its first-ever CFP win. With play-callers on both sides of the ball returning (Venables and OC Ben Arbuckle), a returning starter at QB in John Mateer, upgraded weapons at both wide receiver and tight end, an offensive line that is a year older together, and a defense that should still be strong despite losing key seniors, the Sooners believe they are in prime position to prove the doubters wrong again and return to the postseason in 2026.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Where did OU end up in way-too-early bowl projections at CBS Sports?
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