<p>And the plot thickens... Missouri is already in the Big 12 Championship game. They just lost to Kansas in a wild one! If they could somehow pull out an upset (you just NEVER know) then it REALLY becomes a mess now.</p>
<p>ACC > SEC
hell ACC is the best conference.</p>
<p>hops_scout, there's really no way for it not to end messily now. If Oklahoma wins, there's going to be a big controversy about who should get the spot in the Big 12 title game and thus the inside track to play the SEC champ for the national title. If Oklahoma loses, Texas Tech goes to the Big 12 championship, despite probably being rated lower than Texas in the BCS standings. (And then what happens if TX Tech wins?) And of course, if I suggest that Utah should have the second spot regardless of what happens in the Big 12 South by virtue of being undefeated, no one will listen to me :)</p>
<p>jbusc, I completely agree with having the championship game decided after the bowls. I think the way to really make that work well is to centralize control of who gets assigned to which BCS bowl. If a committee assigned all the spots (instead of the individual bowl games picking their teams), they could respect conference tie-ins as much as possible, while still ensuring the maximum chance of a clear choice for two teams to play for all the beans. The bowls would put up a fuss at their loss of control, but that would be their trade-off for being one of the top-tier games.</p>
<p>That system wouldn't work this year, of course--too many teams have a good case for playing for the title. Between one and three Big 12 South teams, the SEC champion, the three other undefeated teams (well, maybe I'm the only one who finds Ball State deserving), and maybe USC/Penn State. So depending on future results and your opinion, that's between four and nine teams that could make a case. Any more than four serious contenders and the plus-one system becomes very hard to use. I think this year is an exceptional case, though.</p>
<p>I think Oklahoma will edge out Texas tomorrow when the BCS polls come out. And obviously, that's not fair when you look at things head to head.</p>
<p>Here's just a fun nightmare scenario. Don't even think about what the BCS machines will churn out. Just think about it from a HUMAN "logic" standpoint: Say Florida wins the SEC, takes slot number one in the Mythical National Championship line-up. The Sooners go to the Big 12 Championship over Texas and Texas Tech, BUT, they lose to Missouri. Now, Missouri with three losses is NOT going to the MNC, even as conference champs. So who goes instead?</p>
<p>Texas? But they didn't even get to represent their Big 12 South division, let alone win their conference. And, they didn't even beat...
Texas Tech? The Raiders won head-to-head against Texas and has an identical record to Texas.
So do we look at...
Penn State? They are, after all, Big 10 Champions.
USC? They are PAC-10 Champions.
Utah? They're undefeated.
Boise State? Ditto!</p>
<p>Again, don't think about BCS rankings and the computers. What makes sense from a human standpoint? </p>
<p>(Answer: not much.)</p>
<p>It's official, the SEC is having a down year. There's Florida and Alabama, and who else? Your #2 teams in both the SEC East & SEC West have ACC losses. Only 3 SEC teams will finish the regular season with 8 wins, whereas most likely 4 will in the Pac-10.</p>
<p>
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jbusc, I completely agree with having the championship game decided after the bowls. I think the way to really make that work well is to centralize control of who gets assigned to which BCS bowl.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That would help, but you don't even need that. Thanks to the tie-ins, each individual bowl committee mostly only gets to select at-large, and those teams would presumably be the ones that would have trouble getting in to the title game under the current system anyway (the only BCS conference champion that gets a selection is the Big East)</p>
<p>
[quote]
That system wouldn't work this year, of course--too many teams have a good case for playing for the title.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The controversy would likely only get worse. Suppose SEC champ Alabama (12-0) gets matched with MWC champ Utah (12-0) in the Sugar Bowl, and Utah wins. Can you imagine the controversy over who goes then?</p>
<p>I was reading the Houston Chronicle, and they were talking to Mike Leach who brought up an intresting thought. The BCS sucks, not blunt way to put it, but Leach thinks the graduation percentage of the football team should be taken into account. The Houston Chronicle listed some numbers which I found to be a bit disturbing. 79% of Texas Tech football players graduate from Tech, 50% of players for Texas, and 46% for OU. I mean, student does come before athelete. I think it's a good idea to take the grudation percentage into account. What about you?</p>
<p>DP</p>
<p>
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I mean, student does come before athelete.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If you're familiar with college football, you know that's generally not true. College sports' dirty little secret (but not really).</p>
<p>If anyone's interested in the other numbers, check this out: What</a> are the college football graduation rates? : Fanblogs College Football Blog</p>
<p>Basketball is not any better...</p>
<p>So Oklahoma has won a few straight games by scoring 60+ points, right? Style points, right? They should play in the Big 12 Championship, right?
Whew. Good thing OU never played a team</p>
<p>.....that held them to 35.</p>
<p>.....that has silenced the offenses of teams that stomped on OU (OU gave up 41 points to a lackluster OSU team. Texas only gave up 24).</p>
<p>.....that lost their only game in the closing seconds, at the wire, on the road, in a hostile environment.</p>
<p>.....whose quarterback can run and throw.</p>
<p>.....that didn't rely on pure luck for their touchdowns (OU scored against both Texas and OSU on completely random tipped balls).</p>
<p>.....that, in the end, kicked them in the rear on a neutral field.</p>
<p>Hmmm....It sure is a good thing that a team like that doesn't exist. If it did, you would've picked the wrong team!
