Breaking Ties Is Hard To Do

There is going to be a Big 12 championship game Saturday night in Kansas City, and Oklahoma is going to be in it. The Sooners used a 61-41 win at Oklahoma State to impress enough of the BCS computers to pass Texas in this week’s BCS ratings, enabling OU to win the league’s 5th tiebreaker over Texas and Texas Tech for the spot in Kansas City against the Missouri Tigers. (Wait, that’s a basketball score! The two schools have scored fewer points in basketball games against each other!)

The involvement of hard drives and statistical formulas provides a fitting end to the greatest season in the short history of the Big 12. OU, Texas, and Tech ran up point totals that would make the best video gamer proud. Not far behind them was Oklahoma State. The Cowboys were the fourth best team in the South division, but would have won the North. Heck, the Cowboys would have won the ACC, the Big East, and a few other conferences.

OU, Texas, and Tech were ESPN and ABC’s dream. The ABC Saturday night crew spent a lot of time this fall in Texas and Oklahoma, as that is where the best matchups were. It’s not that there was a lack of defense here. It’s just that the offenses were so good that nothing could stop them. These four teams gave fans plenty of reason to spend money to attend games and to make time to watch them on TV.

Teeth are gnashing and mouths are wailing tonight in the city of Austin, as the Texas Longhorns came out on the wrong end of this tiebreaker. They have good reason, as Texas beat OU in Dallas, 45-35. The wildcard in this scenario is that there is a third team in this scenario, Texas Tech, that finished with the same record as OU and UT. If the head-to-head result between OU and UT matters, then so does the head-to-head matchup between UT and Tech. By the way, Tech won that game, 39-33 in Lubbock. OU’s later pounding of the Red Raiders does not take away from Tech’s great season or their role in the tiebreaker.

Is there a better way to break the tie? Perhaps. The SEC and ACC drops the third team from the tie if said team is more than 5 places below the higher-ranked team in the BCS standings. That would not happen here, as Tech is ranked 7th behind OU’s 2nd and UT’s 3rd. Maybe the three schools should do what high schools in Florida do: meet at a neutral site on a Tuesday night, play one quarter each against each other, and let the two top teams play a final quarter for all the marbles. Just kidding, as this would be logistically impossible. A more logical solution would be for the three coaches to meet at a truck stop in Wichita Falls and flip coins. Or, draw straws. Or, better yet, play Rock, Paper, Scissors. Ok, with as much money as these teams generate and these coaches make, they could meet at the Grand Hyatt at DFW Airport. The truck stop would make for better TV, though. Kinda like the real story in the book, Friday Night Lights. To sum it up, there’s not a good way to break a tie between three really good teams.

There is hope for the Longhorns. OU could very well lose to Missouri Saturday night in Kansas City. And, the Longhorns could very well stay ahead of Florida if the Gators defeat #1 Alabama in the SEC championship game. Both of these scenarios would give Bevo a trip to Miami for the national championship game.

The BCS is good for nothing but controversy. So is anything involving OU and Texas.

8 Points In Less Than One Second

This was a wild finish from last weekend's Oklahoma Class 2A girls high school state championship game. Yes, you read that right, eight points were scored in the last second of the game between Walters and Pocola.

A Walters player hit a three-point field goal to take the lead, and was fouled. However, Walters was called for a technical foul, because some of the team members left the bench and went on the court to celebrate. At this point, there was .07 of a second left on the clock.

The Walters player hit the free throw, then Pocola got to shoot two free throws for the technical. At this point, Walters led by two points. The Pocola player hit one of the two free throws, to cut the deficit to one point.

Pocola then got the ball out of bounds with .07 left on the clock. Cassie Slate of Pocola hit a 36-foot prayer off the inbounds pass to win the game and the state championship for Pocola.

That's a crazy finish, no matter the level of basketball.

If You're Not First..

