Oklahoma Sooners just got extremely disrespected by ESPN and whatever sense they think their model makes for college football
The Oklahoma Sooners managed to land the 11th-ranked position on ESPN’s FPI rankings after beating UTEP 51-0.
The Oklahoma Sooners opened their season with a dominant 51-0 victory over the UTEP Miners, and somehow ESPN’s Football Power Index has them sliding backward.
Oklahoma entered the week ranked No. 10 in the AP poll, yet the latest ESPN FPI slots them at No. 11. For a team that just hung half a hundred and pitched a shutout, that feels like a slap in the face.
So what exactly is the ESPN FPI? It’s a predictive rating system that measures team strength and forecasts future games. It does not evaluate past resumes. The goal is to accurately forecast upcoming games’ totals, and it functions similarly to how professional sportsbooks set sports betting lines.
It is not a tool for the selection committee. Knowing all that, it’s something Sooner fans probably shouldn’t lose sleep over. But it’s still worth discussing, because Oklahoma should not be 11th.
Michigan and Oregon have no business being ranked ahead of OU
Let’s get this one out of the way first. Michigan should not be on this list at all. The Wolverines should have a loss next to their name. They should have lost to Western Michigan. Anyone who watched that game saw the debauchery. There’s no way a team that nearly fell to a Mid-American Conference opponent deserves to be ranked higher than a team that just put up a shutout.
Then there’s Oregon. The Ducks should not be ahead of Oklahoma on any list right now. Oregon nearly lost to Boise State at home. Sure, Boise State is probably going to be the non-Power 4 team that makes the College Football Playoff. But Oregon should handle them easily, and it didn’t. This wasn’t some bizarre scheduling quirk or a game played under strange circumstances. It was a home game that should have been straightforward for the Ducks, and it simply wasn’t. Oklahoma played UTEP, yes. But the Sooners won 51-0. That should mean something.
The defense wasn’t perfect, but a shutout is a shutout
Could the defense have been better? Absolutely. Realistically, it probably should have been 51-12. Oklahoma was fortunate that UTEP missed three field goals and fumbled in scoring position one other time, so the Miners could have put points on the board. But they didn’t. A shutout is a shutout, and the Sooners hung half a hundred on their opponent. That counts for something, even against a Conference USA team.
If this were an actual rankings system that evaluated what happened on the field, Oklahoma should be higher than 11th. But the FPI is built differently. It doesn’t evaluate past resumes. Since the ratings dropped after games were played this week, beating UTEP technically falls into “past resume” territory. That’s how the system works, even if it feels counterintuitive.
The bigger picture for Oklahoma football
This is the kind of thing designed to get people talking and get fans upset. It’s doing exactly that. But Sooner fans should take a step back and appreciate where this program is right now. Just be grateful that coach Brent Venables has this team even worthy of talking about anymore. A few years ago, Oklahoma football was not worth discussing in anything positive. The Sooners are back.
Oklahoma plays Michigan next week, another team sitting on this FPI list. Given the way the Wolverines looked in their opener, there’s a real chance the Sooners climb an actual rankings list after that matchup. The FPI might not care about past resumes, but the AP voters certainly do.
