21. Oklahoma Sooners
Record: 11-1 (0-0 Big 12)
Last Week: No. 21
Despite playing the 10th-toughest non-conference schedule in the nation (per KenPom), Oklahoma has seemingly escaped the rubble with a ridiculous 11-1 schedule. Thanks to the offensive efforts of Christian James and a superb team defense, the Sooners have exceeded all expectations in the early portion of the year. Their only loss to date came to Wisconsin at the Battle 4 Atlantis and their collection of wins includes those over many quality, albeit not elite, teams: Wofford, Florida, Dayton, Notre Dame, Wichita State, USC, Creighton, and Northwestern.
The Sooners did not play a single match during this past week and therefore saw absolutely no movement in the top-25+ power rankings. Coming up, though, there are a couple of major opportunities to move up. Most notably, Oklahoma will face off against Kansas on the road in their Big 12 opener. And while it is tremendously difficult to notch a win at Allen Fieldhouse, it can be done. Then, after hopefully handling their business at home against Oklahoma State in their next game, the Sooners are back on the road for a matchup with another top-25 team in Texas Tech.
They will be underdogs in both of those two road matchups but finding a way to start 2-1 in conference play would definitely move this team up the rankings nationally. In my opinion, they have already proved themselves worthy of a top-25 ranking but a road win over Kansas or Texas Tech would impress many around the nation.