"If you're not first, you're last!" - Ricky Bobby

That is the sentiment of a large portion of Sooner Nation, after OU lost its fourth consecutive BCS bowl game Wednesday night. The Sooners were pounded by West Virginia, 48-28. The game shouldn't have been that close. In Norman, it's National Championship or Bust. Right now, it's Bowl Win or Bust.

It's a good thing bowl games are meaningless exhibitions.

The real game is Monday night, when Ohio State plays LSU for the crystal football.

Ugly Uniform of the Day

I have been accused of playing favorites with ugly uniforms. Yes, I have been known to throw schools and teams under the bus that I don't like. However, today, I am forced to attack a school and program that I love.

The University of Oklahoma men's basketball team came out in these gray uniforms on Wednesday night against the University of Tulsa. This is a fashion no-no. The Sooners' colors are crimson and cream. They wear white in place of cream. Gray is not their color. The Sooners looked like Ohio State. Now I wish they could recruit like Ohio State, as the Buckeyes rode two NBA lottery picks to the national championship game last year. However, gray is a no-no. Gray is the color of the Confederate army and Ohio State. It is not the color of the Sooners.

Sooners, stick to crimson and cream. Please. For all of us.

Knee-Jerk Reactions

Oklahoma 28, Texas 21. The universe returns to normal.

Above is DeMarco Murray's best impression of an Olympic hurdler as he breaks a long one for a Sooner touchdown.

Blast From The Past

You're Doin' Fine, Oklahoma

I would be remiss if I did not comment on today's news from NCAA Global World Headquarters. The University of Oklahoma football program was placed on two years' probation, resulting in the loss of two scholarships in each of the next two school years. The worst punishment, though, was the "vacation" of the 8 wins in the 2005 season. The probation was handed out due to the underemployment/overpayment of QB Rhett Bomar and OL J.D. Quinn at Big Red Sports and Imports in Norman.

As an OU fan, I can live without the two scholarships for the next two seasons. The Sooners penalized themselves by not granting the two scholarships last season after kicking Bomar and Quinn off the team. That's just two scholarships that won't be used for another two years.

Once university athletic officials became aware of the infraction, they kicked the offending players off the team and informed the NCAA. The NCAA investigated, and laid down the hammer. Where is the lenience for cooperation with the NCAA? The two scholarship penalty, in addition to self-imposed sanctions, were plenty. The NCAA did not need to vacate the 8 wins from the 2005 season.

If there was a season in which to "vacate" the wins, 2005 was the one. The 2005 Sooners were very ordinary. They lost to TCU, were pounded by UCLA and Texas, and lost to Texas Tech due to some questionable officiating. That team didn't sniff a conference championship, much less a national championship. Still, I don't like the idea of giving up the 8 wins. OU President David Boren is right to appeal the sanctions, and to take up for his coach's record.

It could have been worse. The NCAA no longer bans schools from TV, as conferences and opponents are also penalized. However, they could have lost more scholarships and been banned from post-season. A loss of 5-10 scholarships per year over the course of two or three years would be devastating.

I'm waiting with baited breath for the NCAA's punishment of USC regarding the Reggie Bush house imbroglio. For some reason, I don't expect anything huge to come down real soon on that front.

OU will be fine.

In a future post, I'll go off on the NCAA's selective enforcement procedures.

The Taco Bowl

In the good old days of the Big 8 Conference, Oklahoma and Nebraska normally met yearly at the end of the season for the conference championship, and a trip to the Orange Bowl in Miami. 1980 was no exception. The two teams met in Lincoln, Nebraska, with the winner going to the Orange Bowl. The Sun Bowl in El Paso cut a deal with the two teams to take the loser.

Nebraska athletic director and ex-football coach Bob Devaney taped a weekly television show on Friday nights at a Lincoln TV station. He was taping the show at the same time that OU coach Barry Switzer was doing a live interview at the station for the 10:00 news on Channel 4 in Oklahoma City. Devaney had a pineapple on stage, as a consolation prize for Switzer and his imminent trip to El Paso. Switzer decided to play a trick. He sent someone to a nearby Mexican restaurant to pick up a sack of tacos. While Devaney was taping his show, Switzer walked onto the set, handed him the sack of tacos, and wished him well on his upcoming trip to El Paso.

