College football

No right answer for the best in the Big 12 South

OU, Texas and Texas Tech all have solid cases to make if they finish tied

John A. Bowersmith / AP

Oklahoma players and fans felt they made their case that they deserve to play in the BCS Championship with a 65-21 dismantling of Texas Tech.

Thus, we return to our original dilemma: Texas Tech? Oklahoma? Texas?

Begin with the Red Raiders, whose head coach, Mike Leach, likely participated in a moot court or two back when he was earning his law degree at Pepperdine. Texas Tech likely has the weakest argument, since they were the least competitive of the three teams in their loss. It was 42-7 at halftime in Norman last Saturday night, and even so Oklahoma outscored the Red Raiders in the second half 23-14.

Also, the Red Raiders played the weakest non-conference schedule of the trio: Eastern Washington, Nevada, SMU and UMass. Not a BCS conference school among them, and two foes were FCS programs. Leach is a wonderfully refreshing personality. His spread offense is revolutionary. The Red Raiders did knock off a pair of Top 10 opponents (one of them a No. 1) within an eight-day span. But in this year’s Big 12 South, the bar has been set higher.

On to the Sooners, who blew a fourth-quarter lead in Dallas on Oct. 11 and lost to Texas 45-35. In their last four games, however, Oklahoma’s offense has averaged 62.25 points. On Saturday evening the Sooners had the look of a 2005 Texas or USC against a team that entered the day undefeated and No. 2 in the polls. The Sooners cleaned up well and turned heads. Think Richard Gere the first time he put on the dress whites in “An Officer and a Gentleman”. Michelle Pfeiffer in the red dress in “The Fabulous Baker Boys”. It was that kind of “How do you like me now?” moment.

Also, Oklahoma will likely be the only one of the three to have beaten another BCS bowl team (Cincinnati, if it wins the Big East). And the defeat of TCU is the most impressive non-conference win any of these three have.

Finally, there is Texas, who as of today is No. 2 in the BCS standings, one spot ahead of Oklahoma. The Longhorns have three cogent points they’d like to make: 1) they beat the Sooners head-to-head, 2) they lost at Texas Tech on the game’s final play and 3) no school this season, or perhaps any season, ever endured a more grueling four-game stretch than their Oklahoma-Missouri-Oklahoma State-Texas Tech crusade. That the ’Horns came within one outstanding catch by arguably the nation’s most gifted player, Red Raider wideout Michael Crabtree, only heightens the drama.

In reality, it comes down to this. Should Oklahoma lose to Oklahoma State, Texas Tech wins the division because they beat Texas head-to-head. Should Oklahoma win this Saturday evening, it likely becomes a Red River rivalry Holy War of words. The Sooners will ask, “Who is better than us right now?” and we’ll admit, “Nobody.” The Longhorns will rebut, “Who won when we played?” and we’ll admit, “You did.”

Meanwhile, we might ask Sooner coach Bob Stoops and Longhorn coach Mack Brown, “If you were in the other coach’s steel-toed boots, would you not be making their argument?” And the only reasonable reply we might expect from either logically cornered coach would be, “That’s why we need a playoff.”

There is, however, one alternative. Should Florida defeat Alabama in the SEC championship game, there probably will be seven highly attractive, highly competitive one-loss teams on the horizon: Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, USC, Alabama, Florida and Penn State.

Although the Gators seem to be the pre-ordained choice to face the Big 12 champion for the national championship (Florida last played a non-conference game out-of-state 17 years ago by the way), it begs asking why a team that lost at home to an opponent currently not in the BCS standings (Mississippi) garners more favor than any of the three Big 12 South teams noted here? All three of them, after all, lost just once as well, away from home and to an opponent ranked in the top six.

“If you forgive a team for losing to an unranked team because they’re playing well right now,” Bob Stoops said, referring to the Gators, “well, we’re playing pretty well, too. Again, if it’s logical for someone else, that same logic ought to work for us.”

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