Many of the factors that go into ranking universities don't really impact those on the undergraduate level (a good deal of importance is placed on a university's research and graduate programs, for example, and the funding they receive). And some of the factors that do impact the average student (class size, for example) aren't given much weight. So the ranking of universities can be a bit misleading for the average student-athlete (or the average student, for that matter).
I'm glad OU's ranking has improved in recent years and I'd love to see it continue to climb, but what matters much more than a school's ranking is how hard a student works while he's there. Some schools do have an alumni network that can be more helpful than others to recent (and not-so-recent) graduates, and I think ut is among those schools, but a graduate of almost any school should be able to put his status as a former athlete to good use in networking with the school's successful alums.