The Sooners won the next day, earning a Big 8 championship and a trip to Miami. The Huskers got to spend the holidays in the west Texas town of El Paso.

This was great stuff when I watched it on the 10:00 news with my parents 27 years ago, and it's good stuff now. Enjoy...

(special thanks to Jim's Oklahoma Sports Page, and YouTube)

MySpace Sports

This is interesting: MySpace and Scout Are Getting Married

I wrote last week about the meltdown of the network known as Scout.com. Apparently, they are in the process of merging with Myspace.com. Both entities are owned by the News Corporation, owner of the Fox network.

I have a MySpace account. I don't do much with it, and I don't go there that often. I do get many random friend requests there from twenty-something young women, often looking for love in all the wrong places. It is obviously spam, as my wife is in my profile picture with me. They definitely don't know me. I put the "Deny" button to good use in those cases.

This is synergy with Fox attitude. Now, I can go to a site for my favorite team, or for a team I don't even care about, and receive friend requests from random women all over the world. That's what the Internet is all about. Yeah, right. Fox can laugh all the way to the bank, if Scout doesn't blow up first.

Actually, the comment from the great Brian Bishop, publisher of OU Insider, is more accurate: "Imagine that -- you'll now be crossing paths with your fourth grader as you visit your favorite team site. That's not exactly the affiliation we wanted when we signed on with Scout."

Once again, if you're an OU fan, and you're looking for the best independent source for OU information, go to OU Insider.

Ugly Uniform of the Day

This is painful, but I have to be fair.

College baseball is pretty far off the radar of everyone except the most rabid college sports fans. The competition is pretty good, especially when rivalries from football and basketball spill over to the diamond. The caliber of play is somewhere around low minor league quality, as college programs have 11.7 total scholarships to offer to the whole team, and are competing with major league organizations and their large bonuses offered to high draft picks. College baseball, overall, is a fun sport, though not nearly as popular as football or basketball.

Here is the painful part. Anyone that knows me knows that there are really only four things that are important to me: God, my family, the Oklahoma Sooners, and America. Sometimes, those priorities get mixed up. So, it pains me to throw the Sooners under the bus. But, I have to.

OU has broken out these black baseball uniforms. There are two major strikes against them: 1) black for a school that does not have it as a primary color, and 2) the red stripe under the arm and down the side of the jersey. Nike really stunk up the joint here. Someone at Nike needs to be drawn up and quartered.

Berry Tramel, lead columnist for The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, hits it right on the mark in this video/column (link is to the video-column is in the list to the right). The Sooners should wear crimson and cream. They should not wear black. Black is for their cousins in Stillwater.

Nike and OU better not try this in football or basketball. Black does not go with crimson and cream, no matter how cool anyone thinks it may be.

Pickin' Cotton

I am a little stunned. The greatest rivalry in college football, the OU-Texas game, is staying at the Cotton Bowl until 2015. City of Dallas officials are set to announce the deal at a Friday press conference on the 50-yard-line at the decaying old stadium.

The city of Dallas is promising to increase the amount of money paid to OU and Texas, as well as to Grambling and Prairie View, who also play at the Cotton Bowl during the Texas State Fair. The city has recently approved $30 million in bond money for improvements to the stadium, in an effort to attract more college football games. The stadium is losing the Cotton Bowl game to the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, as the bowl game attempts to crack the lineup of the BCS.

