1975 Oklahoma Sooners football team

1975 Oklahoma Sooners football
Consensus national champion
Big 8 co-champion
Orange Bowl champion
Orange Bowl, W 14–6 vs. Michigan
ConferenceBig Eight Conference
Ranking
CoachesNo. 1
APNo. 1
Record11–1 (6–1 Big 8)
Head coach
Offensive coordinatorGalen Hall (3rd season)
Offensive schemeWishbone
Defensive coordinatorLarry Lacewell (6th season)
Base defense5–2
Captains
Home stadiumOklahoma Memorial Stadium
Seasons
← 1974
1976 →
1975 Big Eight Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 1 Oklahoma + 6 1 0 11 1 0
No. 9 Nebraska + 6 1 0 10 2 0
No. 16 Colorado 5 2 0 9 3 0
Kansas 4 3 0 7 5 0
Missouri 3 4 0 6 5 0
Oklahoma State 3 4 0 7 4 0
Iowa State 1 6 0 4 7 0
Kansas State 0 7 0 3 8 0
  • + – Conference co-champions
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1975 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the 1975 NCAA Division I football season. The team was helmed by Barry Switzer in his third season as head coach. After sailing through their first eight games, Oklahoma suffered a surprising home loss to Kansas, which snapped a 28-game winning streak.[1] With only two regular season games and a bowl trip left, any hopes for a repeat national championship looked slim.

OU defeated Missouri, 28–27, in Columbia before coming home to defeat second-ranked Nebraska, 35–10 to take the Big 8 Conference title. With the conference title in tow, the No. 3-ranked Sooners, in their first bowl game under Switzer, headed to the Orange Bowl to meet Michigan.

OU prevailed in that game with a 14–6 victory and got pushed to the top spot in the polls when both #1 Ohio State and #2 Texas A&M suffered defeats in their bowl games. Oklahoma won its 27th conference and fifth national championship.[2]

The Sooners served their third season of NCAA probation in 1975. They were banned from appearing on television during the regular season, but the portion of the probation banning them from bowl games was lifted (Oklahoma did not play in a bowl game in 1973, but appeared twice on television; it was banned from both television and bowl games in 1974). Oklahoma returned to television for the Orange Bowl.

  1. ^ "2009 Division I Football Records Book: Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Records" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. p. 96. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ "1975 National Champions". SoonerSports.com. University of Oklahoma Athletic Department. Archived from the original on July 18, 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2007.