I could hardly believe the Oklahoma Sooners (my alma mater) handled Texas Tech, the number 2 team in the nation, with such ease, beating them 65-21. The mighty Big 12 South will probably have three teams with only one loss, assuming they all win out in their final game: Texas beat Oklahoma, but Texas Tech beat Texas, but Oklahoma beat Texas Tech. One of these teams will win the South part of the conference and will play the winner of the North (Missouri) for the Big 12 championship. That team may very well be in the national championship game.
The tie breaker in a three-way case like this is which team ranks highest in the BCS standings. So who should rate higher?
Today’s human polls have Oklahoma at #2, after Alabama, but the computers have Texas at #2. After the calculations Texas wins that position. But consider Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops’ arguments:
“If you can’t move us in front of Texas because they beat us, then you’ve got to keep Texas Tech in front of Texas.”
Then, he made a less-than-veiled reference to Florida’s 31-30 home loss to Ole Miss back in September. [Florida is ranked #4 anyway.]
“If you’re going to forgive a team for losing at home to an unranked team because they’re playing well now, well, we’re playing pretty well now, too. If it’s logical to someone else, it’s logical to us.”
The campaigning promises to turn ugly, particularly if the Big 12 ends in a three-way tie among Oklahoma, Texas (10-1) and Texas Tech (10-1), which are all 1-1 against each other. That would be the Longhorns’ only shot to get to the conference title game, provided they are ranked higher than Oklahoma – a team they beat, 45-35, in Dallas earlier this season – in the Nov.30 BCS poll.
Texas (.9209) is ranked second behind Alabama in the BCS standings released last night, slightly ahead of Oklahoma (.9125). The Sooners are actually ranked ahead of the Longhorns in the two human polls, which each make up a third of the equation in the BCS rankings. Oklahoma is second in the coaches’ poll ahead of Florida and Texas, but the Sooners only have a 42-point lead over the Longhorns. Oklahoma is third in the Harris Interactive poll, leading fourth-ranked Texas by a mere 21 points. Texas got its big bump from the six computers, which unanimously ranked the Longhorns No.2 and the Sooners No.3.
Oklahoma plays Oklahoma State next week–a ranked #10 in the nation–so a win should surely mean something.
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