Florida State started the season hoping to at least make a bowl game after having gone 5–7 (4–4 ACC) in 2021. They had an easy win over Duquesne to start the season. The next week, they faced LSU in the first-ever edition of the Louisiana Kickoff, held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. The Seminoles won, 24–23, after they successfully blocked an extra point attempt from LSU that would have sent the game into overtime. They took a bye week before defeating their next two opponents, Louisville and Boston College, the latter in front of a sellout crowd. Florida State started the season with four conservative wins and entered the rankings at No. 23 before suffering three consecutive losses to ACC Atlantic foes No. 22 Wake Forest, No. 14 NC State, and No. 4 Clemson. However, they rebounded by handily defeating Georgia Tech, in-state rival Miami, Syracuse, and Louisiana, and defeated their other in-state rival, Florida, for the first time since 2017. The Seminoles recorded a second-place finish in the ACC Atlantic, as two of the teams they lost to—NC State and Wake Forest—both suffered conference losses of their own (and more Conference losses than Florida State) after beating Florida State; this allowed Florida State to place ahead of them in the division standings and get a better bowl bid. The Seminoles entered the bowl with a record of 9–3 (5–3 ACC) and ranked No. 13 in each of the major polls.
Oklahoma completed their regular season with an overall 6–6 record, 3–6 in Big 12 games. After starting the season with three non-conference wins, The Sooners had three consecutive conference losses before winning their first conference game by beating Kansas. Oklahoma went on to finish the season with wins against Iowa State and Oklahoma State and losses to Baylor, West Virginia, and Texas Tech.
