Oklahoma lost to Iowa State at home on Saturday, 38-31. It was the biggest win since at least 2011 for the longtime Big 12 doormat Cyclones. It was a stomach punch for the Sooners, who’d established themselves as Playoff favorites and looked like a juggernaut before getting got by a lesser team on their own field.
Oklahoma’s startling recent upset history adds a new chapter: Iowa State
The Sooners have made an annual tradition of losing games to double-digit underdogs.
Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
The Sooners were 31-point favorites against the Cyclones. This result was a shock. Maybe it shouldn’t have been, because:
That’d be fairly unbelievable stat, usually, except that I looked into it and can confirm that Oklahoma has made a startling habit out of losing to huge underdogs.
The previous history of OU losses as a 10-point favorite or more since 2011, with help from the spread database at Odds Shark:
2016 (11-2 final record)
- Lost to Houston, 33-23, as a 13-point neutral-site favorite (though the game was in Houston, making it close to a home game for UH)
2015 (11-2)
- Lost to Texas, 24-17, as a 16.5-point neutral-site favorite
2014 (8-5)
- Lost to Oklahoma State, 38-35, as a 19.5-point home favorite
2013 (11-2)
- Lost to Texas, 36-20, as a 13.5-point neutral-site favorite
2012 (10-3)
- Lost to Kansas State, 24-19, as a 15.5-point favorite
2011 (10-3)
- Lost to Texas Tech, 41-38, as a 29-point home favorite
- Lost to Baylor, 45-38, as a 17-point road favorite
That’s impressive consistency on Oklahoma’s part, at least.
Some of this is a bit unfair.
- You have to win a lot of games to even be favored by double digits all that often. It’s kind of like how Bob Stoops’ “Big Game” nickname fluctuated based on whether OU was winning or losing the many big games it was in: good teams are in lots of big games.
- The Cotton Bowl game against Texas is a fierce rivalry and never supposed to be anything approaching easy. In fact, it might be the country’s least predictable major rivalry.
- Bill Snyder’s Kansas State is Bill Snyder’s Kansas State, and beating that program is always a slog. It feels iffy that a Snyder K-State team would ever be a 10-plus-point dog against anyone.
- The Sooners aren’t the ones who make the point spreads.
- The Sooners play in an offense-first league that lends itself to chaos, and it’s tough to always beat the teams you should.
- Even Alabama lost a couple of Ole Miss games once upon a time.
Still, though.
Oklahoma’s been one of the most consistently great teams in the country, mostly under Stoops and now, for a month and change, under Lincoln Riley. The Sooners are the Big 12 favorites every year now, and they’re never far from the Playoff discussion.
Look at their year-over-year records, and imagine what might’ve come of some of these seasons if they didn’t come attached to at least one confounding loss apiece.
None of that changes how frustrating these have to be for OU fans, though.
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