Bowl Projections: Where Will Oklahoma be Headed for Final Game of 2024 Season?

Even after a disappointing loss to LSU, the Sooners are going bowling. Where will they play their final game of the 2024 season?

SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A week after Oklahoma upset No. 7 Alabama, the Sooners deteriorated to end their regular season.

OU lost 37-17 against LSU in Baton Rouge to end the season 6-6, 2-6 SEC in their first year competing in the conference. It is only Oklahoma’s second time finishing .500 or worse since 1998.

The loss puts Oklahoma tied for 13th in the Southeastern Conference standings.

Still, Oklahoma is one of 13 teams from the SEC that will appear in a bowl game (the only three SEC teams that won’t go bowling are Auburn, Kentucky and Mississippi State). 

The win against the Crimson Tide extended OU’s bowl streak to 26 years, which is the second-longest in college football, behind only Georgia (28 years).

The College Football Playoff Committee sets its 12-team bracket before the rest of the bowls select their participating teams.

Bowls with SEC tie-ins are the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, the TaxAct Texas Bowl, the Las Vegas Bowl, the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the ReliaQuest Bowl, the Birmingham Bowl and the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl.

When looking at OU’s projections, it’s important to note how many SEC teams will likely reach the College Football Playoff.

No. 3 Texas and No. 7 Georgia — who will play for the conference title this Saturday — seem like locks at this point. The Bulldogs are 10-2 with losses to Alabama and Tennessee, while Texas is 11-1 with its only loss coming against UGA.

Tennessee, ranked No. 8 in last week’s College Football Playoff rankings, also seems like a lock. The Volunteers beat in-state rival Vanderbilt handily on Saturday to finish the regular season 10-2.

Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina — ranked Nos. 13-15 — all won on Saturday, meaning all three of those programs are in the mix. 

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But, realistically, only one of those schools, at most, will make the CFP because of the Playoff’s rules about autobids for the five highest-ranked conference champions.

OU has the lowest standing of any of the SEC’s bowl-eligible teams, meaning the Sooners will likely get the least-noteworthy of the conference’s 13 bowl selections.

This is the second week that Sooners on SI has tracked Oklahoma’s bowl forecast, as the Sooners hit the six-win threshold needed to play in a bowl game with the win over Alabama last week.

Here is what the experts are predicting for Oklahoma’s bowl destination:

ESPN

Kyle Bonagura: Oklahoma vs. NC State in the Gasparilla Bowl (Dec. 20 at 2:30 p.m. in Tampa, FL)

Mark Schlabach: Oklahoma vs. TCU in the Liberty Bowl (Dec. 27 at 6 p.m. in Memphis, TN)

CBS Sports

Jerry Palm: Oklahoma vs. Jacksonville State in the Frisco Bowl (Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. in Frisco, TX)

247 Sports

Brad Crawford: Oklahoma vs. NC State in the Birmingham Bowl (Dec. 27 at 11 a.m. or 2:30 p.m. in Birmingham, AL)

The Sporting News

Bill Bender: Oklahoma vs. North Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl (Dec. 27 at 11 a.m. or 2:30 p.m. in Birmingham, AL)