Oh well, it's no use speculating. I'm just happy that Texas never did any of that stuff.....</p>
<p>OU has
....Blown out Texas Tech while Texas lost to Tech.</p>
<p>...Has a running back while Texas doesn't</p>
<p>...That blew out a team that Texas lost to</p>
<p>...Won by 20 points against OSU so the random tipped ball doesn't really matter</p>
<p>You can argue it either way. I'm not a OU fan at all. Personally, I think Texas isn't very well balanced offensivly. OU, has a running game. Texas, has a much better defence. How do you figure it out, Playoff!</p>
<p>DP</p>
<p>Your first and third points are exactly the same.</p>
<p>Technically, they only won by 13 points. That last play was not only an utterly classless act by an utterly classless man (Bob "Stoop to New Lows" Stoops), but it was also a fluke. OSU was expecting OU to be courteous and run out the clock.</p>
<p>First of all, Texas played Tech at the end of an insane 4 game stretch that OU can't even scratch in terms of SOS. OU, OSU, Mizzou, and Tech all consecutively, with Tech at the end. Texas was battered, tired, and injured, and they played them in Lubbock.</p>
<p>OU played Tech in Oklahoma. If they had played them in the same circumstances as Texas, it either would've been very close, or they would've lost.</p>
<p>And have you ever watched a Texas game? What about Ogbonnaya (sp) and Vondrell McGee? They and Colt McCoy ran up so many rushing yards on OU's pitiful defense, it hurt to watch. Get a clue.</p>
<p>Hookem, if Oklahoma continues their BCS bowl tradition, they will get slaughtered by either Alabama or Florida in the MNC. </p>
<p>And you never know with Missouri. I know they've lost several times this season but they have a chance to really ruin it for the Sooners on Saturday and I think they will come out to play. I know they're thinking of revenge for last year's Sooners win. Texas still has a chance if the Tigers take care of business.</p>
<p>The dumbest thing about this whole situation? The two teams playing for the Big 12 Championship were both beaten by Texas during the regular season. I say that as someone who has no ties to any team in the Big 12, let alone the Longhorns. It's just common sense.</p>
<p>IU HOOSIERS 08/09!!! They're #1, nobody else can even compare!</p>
<p>If you're just talking about purely who gets the nod based on record, I agree, Texas was shorted on that one (since they won the head-to-head matchup)</p>
<p>But then again if it was purely which team stands the better chance against Alabama/Florida, I'd have to go with Oklahoma. Texas #52 in total defense, #45 in scoring defense, and most importantly #109 in pass defense. You could see this in the texas tech loss - Texas had at least 3 opportunities to seal the game in the final minutes, but dropped two easy interceptions and allowed a double-covered Crabtree to breeze unhindered into the end zone.</p>
<p>I've said it before, Texas's pass defense is just horrid and, frankly, defense wins championships. You can't hope for a Big-12 style shootout in the national championships. </p>
<p>And I might point out that Oklahoma's domination of Texas Tech and convenient timing of the oklahoma state game didn't have that much to do with jumping Texas - Oklahoma and Texas split the human polls, so it was the computer polls that broke the tie - and computer polls don't look at anything but wins and losses.</p>
<p>Plus, it's not like this is the biggest snub in BCS history.</p>
<p>defense wins championships eh? <em>cough</em> <em>cough</em> USC would own anyone</p>
<p>Ya, I've watched Texas play. I live in Texas, so I have to :-). Texas's running backs are not up to quality of Demarco Murray. They are much more balanced then Texas. I would like to argue that Tech deserves to be in the national championship, but they don't. Stupid OU. </p>
<p>We need a playoff.</p>
<p>DP</p>
<p>I'm pretty shocked with the polls too. We got robbed.</p>
<p>OU has a better defense than Texas? Whatever.
Since when did we allow a kick return to turn into a touchdown?
We have limited our opponents to fewer points than them in almost every game. </p>
<p>We're always underestimated. Nobody thought we could win against Oklahoma in October. Nobody thought we stood a chance against USC. </p>
<p>The system is to be blamed. Two of the coaches actually ranked OU as No. 1.</p>
<p>To those arguing that Texas got stiffed, keep in mind that if Texas had been picked instead, Tech fans would be making exactly the same argument that you're making now. Likewise, if Tech got picked, OU fans would be the ones complaining. You really can't make any distinction between the three teams on head-to-head (or really, any) grounds. You can compare their schedules--but they all played in the Big 12, and their nonconference schedules weren't that different (though Tech's might be a tad weaker). You can look at location of the games, in which case Texas comes out ahead as a result of losing to Tech on the road and beating OU on neutral ground, but IMHO that's kind of a flimsy argument.</p>
<p>What we have is a true nightmare scenario in the Big 12 South, one where no objective tiebreaker exists. The Big 12 has recognized that possibility, and instituted the best tiebreaker they could under the circumstances--the polls. And the polls picked Oklahoma. Yes, it's probably because Oklahoma lost earliest, and that's not exactly fair. It's one of the serious problems with the polls, and one of the nice things about having computer rankings (which don't take into account time of loss) to balance them out. But what other system is possible?</p>
<p>I'm happy to see Oklahoma get picked, but that's only because Texas campaigned for it, which I find disgraceful. My hope is that the various disasters of this year, last year, and previous years will expose the BCS for the joke that it is and lead to some form--any form--of playoff.</p>
<p>If only Blake Gideon could catch we wouldn't have this issue...</p>
<p>But anyways, I'm honestly happy with the season. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for UT, and they end up #3, which isn't bad. Now, we'll just have to wait and see how the BCS can shaft us next.</p>