Bowl Projections: Why Oklahoma Still Controls Its Own Destiny

Everybody in the Big 12 is talking about Oklahoma State, but what about that team in Norman?

The new BCS rankings are out, and to nobody's surprise the Cowboys remain firmly entrenched at No. 2.

What's a mild shocker is that No. 4 Oregon jumped up past No. 5 Oklahoma. The Sooners didn't wow anybody in their 41-25 pasting of Texas A&M, which can also be said about last week's 41 point thrashing of Kansas State.

After their stunning home loss to Texas Tech, that's understandable, especially when you watch the Cowboys drop 66 points on Tech this past weekend.

But none of this matters come Dec. 3. When OU travels to Stillwater in the final regular season game of the year, everything is on the line. It's going to be incredibly tough to slow down QB Brandon Weeden and WR Justin Blackmon. If the Sooners' 21st ranked defense can figure out a way to pull it off, it's the Sooners that take the huge jump up.

With a road game against No. 22 Baylor still on the slate, there is ample opportunity for the Sooners to pad their strength of schedule, and the two teams in front of them can't do. If they win out, they will vault past both Oregon and No. 3 Alabama, two teams that have lost to No. 1 LSU. Will the pollsters vote for a rematch of either of those games?

Doubtful.

No. 9 Stanford and No. 10 Boise State did OU a huge favor by falling at home. Both of those teams have no shot at the championship game at this point.

If we assume the voters are strongly against a rematch of games already played this season...the winner of the OU-OSU game will be awarded a spot in the championship game.

The Sooners are in the perfect place, even if they still have some serious lifting to do.