Oklahoma football: Sooners debut at No. 9 in BCS standings

After that, OU plays three more teams currently ranked in the BCS's top 25 — No. 13 West Virginia, No. 24 Iowa State and No. 23 TCU.

Baylor, which beat OU last season and has shown an ability to be potent offensively, and defending Big 12 champion and in-state rival Oklahoma State round out the schedule. Each of those games represents — at the very least — a decent threat.

“Everybody likes to project too much,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said Saturday.

“We're 4-1. All we've gotta do is keep making corrections and be better against Kansas and keep taking it down the road. I don't want to look to the end.”

The top of the BCS, meanwhile, looks pretty similar to how the 2011 final standings looked, with two SEC teams. Defending national champion Alabama came in ranked No. 1, as expected, but unbeaten Florida is No. 2, with Pac-12 unbeaten Oregon, which is ranked second by the human polls, is third.

Last season, controversy ensued when LSU and Alabama played a rematch of their regular-season defensive struggle, won by the Tigers, in the BCS Championship game. Despite not having played in the SEC championship game, Alabama played in the BCS Championship game and won the rematch, while No. 3 Oklahoma State was left on the outside looking in despite an impressive 44-10 rout of rival Oklahoma in the regular-season finale.