Week Fourteen: 45 - 35, Lest We Forget

I waited to make this post, hoping that I would have something positive to report.

No such luck. Oh, well, yes, there is something to say: everyone on the planet (yes, that includes all of the people involved with the BCS) MUST finally realize that the BCS is an utter failure. It's good to come to that conclusion, once and for all (though for me, it's a recurring-nightmare-of-a-conclusion).

The Longhorns put it out there, beating Texas A&M by 40 points on Thanksgiving night. I was a little concerned when Mack Brown pulled Colt McCoy when we only had 42 points on the board (note to Mack: go back and look at Bob Stoops' "style points" strategy at Oklahoma State and Texas Tech and take notes). But John Chiles rolled us down the field and we had 49 points to show for a total obliteration of the Aggies. As one sign stated at the game, be thankful - that you're not an Aggie. After Baylor's strong showing against Texas Tech, it's safe to say that the doormat of the South division is now - Texas A&M.

But enough of the anti-Aggie sentiments, because I need to reserve my hostility for the sham that is the BCS.

I just watched Stoops' smug press conference after the BCS standings were released. In all fairness, he made some good points about playoffs and such. But Bob's got selective memory with the best of them (again, perhaps an effective political strategy!).

We have three teams tied for the Big 12 South lead. And the fifth tie-breaker (yes, we needed the fifth tie-breaker!) is BCS ranking. So why would we use a poll to decide who moves into the championship game? It has now become a personality contest! I am with Mike Leach - if you're going to do something so ridiculous as a tie-breaker, we'd be better off using something like graduation rate!! Hey, I thought it was a pretty good effort ... way to go Mike ... though I don't think anyone ever would have thought that the Big 12 would ever need 5 tie-breakers to decide all of this!

Let's talk bottom line here. Oklahoma beat Tech, Tech beat Texas, and Texas beat OU. So that is a wash. But let's try another view of all this insanity. Oklahoma lost one game, Texas lost one game, and Texas Tech lost one game. Oklahoma lost by 10 to Texas - at a neutral site. Texas Tech lost by a bushel to Oklahoma at OU. Texas lost by 6 to Tech at Lubbock - in the last second of the game. Maybe the wins don't tell us much - but the losses do.

45 - 35, lest we forget. That was the score against Oklahoma, in Dallas - the one that Head Boomer Sooner wants to selectively ignore. 

Where do we go from here? The BCS has the following order: Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida. It's pretty simple now - in reality, only four teams have a shot at the National Championship. Forget about USC even entering into the equation - they haven't played anyone, and I don't care how many future NFLers they have on their roster. Last time I looked, that wasn't a factor in the BCS calculation.

Florida plays Alabama next weekend. And Oklahoma plays Missouri. And Texas sits back and watches. Fine tune it a bit to simplify the scenarios: start with the SEC championship. Alabama wins - and they go to the National Championship. If Florida wins, it should put Alabama out of the mix completely, and probably shouldn't have them (Florida) earning enough points to jump Texas or OU. Hey, they lost to an unranked Ole Miss!!! Of course, the Gators and the SEC are the darlings of the media, so I can only imagine Florida will jump into #2 or #3.

If Oklahoma beats Missouri, then Oklahoma should be in the National Championship. That is, of course, unless the voters finally remember that there is no way in hell that OU should be rated ahead of a team that beat them! And if Missouri wins, then Texas' record looks all the better - they beat Missouri AND Oklahoma! If this happens, then OU would drop and Texas should be headed to the National Championship to play one of the teams from the SEC ... or, maybe even Oklahoma.

Imagine: if it's OU and Texas (by any strange calculation, voting, or otherwise) heading to Miami for the National Championship, then all of Stoops' diatribes will become fodder in the Texas locker room ...