Pros, cons of No. 1 ranking

You can look at OU being ranked No. 1 preseason in the Associated Press poll as the glass being half empty or the glass being half full. Looking at the history of teams ranked No. 1 here are the pros and cons:

Half full: This is the 10th time the Sooners have been ranked No. 1 in preseason. OU has won the national title four times, a 44 percent success rate, higher than the average.

Half empty: The Sooners haven’t won the national title when ranked No. 1 since 1985, a 26-year drought.

Half full: The Sooners have been ranked No. 1 in preseason only once since 1985 so going 0-for-1. The Sooners losing once — in the 2003 national title game to USC — isn’t a slump.

Half empty: Being ranked No. 1 in preseason for only the second time the past 25 years is a sign the program hasn’t been as dominant as the Bud Wilkenson and Barry Switzer eras. But this is the sixth time in Stoops’ 13 seasons OU has been ranked 1, 2 or 3 in preseason.

Half full: Teams ranked No. 1 in preseason have finished in the top 10 all but one of the past 20 seasons, the exception being Penn State, which fell to No. 16 in 1997.

Half empty: Teams ranked No. 1 in preseason have won the national title only three times the past 20 years — USC in 2004 and Florida State in 1993 and 1999.

Half full: The team ranked No. 1 in preseason has won at least 10 games all but one year, Penn State once again being the exception in 1997.

Half empty: The team ranked No. 1 in preseason has lost at least one game all but two seasons — USC in 2004 and Florida State in 1999.

Half full:The Big 12 won national titles five years apart, which means the conference is overdue to win again. OU won in 2000 and Texas in 2005 but the conference failed to keep that trend going in 2010.

Half empty: One reason the Big 12 trend ended last year is the SEC has been dominant, winning the past five natiional titles.

Half full: For all the talk about the SEC’s dominance the past five years, before Florida won in 2006 the SEC had a nine-year drought dating back to Florida winning the national title in 1996.

Half empty: The SEC has won five straight and has two of the top contenders this season in No. 2 Alabama and No. 4 LSU.