I'm sure that if I want to call myself a sports blogger that covers Oklahoma, I have to weigh in on this whole BCS/OU/Tech/Texas mess. We managed to play our way into the championship game and we'll be facing off against a surprisingly weak Missouri team for a shot at all the nachos. I know that everyone has already beat this to death and that we're all probably sick of hearing it, but here's a quick breakdown of the positions of the different sides.
Texas — Since all the arguing is due to the 'Horns whining to everyone who would listen that the system isn't fair, let's look at their argument first. Basically, Brown&Co. want you to remember some things and forget others. They want you to remember the final score of a game played in Dallas on October 11th. They would prefer that you don't go back and watch that game, however, as you might realize that their "10-point win" is only 10 points because of a touchdown scored with only four minutes and change left in the game. Before that it was only three, and only that because of a two-point conversion. They also don't want you to see how at least three of their scoring drives were extended by blown or bad calls. I still don't see how you can flag a guy for a late hit when he's trying to keep the quarterback from going head-long into his own bench. Forget the Heisman, Colt McCoy should win a freaking Tony.
They would also like to remind you that the very next game, they took on the best the North Division has to offer in Austin and beat them soundly. I can hardly type that without breaking into hysterical laughter. Missouri does, indeed, seem to be the best team in the North, but being the best of the worst really isn't that great a distinction.
So what do the ShortHorns want you to ignore? How about that during the two weeks following Mizzou they really dropped the ball? It took a last-second stand and an errant pass to keep from being upset at home by (a much improved) Oklahoma State. Not even that, however, could keep Graham Harrell and Texas Tech from embarrassing Texas in Lubbock. I know the final score of that game was very close (4 points). I also know that a Texas defender dropped an interception that would have sealed the victory for the 'Horns. What most people don't know (because Texas hasn't been yelling about it) is that Texas didn't even have a lead in that game until just before said dropped interception. Tech lead for 58 minutes and 31 seconds in that game. At half-time, the score was 22-6 and most people had already counted Texas out. It took some late-game heroics from McCoy for Texas to be able to drive home feeling only disappointed, not disgusted.
Texas Tech — If I have any guilt in this entire mess, it is because of how Tech had arguably the best season of their entire history and the major media outlets are pretending that they don't even exist. Tech manged to go undefeated into the thirteenth week of the season in what is probably the toughest division in all of Division I football. They not only put up ridiculous numbers in the air, but also have the best rushing yard per game average of any Mike Leach team to date. They defeated the first-ranked Longhorns in what turned into a close game, but started out as a rout. The only chink in their armor is that they had to play OU in Norman.
Multiple factors came to bear in that game that made it look very bad for Tech. First, Oklahoma has the longest home win streak in the nation helped by an intense crowd and a stadium designed to funnel noise to the field. Second, Tech's only win in Norman occurred 12 years ago when John Blake was the coach at OU (Blake went 12-22 in three seasons, the worst three-year stretch in Sooner history). Third, the Sooners came into the game knowing they had to win to have a shot at achieving their goals. It was a perfect storm of circumstances that lead to a game that quickly got out of hand. Because it was so one-sided and happened so late in the season, every major media outlet has completely dropped Tech from their discussions about who should win the South.
That's perfect for Texas, of course. As long as the public opinion is that the race is between only OU and UT, they appear to have the upper hand due to the Shootout. If you bring in the Red Raiders, the 'Horns have to defend their pitiful performance in Lubbock and Oklahoma gets to traipse out their destruction of Tech in Norman. All of a sudden, the issue doesn't look as clear-cut, does it? Also, look at the numbers in my last post. I'll update them soon, but before the game in Norman, Tech was basically destroying every defense they faced while giving up significantly fewer yards.
Oklahoma — Believe it or not, this was the hardest section of this to write. It makes me feel a little dirty to rub it in now that the issue has been decided in our favor, but I feel that there are some points that haven't been made clear in most things I've either read or heard.
First, every team in the South division plays at least five of the same opponents, though this year all three of the top teams played six (Kansas as well as the normal games). Probably the best way to compare the performance of the teams is to compare the score differentials from those games. If you do that, you see that Oklahoma won the common games (including head-to-heads) by 138 points, Texas by 100, and Tech by 65. The margin of victory there is almost four times Texas's in the head-to-head.
Second, Texas' entire argument is that the head-to-head is the only factor that matters. I figure that if it was so damn important, it would decide the issue with no argument at all. If there is still ambiguity after that, it has to be set aside in preference of other factors. I know that's not how other conferences do it, but UT's athletic director has a vote on the rules committee too. If he didn't like it, he should have forced the change then. (BTW, if anyone knows where to find it, I'd like to see who voted how on the tie-breaker rule when it was devised).
Third, Texas was able to gain a total of around 75 points in the human polls after last week's games. I don't know what games the voters were watching, but Texas was un-inspiring at home while OU played a hell of a game against a very good opponent on the road (the same team that nearly defeated Texas in Austin just over a month before). OU is only second because the computers rewarded us for having the stronger non-conference schedule (thanks, TCU and Cincinnati). Simply put, OU got it done on field against better opponents all season long.
Last words — There is a strong argument for all three of the teams that have a claim to the South division crown. Obviously, only one could attend the conference championship game but all three will be named division champs (as I remember). I'm very happy that Oklahoma got the nod, but I wish that it hadn't come down to this. I wish we'd gotten it done in Dallas and held on to our lead, but we didn't. The Sooners now just have to win convincingly against Mizzou and then represent the conference well in the BCS title game. Hopefully, come early January this will all be behind us and the athletic department can move on to their next challenge: figuring out how to fit "2008" on the front of the press-box.
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