Oklahoma Sooners’ Surprising Spot Revealed in Latest CBS Sports Bowl Projections—You Won’t Believe Where They Landed!

When Saturday rolls around, the Oklahoma Sooners are gearing up for a colossal showdown that could very well define their path to the College Football Playoff—or dash those dreams right then and there. Heading into Tuscaloosa, they’re set to tangle with the Alabama Crimson Tide—one of the season’s absolute marquee matchups, loaded with stakes as high as the roaring crowds they’ll face. The Sooners, snuggled on the edge of playoff consideration at 12th, can’t afford to slip after this open week; climbing into the top 10 is nothing short of imperative, especially with those automatic bids from the ACC and Group of Five lurking in the playoff picture. Knock off a one-loss Alabama on their home turf, and Oklahoma’s hopes skyrocket from shaky to seriously potent. With the buzz surrounding their bubble status, pundits like CBS Sports aren’t showing them in the playoff just yet, pegging the Sooners for the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl instead—a respectable stage but a notch below the grand postseason spotlight. Still, a rematch with Michigan there after a big early-season win? That rivalry’s only heating up. For Oklahoma, the goal is crystal: keep winning, keep climbing, and turn this pivotal week into a springboard—not a stumble. This isn’t merely a football game; it’s a statement . LEARN MORE.

The Oklahoma Sooners face a giant test of their potential College Football Playoff worthiness on Saturday in Week 12. OU will be on the road in Tuscaloosa, taking on the Alabama Crimson Tide in one of the biggest games of the entire college football season.

The Sooners are on the outside looking in at the CFP right now, despite being ranking 12th in the initial committee rankings, and that’s unlikely to change after an open date in Week 11. Because the ACC and the Group of Five get automatic bids in the playoff, the Sooners really need to climb to at least 10th in the rankings to have a measure of safety. A win over the one-loss Tide on the road would be a giant boost to two-loss Oklahoma’s hopes.

With the Sooners on the bubble, many pundits have this team just on the outside of the CFP at this point in the year. That’s true for CBS Sports, as they don’t have Oklahoma in the playoff in their latest bowl projections.

Instead, CBS has the Sooners in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, which will be played in Orlando, Florida on December 31st. The game pits the SEC against the Big Ten, with Illinois defeating South Carolina in the matchup a year ago. CBS thinks that OU’s New Year’s Eve opponent will be a familiar face.

Oklahoma’s projected matchup is the Michigan Wolverines, and the two teams played in Norman during Week 2 of this season. The Sooners won in primetime by a score of 24-13, in one of the big wins of Brent Venables’ tenure. What’s more, the two teams will play again in 2026 in Ann Arbor for the second half of the home-and-home arrangement. Three meetings in a calendar year would ensure no love is lost between the two teams and fanbases.

While a trip to the playoff is obviously the goal for the Sooners, a berth in the Citrus Bowl would be about the best consolation prize possible. The Citrus Bowl is the top landing spot for SEC and Big Ten teams that fall short of the CFP, and it would represent a lot of forward momentum at Oklahoma, after a 6-7 season and a Lockheed Martin Armed Forced Bowl bid in 2024.

This week’s game against Alabama is a must-win for OU’s playoff hopes, and a loss might bump the Sooners down even further than the Citrus Bowl. The SEC is absolutely loaded once again in 2025, and the only way to keep the pace is to keep winning games.

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