At first glance, this looks like Dallas is putting lipstick on a pig. The stadium is a dump, and will still be a dump after the city puts $30 million into it. They plan to rip out the chairs, replace them with bench seating, and to increase capacity to 90,000. I wonder if $30 million is a good investment to attract four or five college football games per year. OU-Texas brings in plenty of out of town visitors, but how will a neutral site game between Oklahoma State and Texas A&M fly at the Cotton Bowl? (How about that: the Ag Bowl presented by John Deere, live from the State Fair!) Or, Notre Dame vs. Baylor? (OK, I know, Notre Dame sells out everywhere they play...)

The stadium doesn't have to be a total palace for college football fans to be happy with it. All that most fans ask for are working toilets and leg room, two things that have been in short supply at the Cotton Bowl in recent years.

This is the city of Dallas we're dealing with, so I'll believe Cotton Bowl renovations when I see them. But, it looks like some people in Big D are seeing some light, even if it's too little, too late.

By the way, OU-Texas belongs at the State Fair, as long as the stadium isn't falling down. I'd hate to see it rotate between Norman and Austin.

It's Their World

It's the Gators' and Buckeyes' world. We just live in it.

Florida and Ohio State renew acquaintances Monday night. Just three months ago, these two schools met in the Arizona desert for the BCS national championship in football. The Gators won going away. Now, the two schools play for the national championship in basketball on Monday night in Atlanta.

This is the first time a school has played for a national championship in both sports since the 1987-88 school year, when Oklahoma lost to Miami in the Orange Bowl, and lost the basketball national championship to Kansas three months later. I am still sick over both of those, especially the basketball championship game. That was OU's best team ever (3 first round draft picks), and they were the best team over the regular season. KU has probably had 10 better teams than that one, but that one won the national championship. Yuck. Ok, I chased a rabbit there.

It just so happens that not one, but two schools are playing for national championships in both sports. With a win, Florida would 1) repeat as national champions, and 2) would be the first school to win football and basketball national championships in the same year.

Monday night will be a hot night in Hotlanta.

A Classic

Last night's game between OU and Boise State was a pure classic.

My Sooners, in all honesty, should have gotten their butts kicked. It is a testimony to them that they made the comeback after being down 28-10 in the 3rd quarter and playing like dog poop. But, these guys have overcome a lot this year, and made the plays necessary to tie and then take the lead.

Hats off to Boise State, though. They throw what looked like a game-losing interception to go down seven. They then go down the field, convert a 4th and 18 with a hook and ladder for a touchdown, and tie the game to force overtime. In overtime, they used a halfback pass and a Statue of Liberty play to win the game, 43-42. Their coaching staff pulled out all the stops, and everything worked.

It's a shame someone had to lose this game.

There are greater implications, though. Boise State more than proved that they belong in the BCS. In a perfect world, this would be to college football what the Jets-Colts Super Bowl III was for the pros: a statement screaming for change, in this case, a playoff. I doubt if we see a playoff, but Boise showed us how great a playoff would be.

I don't ever like for Oklahoma to lose. I would much rather they win. However, I take no shame in losing this game. It was a game for the ages, and ought to have an even greater impact.

I just wish Boise would have beaten someone else. :-)

Bison Stampede

My alma mater, Oklahoma Baptist University, is currently considering adding football to its athletic program. OBU is a school with nearly 1700 undergraduates located in Shawnee, Oklahoma. The school dropped football during World War II due to budget restraints, and never brought it back. The Bison currently compete in the NAIA, and are national powers in men’s and women’s basketball and track.

I believe the addition of football would be a benefit to the university, providing increased enrollment, student retention, donations, and school pride. I have seen the benefits of football in recent years at schools of similar size and mission, and would love to see these things happen at OBU.

Small college football is a totally different animal from the BCS conference schools we see on TV every week. The budgets are much lower, and coaches, more often than not, teach classes during the week. In truth, a 5A high school program in Texas will often have a larger football budget than a small college program. Attending a game in person is similar to attending a high school game. However, athletes, students, alumni, and the community at small schools have the same amount of pride in their programs, and the universities often benefit more than their larger counterparts. Football would benefit OBU in so many ways.

