Why Oklahoma's making an even more serious statement in 2025 than many realize

And granted, the Sooners still have to navigate two tricky matchups with Missouri and LSU before the month is complete. But it's not hard to see shades of Oklahoma's legendary "Red October" run in 2000 here in the present day. It's been noted, mostly in jest, that Oklahoma is due for a national title. After all, it's tradition for the Sooners to win a championship right on each quarter-century mark. The Sooners won it all in 1950, 1975 and 2000. Obviously, 2025 is Oklahoma's year, right? [insert snickering here] But there's no longer anything to snicker about with this Oklahoma football team. They're 8-2 with four ranked wins and a perfect 3-for-3 mark in conference road games. They just went to Bryant-Denny Stadium and took down No. 4 Alabama, a team that was riding the nation's longest home winning streak (17 games). Nobody wants to hear it too early in the season, and nobody wants to hear it when there is turmoil afoot (a la Oklahoma's entire month of October). But the Sooners have now won back-to-back road games in deafening environments against a pair of upper-echelon SEC opponents, and they've firmly established themselves as a likely CFP contender and potential first-round host. So it's time to say it, and say it loudly: there's a championship formula at Oklahoma. Does this mean Oklahoma will win a championship in 2025? Not remotely, and by no means ought you to infer that this is (or should be) the expectation. Only one team hoists the trophy at the end of the season. Statistically and otherwise, the odds are still stacked against the Sooners. But let's not get it twisted here; all the requisite ingredients are present for Oklahoma to end the program's longest championship drought of the modern era in the not-too-distant future.