1974

82.2Power Index · Rank #2

Barry Switzer · 11-0-0 · Big Eight

Tier 3 · record vs. rank proxyTEXOSU

Performance: 94.7
Accomplishment: 75.0
Talent: 57.1
Pt Diff/Game: 36.9

Heisman finalist Joe Washington

Consensus All-Americans Joe Washington (RB); John Roush (OT); Rod Shoate (LB)

Other honors mentioned Joe Washington; Rod Shoate (+6 more, not individually listed by source)

NFL draft picks Rod Shoate (R2); Tony Peters (R4); Randy Hughes (R4); Kyle Davis (R5); John Carroll (R6); Wayne Hoffman (R8); Clyde Russell (R10); Jerry Arnold (R14); John Roush (R15); Grant Burget (R15)

National title claim Consensus (AP; on probation - no bowl/TV eligibility)

Iconic moment

Draft — needs Matt’s voice pass

Champions On Probation

The NCAA had OU banned from bowls and television, so Barry Switzer's second team as head coach just went out and won anyway — eleven straight, an average of 43 points a game, and a wishbone attack that ran the ball nearly 74 times a contest. When Alabama stumbled in the Orange Bowl, Oklahoma stood alone as the nation's only unbeaten team and the AP crowned them champions with no bowl trophy in sight. It remains one of the strangest national titles in the sport's history: earned entirely off television, in front of nobody watching at home.

NCAA probation barred bowl/TV appearances; still voted AP champion after Alabama's Orange Bowl loss. UPI's coaches poll excluded postseason-ineligible teams that year, so its final poll named Alabama instead -- by the strict dual-poll definition this is AP-only, not dual-recognized, but it's counted among OU's 7 claimed national championships by the university's own and general convention. Scored as consensus here per that decision (confirmed 2026-09-08), not the literal AP+UP dual-recognition test applied elsewhere in this dataset.