College Football Playoff scenarios for 2019

#8 Oklahoma looks dominant in Stillwater and against Baylor

Sooners looked like a machine early on in the season

First of all, the Sooners looked like a machine early on and with a win over then-number eleven Texas it seemed like they were on path to making the playoff. However everything changed in an upset loss at Kansas State, when the defense allowed 48 points and Jalen Hurts & company came just short of pulling off an incredible comeback. After a week off following that, they have stumbled through their last three games versus Iowa State, at Baylor and against TCU, winning them by a combined eight points.

Up next is the Bedlam rivalry against an 8-3 Oklahoma State team that has won four straight and found their way back into the top 20 nationally. Then it’s a rematch with Baylor, who has already secured their ticket to the Big XII Championship game. Oklahoma has dominated their in-state series historically, as the lead 88-18-7 all-time.

It hasn’t been since 2014, when they Cowboys went into Norman as an unranked them that they have beaten the Sooners, but they have won their last four games inside the conference and feature the nation’s leading rusher Chubba Hubbard, who is going up against the 51st-ranked rush defense.

Baylor on the other hand had their eyes set on a perfect regular season, as they were already up 28-3 against the Sooners in Waco, but allowed the biggest comeback in Oklahoma’s storied history. They are now outside reach of a spot in the playoff, but they will be hungry for revenge and to squash any dreams the Sooners had of making the final four themselves.

Oklahoma was still number nine in the nation until this week, so the committee clearly doesn’t think a lot of the Sooners and it would take a lot of help for them to be in the discussion, but they have the firepower to look impressive in those two games and put their name back up there.

Let’s say they beat the Cowboys by 20+ and the Bears never really come close, because Lincoln Riley’s troops have their foot on the gas pedal from the very start, Alabama loses the Iron Bowl, then LSU beats Georgia for the SEC and Oregon beats Utah for the Pac-12. Is it really that crazy to see the Sooners put their name back in the conversation?