The school is currently studying the addition of football. They are currently taking a survey on their website. Whether you are an alum, a friend of an alum, an interested observer, or someone who is surfing around in blogland and has never heard of the school, please click here and vote for the addition of football.

With our help, Bison football can become a reality in the future.

Thank you!

Finally, After 11 Years

Quick comment from the road, as I will have more hot sports opinions tomorrow on the BCS and the world of football...

After 11 years, there is finally a matchup between my beloved Oklahoma Sooners and the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Big XII Championship game. Nebraska has been in this game three times, OU has been in it four times, but never have the two played each other in the Big XII championship game. With due apologies to Texas, Kansas State, Colorado, and the rest of the conference, this matchup was in mind when the conference and the championship game were created 11 years ago.

Special thanks to the Fightin' Texas Aggies for making this possible with their upset win over Texas.

It's going to be a fun week. Boomer Sooner!

The Debacle In Dallas

The Oklahoma Sooners played a great second quarter today against Texas, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Problem is, there are four quarters in a football game. The Longhorns manhandled the Sooners at the line of scrimmage, and won, 28-10.

The Sooners committed 11 penalties and 5 turnovers. That will get you beat every time, often by a wider margin than 18 points. As much as it pains me to say, Texas was better than us today.

OU has a long second half of the season ahead of it, with tough road trips to Missouri and Texas A&M, and grudge matches with Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. With the national championship off the table, and only an outside shot at a Big XII championship, all the Sooners have left to play for is pride, and the best bowl possible. They have a choice: to suck it up, or to just plain suck.

In the words of Jim Rome: Have a take, and don’t suck! The Sooners need to suck it up and play ball.

The QB Situation at OU

I guess I should comment on last week's dismissal of QB Rhett Bomar and OL J.D. Quinn from this year's Sooner team, for accepting illegal overpayments for work done as employees of Big Red Sports & Imports, a car dealership in Norman.

I don't have a whole lot to say on the matter. When I first heard it on the radio, I simply thought: "I'm sure glad Bob Stoops is our coach". Coach Stoops did what he had to do in this situation. The program has come too far and has become too clean to accept this kind of behavior.

I have confidence in Paul Thompson to lead the Sooners to a championship season this year.

You Know You're Getting Old..

...when someone your age is getting inducted into a Hall of Fame.

I had to keep myself from feeling old on Saturday. I watched as Troy Aikman was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Troy and I were born a week apart, but I graduated from high school a year later, as he started school in California, where the cutoff date was later than the one in Oklahoma, where I started school.

Troy's paths and mine have come so close together, yet so far apart. I didn't realize it, but I first saw him play when he was in 8th grade, and I was in 7th grade. My school used to play Henryetta, and I played football in 7th grade. Our team stayed for the 8th grade game, as we shared a bus, if I remember correctly. I first remember seeing him play when he was a sophomore, and we went over there to play them in the last district game of the year. I remember him being a freak athletic specimen (especially for what was then class 2A in Oklahoma), and being the best player on the field even then. I followed his career from there, and was in the stands that October 1985 day in Norman, when he tore up his knee in a game between the Sooners and the Miami Hurricanes. Both teams were full of NFL players, and Miami won the game that day, but OU went on to win their remaining games and their sixth national championship.

Troy went on to UCLA and was drafted by the Cowboys in 1989. His first year in Dallas was my first year in Fort Worth. There were 4,000,000 other people in the Metroplex at that time, as well. A few years later, I served on staff at a church in Henryetta. Troy goes back there from time to time to see friends, and we saw him from a distance at a high school basketball game one night. We didn't want to bug him, so we didn't even try to meet him. He and I have a lot of common acquaintances. Troy still speaks well of Henryetta, and they speak well of him. It's an awesome thing: a guy from a small town in Oklahoma winds up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The people in Henryetta should be proud, as they rightfully are.

Troy is obviously wealthier than I am. :-)

Back to the original topic: I'm not old enough to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, am I? Time flies...