According to Bill Connelly of ESPN (ESPN+), the 1956 Oklahoma Sooners football team is ranked as the 25th most influential college football team of all time. Connelly revealed the first half of his list of the top 30 most influential teams on Wednesday, with the 1956 Sooners taking the No. 25 spot.
Coached by the legendary Bud Wilkinson, this team was a key part of Oklahoma’s record-breaking 47-game winning streak. They achieved a perfect 10-0 season (6-0 in the Big Seven) and secured their second consecutive national championship.
Connelly describes the impact of the 1956 Sooners by explaining a common narrative in college football: a middleweight school’s coach invents a groundbreaking strategy, which is later adopted and perfected by a coach with better resources, who then surpasses the original innovator. Wilkinson, having mastered Faurot’s Split-T formation, led Oklahoma to a 31-2 record from 1948 to 1950 and their first national title in 1950. Starting with a win over Texas in 1953, the Sooners began their historic 47-game winning streak, aided in part by a player-payment scheme that drew NCAA sanctions.
The 1956 Sooners achieved a level of dominance rarely seen, utilizing Wilkinson’s Split-T offense to outscore opponents 466 to 51 over the season. They recorded six shutouts, allowed only four teams to score on them, and held all ten opponents under 20 points. Notably, they shut out Texas and Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State) with scores of 45-0 and 53-0, respectively.
Oklahoma ended the season ranked first in both major polls. Due to the Big Seven’s no-repeat rule for bowl games, they couldn’t participate in the Orange Bowl, but they were still recognized as the undisputed national champions of 1956 without a bowl game appearance.
