{"id":290668,"date":"2026-05-13T04:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T04:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/290668\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T04:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T04:29:08","slug":"why-a-major-college-football-pundit-just-compared-oklahoma-to-michigan-texas-tech-and-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/290668\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a major College Football pundit just compared Oklahoma to Michigan, Texas Tech, and Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why a major College Football pundit just compared Oklahoma to Michigan, Texas Tech, and Alabama<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Oklahoma Sooners<\/a> are what Josh Pate calls \u201cproperly rated\u201d after the conclusion of spring practice. OU is also in a group Pate feels is highly flawed, but has buzz ahead of the 2026 College Football season to compete with, but perhaps fall short of, the creme de la creme.<\/p>\n

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Pate believes the Sooners are in company with the Michigan Wolverines<\/a>, Texas Tech Red Raiders<\/a>, and Alabama Crimson Tide<\/a>, telling the crew at \u201cCrain & Cone\u201d<\/a>, “I think they’re properly rated. They’re kind of in the neighborhood of Michigan, Texas Tech (and) Alabama, like those kinds of teams, I think that’s proper. I think their question marks may be a little bigger, and they’re one of those teams that couldn’t run the ball last year.”<\/p>\n

Of note, Oklahoma travels to the Big House in Ann Arbor to battle Michigan in Week 2 in a return game of last year\u2019s matchup in Norman. That was the first of a home-and-home series that the Sooners won 24-13 last September<\/a>. Brent Venables\u2019 squad will get to definitively leapfrog the Wolverines, who will have a new head coach this time in long-time former Utah Utes<\/a> headman Kyle Whittingham.<\/p>\n

There will be no rematch with the Crimson Tide<\/a>, with whom the Sooners are 2-1 in their last three matchups over the past two seasons, and were bumped from the CFP by, or any matchups with the former Big 12 rival Red Raiders.<\/p>\n

Still, there will be major prove-it games for Venables and Co., none more important than their primary blood rival.<\/p>\n

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Red River Rivalry vs Texas could determine Brent Venables\u2019 future in Oklahoma<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been said that if Oklahoma can\u2019t end a two-game losing slide to the Texas Longhorns<\/a> in the Red River Rivalry and can\u2019t otherwise make the CFP and win at least a game or two, that Venables\u2019 time in the Sooner State may be running out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OU has been a major spender for many years in NIL\/rev-share, but particularly so in the past two recruiting cycles. Signing star Washington State Cougars<\/a> transfer quarterback John Mateer<\/a> and importing his play-caller, Ben Arbuckle, was supposed to dramatically move the needle forward for the Sooners.<\/p>\n

If they can\u2019t aid what was admittedly a strong defensive effort from Venables and Co. in 2026, big changes are almost assuredly coming to Oklahoma. No game represents a bigger inflection point than the Red River Rivalry, since Texas is the kind of team that Pate not-so-subtly hinted is ahead of the Sooners, Wolverines, Red Raiders, and Crimson Tide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why a major College Football pundit just compared Oklahoma to Michigan, Texas Tech, and Alabama originally appeared on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[778,78210,106278,20542,13416,106279,795,772,3233,27,29,28,415,780,2697],"class_list":["post-290668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-brent-venables","tag-creme-de-la-creme","tag-crimson-tide","tag-john-mateer","tag-josh-pate","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-red-river-rivalry","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-utah-utes","tag-washington-state-cougars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}