Where does OU end up in newest bowl projections from USA TODAY Sports?
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The Oklahoma Sooners had a statement-making Saturday last week, earning a hard-fought victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide at Bryant-Denny Stadium. That win has greatly improved OU’s hopes of making the College Football Playoff.
Many pundits now believe that the Sooners are in line to make the CFP, and that’s reflected in the weekly bowl projections floating around the sport after Week 12’s games. That includes USA TODAY Sports, where Erick Smith has inserted the Sooners into the playoff in his latest bowl projections.
Smith has the Sooners earning the No. 7 seed on Selection Sunday, and he has a doozy for OU’s first round matchup. Smith believes that Oklahoma will be hosting Notre Dame in Round 1 in Norman, with the winner heading to face Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Though Smith thinks that OU will lose in the first-round game, it would still be a matchup between two iconic college football blue-blood programs with so much on the line.
The Fighting Irish have fared well historically against the Sooners, holding a 9-2 all-time series advantage. Eight of those matchups occurred between 1952 and 1968. Notre Dame also won a 34-30 decision in South Bend in 1999 and a 30-13 game in Norman in 2012.
In 2013, the Sooners made the return trip to South Bend, and avenged the loss from a year ago, 35-21 behind Blake Bell, Sterling Shepard and an opportunistic defense. That win was a big part of a regular season that ultimately led to a Sugar Bowl victory at the end of the year.
A trip to the playoff would do wonders for both the present and the future of OU Football, and if the Sooners can win out over the next two weeks against Missouri and LSU, they should be a lock to make the CFP. After getting one of the signature victories of the Brent Venables era last week, it’s all out in front of Oklahoma over the final two weeks of the regular season.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Where’s Oklahoma at in latest bowl predictions from USA TODAY Sports?
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