Oklahoma Joins Club with College World Series and College Football Playoff Berths

Oklahoma's athletic department has joined an elite club.

After punching their ticket to Omaha, OU has now made the College World Series and the College Football Playoff in the same academic year.

As an added dose of the Sooners' new reality in the SEC, OU is one of five conference affiliates in college baseball's final eight. Four of those five schools made the College Football Playoff, with Texas missing the field following a 9-3 season.

This is further proof that Oklahoma is steadily adapting to the new landscape of college sports. With discussions over resource allotment among athletic departments across the country, the Sooners have continued to build successful programs.

Oklahoma Sooners Skip Johnson — Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson (left) | John E. Hoover / Sooners On SI

Johnson now becomes the third coach in Oklahoma baseball history to take multiple Sooner teams to the College World Series. Enos Semore's run in the 1970s (five straight appearances) remains the greatest stretch in program history, with Larry Cochell's 1994 national championship win sandwiched by berths in 1992 and 1995.

Now making his second trip to Omaha in five seasons, Johnson has helped build Oklahoma's baseball program to relevance, doing it in the nation's toughest conference. Given the program's limited resources when Johnson took over in 2018, the turnaround is even more impressive.

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Baseball's success was preceded by the Sooners returning to the College Football Playoff in December 2025. In Brent Venables' most pivotal season of his head coaching career, OU rebounded from a 6-7 disaster in 2024 to earn a berth in college football's elite playoff bracket.

Venables didn't have the same resource problem Johnson experienced, but there's no doubt that Oklahoma has built and adapted an infrastructure to successfully navigate the big-money sport that is college football.

Oklahoma has seen football and baseball align for standout seasons within the same academic year before. Bud Wilkinson’s 1950 team claimed the school's first national championship. Then on June 17, 1951, Jack Baer led OU baseball to the program’s first national title.

Barry Switzer's two national championships in 1974 and 1975 were mirrored by Semore's College World Series appearances in 1975 and 1976.

Barry Switzer, Oklahoma Sooner — Oklahoma Sooners head coach Barry Switzer prior to facing the Texas Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl during the 1977 season. | Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

This success should shine a light on the absence of the men's basketball program. Since Buddy Hield's run to the Final Four in 2016, success has been few and far between. Under Porter Moser, the program has failed to make the NCAA Tournament in four of his five seasons.

Like Johnson’s struggle with limited resources, OU men’s basketball has been pushed into the shadows concerning the department’s money allotment. The clearest example was the ongoing reluctance to reckon with the future of the Lloyd Noble Center. That chapter will soon be closed, however.

It's all the more disappointing when you consider Oklahoma men's basketball's history. It has thrust itself into successful academic years with football. If not for a miraculous performance by Danny Manning and the football program running into its late-1980s kryptonite, Oklahoma could have experienced its best athletic run in a matter of months.

Switzer's 1987 team went undefeated and met the Miami Hurricanes in the Orange Bowl for the national championship. Miami had beaten OU in 1985 and 1986 and would do so again, 20-14, denying Switzer his fourth championship.

Danny Manning, Kansas Jayhawk — Kansas Jayhawks forward (25) Danny Manning during the 1988 Final Four against Oklahoma. Kansas defeated Oklahoma 83-79. | Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

A few months later, Billy Tubbs' greatest team went 35-3, losing only one Big 8 conference game, all the way to the national championship game. They met the Kansas Jayhawks, who they had beaten in their two regular season meetings, in the final game of the NCAA Tournament.

Tied at 50 during intermission, Manning's 31 points and 18 rebounds led the last unranked team to win a national championship by downing OU 83-79.

This also shines a light on the success story that women have written for themselves within Oklahoma's athletic department.

Patty Gasso has built one of the premier softball programs, winning eight national championships, all the way from the sandlots of Reaves Park. Final Four runs by Sherri Coale, culminating in 2002's national runner-up. Not to mention the women's gymnastics juggernaut built by K.J. Kindler — who just earned the school's eighth national championship in April.

Oklahoma Sooners, Patty Gasso — Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso looks on during a Bedlam contest against Oklahoma State at Devon Park. | Ryan Chapman / Sooners on SI

Bob Stoops won the school's seventh national championship in 2000. This was followed by Gasso's squad returning to the Women's College World Series to defend their crown won the previous season. OU would lose in the second round that year.

Gasso returned to the Women's College World Series in 2002 while Coale and Kelvin Sampson led the women's and men's basketball programs to the Final Four in the same season — OU is one of 11 schools to accomplish that feat.

Coale returned to the Final Four for the final time in 2010. A few months later, Sunny Galloway led OU back to the College World Series for the first time since 1995.

The history of combined success at Oklahoma is littered amongst the different programs. Despite each club vying for its share of resources in the new landscape, OU keeps putting top-end programs onto the field or the court year in and year out.

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