Being undefeated doesn’t count much for the members of the College Football Playoff Committee.

Before last weekend games, the only undefeated teams were Georgia (No. 1), Michigan State (No. 3), Cincinnati (No. 6), Oklahoma (No. 8), Wake Forest (No. 9) and University of Texas San Antonio (unranked). Michigan State lost last Saturday.

Four teams with losses – Alabama (No. 2), Oregon (No. 4), Ohio State (No. 5) and Michigan (No. 7) were ranked higher than OU (which is ranked No. 4 behind Georgia, Cincinnati and Alabama in the AP Poll.)

Why?

Alabama lost to Texas A&M (No. 13). Oregon lost to Stanford (3-5). Ohio State lost to Oregon. And Michigan lost to Michigan State.

“To me, it’s just meaningless stuff to kill the time until we get to the end,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley “I think a great example is go back and look where we were ranked in the first CFP poll all the years we’ve been to the CFP. The biggest games, the best games, the most important games all across the country have still yet to be played. And so there are a lot of good teams that are vying for it, and the best ones tend to rise up this time of year and separate themselves, and that’ll happen again this year.

“And like I said, where we sit right now — and when I say we, just college football as a whole and all the rankings — where they sit right now and where they’re going to be here in three or four weeks is going to be a big, big difference. So, if we win, then what they put out tomorrow is not going to matter, or today. It shows you how much I’m paying attention to it.”

Riley’s teams have never lost in the month of November.

“This is what they’re going to remember you by. Winning the first nine and all that’s great, but this team will be remembered based on what it does here in the next couple of months,” Riley said. “You feel like things are starting to align for us to play our best ball and feel like we’ve got the right group to do it. I’m excited to watch us prepare and watch us really surge because I do think we have it inside of us.”

After a bye week, OU (9-0, 6-0 Big 12), will have a game at No. 18 Baylor (7-2, 4-2 Big 12) November 13, then a home game against Iowa State and finally the Bedlam game in Stillwater against No. 10 OSU. OU plays at Baylor at 11 a.m. Saturday on Fox.

Baylor was upset by TCU – in their first game without fired coach Gary Patterson – 28-30, last Saturday.

If league-leading OU runs the table – they should be favored in each of those games – it would seem to be impossible to keep them out of the CFP.

College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Gary Barta tried to defend the placement of OU at No. 8 on this year’s initial CFP Rankings.

“A little bit beyond that, just looking at who they’ve beaten, Kansas State and Texas Tech, both good wins, but the strength of schedule is considered among other things.” Barta said.

“Well, the committee sees all those things. First of all, they’re 9-0, and so they belong being ranked eighth. They’re undefeated, so they get a lot of credit for that. But … defensive struggles throughout the year certainly was discussed.

“The other thing that was discussed is Oklahoma is still trying to find their identity, but certainly when they added Caleb Williams at quarterback, the committee agreed that the offense certainly changed in a positive way, but it may — we may be seeing it impacting the whole team, defense included.”

Numerous injuries have prevented OU from racking up larger point margins in some games.

“We’ve had some points here obviously kind of through the middle part of the season where we’ve played really well, we’ve had some areas where we haven’t played well,” Riley said. “Has some of that had to do with not having some guys? Sure, it has, but also some of it has to do with just us playing at the level we expect because certainly, even with all the guys out, with the eleven that we’re putting out there, we still feel and have felt very capable.”

Last week, Williams, a true freshman, was named the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week after his performance in the Sooners’ 52-21 victory over Texas Tech.

Williams, also the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, set the Oklahoma true freshman record with 402 passing yards and tied the school freshman record with six touchdown passes (most ever by an OU true freshman) against the Red Raiders.

He completed 23 of 30 passes (76.7%) and finished with a 255.2 passing efficiency rating, which was the best nationally for the week and the best in the country this season among quarterbacks who attempted at least 30 passes.

The Washington, D.C., product became just the third player in OU history to throw for at least six touchdowns without an interception, joining Heisman Trophy winners Baker Mayfield (2016 vs. Texas Tech) and Kyler Murray (2018 vs. Baylor). His six touchdown passes went to five different receivers and he completed passes to nine different players in the game.

Freshman receiver Mario Williams was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week. He caught a team-high five passes for a career-high 100 yards and a touchdown Saturday against Texas Tech.

Oklahoma linebacker Brian Asamoah was named a semifinalist for the 37th annual Butkus Award and outside linebacker Nik Bonitto was named a semifinalist for the 2021 Chuck Bednarik Award. Asamoah has 54 tackles (31 solo) and one QB hurry. He has totaled 140 career tackles, nine tackles for loss, four sacks and five pass breakups.

Bonitto has 28 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, seven QB hurries, two fumble recoveries and one pass breakup. His 9 TFLs are tied for the team lead, while his TFLs and sacks are both tied for fifth in the Big 12.