Readyfor8
9/26/2007, 01:36 PM
Ok, I just had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine that I wanted to share with you. However, first of all I would like to say this is prognostication and the first thing that needs to be done is win the games on the schedule and worry about the ones that aren't on there yet (like a bowl) later.
But there was some discussion about the 2003 "championship" USC won and I believe it boils down to 5 parts.
1) Every top team in 2003 had a loss, that could happen again, but 2003 Oklahoma was crowned gods of everything up until the final 2 weeks of play when we lost to KSU in the championship game. If we had only lost to LSU in the Sugar, there would have been no split title but because we lost twice, the media had an arguement with the BCS over who should have been in the game and the BCS chose the least liked team of the three to be there (us.)
2) USC was the odd man out, I firmly believe that if it wasn't USC being left out, there would have been no split title. Blame it on location of the majority of writers voting in the AP, blame it on ESPN, blame it on Will Farrell whatever, the media has loved USC for a while now and they are going to continue to love USC. (BTW you have to respect what they have done)
3) A weak B12 conference. Now this is in my opinion a conundrum, because the conference was touted as weak all year, that the south's best team was followed by Texas and then 10 wannabe's who just followed because of the BCS money we split. Then Kansas State beats us and now all of the sudden there is parity in the B12. There are two things that can happen after a College Football upset, Team A who is percieved as good gets dragged down to Team B's level, or team B who is percieved as terrible gets annointed to the level of Team A. Oh and Senario B applies only to Big10 and Pac10 schools and maybe Notre Dame. In our case, Senario A happened to the whole conference after we lost by a touchdown and KState lost by a touchdown in both BCS bowls.
4) It all depends on who we beat in the BCS bowl game. USC beat Iowa the year before in the Orange Bowl, then they beat the one team that does more for the team that plays them than any other Michigan (see USC, Texas, Nebraska "when did they get good again THEY DIDN'T", USC again last year) to win the AP championship. If we were to knock off an annointed Big10 team like Michigan, or maybe Ohio State, or Notre Dame we would get respect either deserved or otherwise.
5) Utter domination of everyone on the schedule. The Pac 10 went 4-2 in thier bowls in 2003 and USC dominated every single one of them. Sure they played Minnisota's and New Mexico's and only 2 of their bowls wins were vs. ranked opponents, but they won. And we have to hope to dominate and for our B12 breathern to make good after bowl season starts.
Now number 3 is a given, and number 1 and number 4 are very unlikely, number 2 is happening as we speak and only number 5 is controlled by us. Should Bob Stoops be running up the score, should he be scoring 70+ a game if he can? I don't think so, but I sure want #8 so I don't know.
I guess the more important question is if we did win a split title and we didn't win the BCS part of it, would we claim it? We sure gave USC a hard time for that in 03...
But there was some discussion about the 2003 "championship" USC won and I believe it boils down to 5 parts.
1) Every top team in 2003 had a loss, that could happen again, but 2003 Oklahoma was crowned gods of everything up until the final 2 weeks of play when we lost to KSU in the championship game. If we had only lost to LSU in the Sugar, there would have been no split title but because we lost twice, the media had an arguement with the BCS over who should have been in the game and the BCS chose the least liked team of the three to be there (us.)
2) USC was the odd man out, I firmly believe that if it wasn't USC being left out, there would have been no split title. Blame it on location of the majority of writers voting in the AP, blame it on ESPN, blame it on Will Farrell whatever, the media has loved USC for a while now and they are going to continue to love USC. (BTW you have to respect what they have done)
3) A weak B12 conference. Now this is in my opinion a conundrum, because the conference was touted as weak all year, that the south's best team was followed by Texas and then 10 wannabe's who just followed because of the BCS money we split. Then Kansas State beats us and now all of the sudden there is parity in the B12. There are two things that can happen after a College Football upset, Team A who is percieved as good gets dragged down to Team B's level, or team B who is percieved as terrible gets annointed to the level of Team A. Oh and Senario B applies only to Big10 and Pac10 schools and maybe Notre Dame. In our case, Senario A happened to the whole conference after we lost by a touchdown and KState lost by a touchdown in both BCS bowls.
4) It all depends on who we beat in the BCS bowl game. USC beat Iowa the year before in the Orange Bowl, then they beat the one team that does more for the team that plays them than any other Michigan (see USC, Texas, Nebraska "when did they get good again THEY DIDN'T", USC again last year) to win the AP championship. If we were to knock off an annointed Big10 team like Michigan, or maybe Ohio State, or Notre Dame we would get respect either deserved or otherwise.
5) Utter domination of everyone on the schedule. The Pac 10 went 4-2 in thier bowls in 2003 and USC dominated every single one of them. Sure they played Minnisota's and New Mexico's and only 2 of their bowls wins were vs. ranked opponents, but they won. And we have to hope to dominate and for our B12 breathern to make good after bowl season starts.
Now number 3 is a given, and number 1 and number 4 are very unlikely, number 2 is happening as we speak and only number 5 is controlled by us. Should Bob Stoops be running up the score, should he be scoring 70+ a game if he can? I don't think so, but I sure want #8 so I don't know.
I guess the more important question is if we did win a split title and we didn't win the BCS part of it, would we claim it? We sure gave USC a hard time for that in 03...