Behind the Numbers: How Has OU Fared in CFP Rankings?

We’ve already discussed the ramifications of OU opening at #8 in the initial College Football Playoff Rankings on Monday. How does this compare to previous years of the Playoff committee rankings? Let’s take a look. Below is a table of The Sooners weekly ranking during the entire 8 years of the College Football Playoff.

Oklahoma Sooners CFP Ranking By Year and Week

A few notes:

• 2014 is the only year in which there were 7 weeks of rankings
• 2014 is also the only year that spent time unranked, including the final selection.
• 2020 had one less week of rankings due to the COVID-shortened season

Charting the Progress

If we look at things graphically, it should be no surprise that overall, OU has progressed fairly well throughout the week of the CFP rankings. The lone exception was in 2014, when the Sooners failed to remain in the rankings for the entire season.

If we drop 2014 as an outlier, the stats for the Sooners CFP rankings shape up like this:

• Average Starting Ranking: 9.86
• Average Finishing Ranking: 4.5
• Average Ranking improvement though the season: 5.67

So, the Sooners aren’t really in foreign territory this season with a #8 start.

What Do You Think?

How do you feel they started? Let’s take a look at the poll:

Shop Sooners Gear