FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – On a balmy morning in south Florida, Baker Mayfield and his Oklahoma teammates goofed around beneath the swaying palms as they posed for a picture in front of the Orange Bowl logo, their tight bond forged by the ups and downs of a long season – the grueling practices, the lonely hours in the weight room, the incessant scrutiny that comes with playing in a high-profile program.
For the Sooners, though, it goes deeper than that.
When a racist video shot by members of an Oklahoma fraternity went viral last March, exposing an ugly side to campus life and the isolation that many African-American athletes feel, the football team took a stand.
In many ways, that’s where the Sooners (11-1) began their journey to the College Football Playoff, setting up a semifinal game against top-ranked Clemson (13-0) in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
“It was a huge thing that we had to deal with,” receiver Sterling Shepard said Monday. “It could have split the team in either of two directions. The team could’ve went downhill, because you had a group of guys that believed something and another group of guys that believed something. But we were able to come together as a team and kind of work that thing out.”