The state has eight Heisman Trophy winners, multiple Butkus Award and Lombardi Award winners in football, plus Naismith Award winners in basketball and USA Softball Players of the Year.
But whose jersey is the most sought after?
BetOklahoma.com took a break from covering Oklahoma sports betting issues and utilized Google Trends to determine the most searched college sports jerseys in the state.
For the study, only colleges in Oklahoma were included. After completing the trends over the past 12 months (from July 2022 to July 2023), we were able to find results to get the top 3 college sports jerseys for the state of Oklahoma.
Most Popular College Jerseys in Oklahoma
While Sanders might have the most popular jersey, OU still has the most popular football team — at least as far as betting is concerned. Although there are no Oklahoma sportsbook promos, nationally the Sooners are +325 to win the Big 12. That’s behind Texas (+100), but well ahead of OSU +4000.
Sanders Beats Out All of the Sooners
The data shows the former Oklahoma State great tops the list of searches, outpacing all seven Oklahoma Heisman winners. Sanders won the 1988 Heisman Trophy after a record-breaking season that included 2,628 yards rushing and 39 total touchdowns. He had 37 rushing scores, and a kickoff return and punt return touchdown.
The next two on the list are former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner, and basketball star Trae Young, the 2017-18 National Freshman of the Year before departing for the NBA.
Mayfield transferred from Texas Tech and then had an amazing three-year career with the Sooners. He capped it off with the Heisman Trophy-winning season in 2017 after throwing for 4,627 yards with 43 touchdowns and just six interceptions. That Sooners team went 12-2, won the Big 12 title and lost a double-overtime thriller against Georgia in the national semifinals at the Rose Bowl. (There are no Oklahoma betting apps, but nationally future Sooners’ SEC foe Georgia is the CFP championship favorite at +220).
Seeing Mayfield above 2018 Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is a bit of a surprise. Murray passed for 4,361 yards, but also rushed for 1,001 yards and had 42 passing touchdowns to go with 12 rushing scores.
Murray’s win allowed OU to tie Ohio State and Notre Dame with seven Heisman winners. The Sooners’ others are Sam Bradford (2008), Jason White (2003), Billy Sims (1978), Steve Owens (1969) and Billy Vessels (1952).
In basketball, Young’s jersey is more sought after than Naismith winners Buddy Hield (2016) and Blake Griffin (2009) from the Sooners’ deep pool of former hoops greats.
And who knows, if the Oklahoma softball team can come back next year and win a fourth straight national championship in 2024 then maybe the star of that amazing feat can crack the most popular jersey list.
