Onward Oklahoma: BCS favors OU over Texas
By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer
More NCAAF Videos NEW YORK (AP)—A week before the final standings are released
and the Bowl Championship Series is already ticking people off.
Oklahoma—not Texas—is headed to the Big 12 championship
game with an inside track to the national title game by finishing ahead
of the Longhorns in the BCS standings.
Texas’ victory against the Sooners in October wasn’t enough
to give the Longhorns the advantage in a three-way tie between Oklahoma,
Texas and Texas Tech atop the Big 12 South. And that’s sure to leave many
in Austin feeling slighted.
The Big 12 had to use its fifth tiebreaker, best BCS rating,
to determine which team will play North winner Missouri on Saturday in Kansas
City, Mo.
The Sooners (11-1), who lost to Texas 45-35 in October,
barely edged the Longhorns. Oklahoma has a .9351 BCS average. Texas’ BCS
average is .9223.
Oklahoma was a point ahead of Texas in the USA Today coaches’
poll and six points behind the Longhorns in the Harris Interactive. The
computer ratings preferred the Sooners and that made the difference.
So the Longhorns will be watching two teams they beat play for the conference
title, rooting for Missouri.
Oklahoma is second in the BCS standings behind unbeaten
Alabama. Texas is third and Florida is fourth.
The winner of the Southeastern Conference championship
game between the Crimson Tide and Gators is virtually guaranteed a spot
in the BCS national title game on Jan. 8 in Miami.
Oklahoma would earn the other spot by beating Missouri.
If the Sooners lose, it could open the door for Texas to go to the national
title game, despite not playing for its conference championship.
If voters are squeamish about letting a team that didn’t
win its conference play for a national championship, maybe Southern California
could get a shot at the SEC champ in South Florida.
The Trojans are fifth in the BCS standings with a game
to go at rival UCLA.
The Sooners were behind Texas last week in the BCS standings
by a tiny margin. The Sooners actually led the Longhorns in the polls, but
a week ago the computers had Texas ahead of Oklahoma.
After the Sooners’ 61-41 victory Saturday night against
Oklahoma State— 14th in the latest standings—and the Longhorns’ 49-9 win
over lowly Texas A&M on Thanksgiving night, the polls tightened but
the computers flipped.
The strength of the Big 12 South led to this new BCS controversy,
with the top three teams in the conference each finishing 11-1.
After beating Oklahoma and jumping to No. 1 in the polls,
Texas (11-1) lost at Texas Tech 39-33 on Nov. 1. The Red Raiders (11-1),
No. 2 at the time, then lost at Oklahoma 65-21 on Nov. 22.
The lopsided loss dropped Texas Tech way back. The Red
Raiders were seventh in Sunday’s standings.
After beating Texas Tech, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops touted
his team publicly. But later in the week, Stoops passed on a chance make
another pitch to poll voters and said the politicking that’s become a part
of the BCS was making more coaches favor a playoff system in major college
football.
Brown, maybe sensing that his team was in danger of losing
its spot despite the head-to-head advantage, did his best to campaign for
his team without slighting the Sooners in several national television and
radio interviews last week. Brown was even part of the Oklahoma-Oklahoma
State broadcast, doing a telephone interview with ABC’s announcers during
the game.
Brown has stopped short of supporting a playoff, saying
only that the BCS is flawed.
Brown also lamented the Big 12’s tiebreaker system, which
removed the head-to-head element. In the SEC, a similar three-way division
tie would be settled by eliminating the lowest rated team in the BCS standings,
then reverting back to head-to-head results between the remaining teams.
But ultimately, the Longhorns victory against Oklahoma
couldn’t trump the Sooners’ surge over the last two months.
Oklahoma has scored at least 60 points in its last four
games, and has won its last five games by at least 20 points each.
Though it’s not as if Texas has been struggling down the
stretch. The Longhorns only loss came on a Graham Harrell-to-Michael Crabtree
touchdown pass with 1 second left in the game. That was also the fourth
of four consecutive games for the Longhorns against teams ranked in the
top 11 of the AP poll.
Since losing to the Red Raiders, Texas has won three games
by a combined score of 129-37.
