Oklahoma City -- The University of Oklahoma Sooners, in their third season under Coach Brent Venables, have been ranked Sixteenth in the U.S. LBM (Lumber & Building Materials) Coaches poll.
In their first season as part of the Southeast Conference (SEC), the Sooners face a daunting schedule. Although picked to finish in the middle of the conference in football, the squad nailed down a top 20 ranking for the twentieth year in a row.
Released on Monday (August 5) the poll ranked these college teams in the Division I top 10:
* University of Georgia Bulldogs in first
* Ohio State University Buckeyes in second
* Oregon University Ducks in third
* University of Texas Longhorns in fourth
* Alabama University Crimson Tide in fifth
* University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) Rebels in sixth
* Notre Dame University Fighting Irish in seventh
* The University of Michigan Wolverines in eight
* Penn State University Nittany Lions in ninth
* The Florida State University Seminoles in tenth.
Other SEC teams getting Top 20 votes included:
* Missouri Tigers in eleventh
* Louisiana Tigers in twelfth
* Tennessee Volunteers in fifteenth
* Texas A&M Aggies in twentieth
The University of Kentucky Wildcats, University of Florida Gators and South Carolina University Gamecocks also received votes in the coaches poll.
Members of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) vote in the Coaches Poll, which is sponsored by the Lumber & Building Materials cooperative.
The poll is updated weekly during the regular season in USA Today newspapers.
The Bookies.com analysis of “miles traveled” for SEC football teams
Of all the teams in college football's Southeast Conference (SEC), the Louisiana State University Tigers will travel the most miles to away games this season, while Auburn University (the other Tigers) will travel the fewest.
The SEC "newbies -- the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas University Longhorns -- face the sixth and fourth longest trips for road games in the 2024 season.
Bill Spenos of Bookies.com broke down the data for all 16 teams in the league, including the returning 14 squads and the pair of new competitors.
Using data mined from Google Earth, Spenos found that Louisiana State will will go 6,789.48 "linear miles" from stadium-to-stadium for away games.
Auburn faces a comparatively modest 2,481.06 straight-line miles for its road games.
Texas has to journey 5,371.98 linear miles, while OU will go 4,411.66.
The longest road trip for the Sooners will be their match with Auburn (1,416.3 linear miles), while their shortest is the still-annual trip to Dallas for the Red River Rivalry (344.26 miles).
The longest road trip for Texas this year will be to visit Big 10 power Michigan, at 2,267.42 linear miles, while their shortest trip will be to College Station for the renewed rivalry game with Texas A&M (171.92 miles)
As fresh scrutiny comes for the impact of conference transformations in football, a new focus on air travel miles has emerged.
Spenos' miles traveled analysis is an intriguing nugget in understanding the impact of college football's new reality. You can check out his SEC study for miles traveled here:
( https://bookies.com/picks/sec-football-2024-team-by-team-miles-traveled-lsu-tops-list )
CityNews took a look at Spenos report on the impact of conference realignment for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. OU's long-standing Bedlam Rival fared well.
Study our sketch of that report (for all of the Big 12) at this link:
https://www.citynewsokc.com/sports/upbeat-for-24-gundy-and-the-cowboys-face-gentler-than-most-travel-and-pressley-on/article_8907e4d8-50de-11ef-ae38-bbe188d3be22.html
The 'Pokes face a comparatively modest 4,380.14 miles traveled for the 2024 season's away games, including the mere 125.34 miles to get to their road game with the University of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.
The Big 12 remains a conference without divisions, a status the SEC has resumed for the first time since 1991.
In both conferences, the championship will be played between the two teams with best winning percentages (incorporating some rather elaborate tie-breakers).
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