Oklahoma Sooners picked to make the College Football Playoff

The Oklahoma Sooners are a popular pick to make the College Football Playoff. One of the more popular college football analysts, Josh Pate, is continuing the trend, listing the Sooners as the 11-seed in his college football playoff predictions for the 2026 season.

Josh Pate, of the Josh Pate College Football Show, has Oklahoma heading to Eugene to face the Oregon Ducks. Pate has the Ducks beating Oklahoma, then going on to beat Georgia, and then Texas in the semifinals before falling to Miami in the national championship game.

To make the playoff, Oklahoma would likely have to go 10-2. But Pate has the Sooners in the field as a 9-3 team, which would be a first for the 12-team era.

That means the Sooners probably lose to both Georgia and Texas and maybe drop either the Ole Miss or Texas A&M game later in the season. All three of those losses would likely be to top 15 teams, certainly giving the Sooners a case for making the playoff as a 9-3 team.

“Oklahoma is the only three-loss team that I have in the playoff,” Pate said. “That means your Ole Misses, your A&M’s, your LSU‘s, they’re on the outside looking in.”

The one thing that lends itself to the possibility of a 9-3 team making the playoff is that there will be a number of 9-3 SEC teams because of the added conference game. But will the committee actually pull the trigger on a 9-3 team from the SEC when there will probably be a 10-2 ACC or Big 12 team in the mix?

If strength of schedule matters, they will.

A trip to Eugene would make for a fun playoff environment just like we got to experience last season in Norman.

The Ducks are a good team, but so are the Sooners. They have the talent and will have made the improvements to be a problem for the team on their schedule this season. The Sooners have the quarterback play with John Mateer; they have the weapons for him to throw to, and they have one of the best defenses in college football.

If the Sooners make the playoff, they’ll be one of the more dangerous teams to watch in the postseason. Oklahoma has all the ingredients to win a national championship.