OU is Cotton Bowl-bound

Eleven days later, Oklahoma will play an encore performance in the DFW Metroplex.

The Sooners’ learned Sunday that they'll meet Florida on Dec. 30 in the Cotton Bowl, just days after winning their sixth consecutive Big 12 Conference championship Saturday in AT&T Stadium.

OU (8-2) and UF (8-3) meet kick off the 85th Cotton Bowl Classic at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

The Sooners finished ranked No. 6 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, revealed Sunday morning.

After winning its sixth Big 12 crown in a row (and 14th overall) with a 27-21 victory over No. 6-ranked Iowa State on Saturday, OU had faint hopes of climbing from the No. 10 spot in the rankings and returning to this year's playoff.

Instead, the Sooners remain in the New Year's Six Bowl rotation and return to the familiar surroundings of Jerryworld in Arlington, TX.

OU and Florida have played just once before: in the 2008-09 Orange Bowl for the BCS National Championship. The game was tied 14-14 in the fourth quarter, but the Gators pulled away with a late interception off Sam Bradford and a Tim Tebow touchdown pass that made it 24-14.

It’ll be just the fifth time in the modern era that Oklahoma has played twice in a stadium in the same season — and the third time it’s happened in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

In 1970, the Sooners opened the season at SMU, then played Texas at Cotton Bowl Stadium in October. In 1975, OU played at Miami, then finished off the season against Michigan in the Orange Bowl. In 1986, OU played at Miami, then beat Penn State in the Orange Bowl. And in 2001, OU played its annual game with Texas in Cotton Bowl Stadium, then concluded the season against Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl Classic.

OU is 5-2 all-time in AT&T Stadium, including the first football game ever played there, a 14-13 loss to BYU in the 2009 season opener.

The Sooners are 5-0 in Big 12 title games in Arlington (2010, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020) but are 0-1 in bowl games (a 41-13 loss to Texas A&M in 2012).

The Cotton Bowl was played at Cotton Bowl Stadium at Dallas' Fair Park from 1937 until 2010, when it moved to AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Cotton Bowl was a long-time destination for Southwest Conference champions, while the Big Eight winner always went to Miami for the Orange Bowl, so Oklahoma's history in the game is sparse: OU is 1-1 all-time in the Cotton, with the 2012-13 loss to Texas A&M and the 10-3 victory over Arkansas on Jan. 1, 2002.

OU has been to a bowl game every year since since 1999, a school-record run of 22 straight seasons. With Virginia Tech opting out of the postseason this year after 27 straight bowl trips, OU’s streak is now the second-longest in the nation behind Georgia (24).

Oklahoma is 29-23-1 in bowl games all-time. Lincoln Riley is 0-3 as a head coach in the postseason, with all three losses coming in the College Football Playoff.

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