PLaw
12/4/2008, 07:26 PM
From FoxSports.com:
This isn't about Bob Stoops or Mack Brown. And don't even think about blaming sportswriters and/or computers.
Whether you agree or not with the outcome, do you care to know why Oklahoma and not Texas, and to a lesser degree, Texas Tech is representing the South in this weekend's Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Mo.?
Blame it on the schedule — the slate dictated by the conference and the non-conference portion the schools control.
Most, though, choose to gaze at the situation with bias, to ditch the unyielding nature of the rules — especially when it pertains to a complicated, three-team tie — and reach a "logical" conclusion.
Use common sense, they say.
The most convenient argument trotted out is the head-to-head result of the Oct. 11 showdown in Dallas. On a neutral field, the Longhorns defeated the Sooners, 45-35, and in the estimation of most, that should be the end of the discussion because Texas proved then it was the better team.
Which, of course, is ludicrous.
And what is it we're always being told?
It's not if you lose, but when you lose.
Did the season end after that game? Presumably there were still games left to play, right?
Nothing had been settled.
And if we're using common sense, let's step away and compare the situation to Southern California's hiccup earlier this season against Oregon State. Are we to believe that if the Beavers hadn't gotten thumped by Oregon over the weekend, 65-38, that the Pac-10's best team really was OSU? Of course not, but we wouldn't have argued who was deserving of the league's Rose Bowl berth because the Beavers would have earned it outright.
But the Big 12 was in a jam because head-to-head doesn't prove a thing when three teams are in the mix. And when UT beats OU but loses to Tech, and when OU throttles Tech, it only complicates the entire picture.
"Going into the last couple of weeks, we knew that a good team was going to be left out of the Big 12 championship," said Brown, the Texas coach. "Unfortunately, in this situation, it was us."
All things considered, the tiebreaker rules, which Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said this week might require tinkering, got it right. Why?
Because the most worthy representative from the South, the most-tested team, will represent the division Saturday against Missouri.
Sure, Texas had it rough for a four-week stretch against ranked opponents, a stretch the Longhorns almost emerged from unscathed. That it occurred Oct. 11 to Nov. 1 wasn't necessarily UT's fault, but failing to line up enough rugged foes during August and September might be.
Florida Atlantic, UTEP and Rice don't fool anyone, especially the computers.
Now take a look at what the Sooners did during the first five weeks of the season prior to the Red River Shootout — wins against Big East champion Cincinnati, which is ranked 13th in the BCS rankings, and TCU, which is ranked 11th, solidify the Sooners' case.
And closing the season against ranked foes such as Tech, which controlled its own national championship fate until being routed in Norman, and Oklahoma State, which hadn't lost all season in Stillwater?
No one else had to navigate such a treacherous, yet delicate finish.
"Each of us have identical records and one of us had to go," said OU's Stoops. "... We're excited to be in the situation. And again, I can understand with the way Tech and Texas feel — can't be good. But in the end it's your whole body of work through the year and how you've played down the stretch."
And now, the Sooners are being justly rewarded.
"It is what it is," Brown said. "We don't like it, we don't agree with it or think it's fair but, like anything else, we'll handle it and move forward."
Jeffrey Martin is a frequent contributor to FOXSports.com. He also writes for the Kansas City Star and the Wichita Eagle. He can be reached at [email protected].
This isn't about Bob Stoops or Mack Brown. And don't even think about blaming sportswriters and/or computers.
Whether you agree or not with the outcome, do you care to know why Oklahoma and not Texas, and to a lesser degree, Texas Tech is representing the South in this weekend's Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Mo.?
Blame it on the schedule — the slate dictated by the conference and the non-conference portion the schools control.
Most, though, choose to gaze at the situation with bias, to ditch the unyielding nature of the rules — especially when it pertains to a complicated, three-team tie — and reach a "logical" conclusion.
Use common sense, they say.
The most convenient argument trotted out is the head-to-head result of the Oct. 11 showdown in Dallas. On a neutral field, the Longhorns defeated the Sooners, 45-35, and in the estimation of most, that should be the end of the discussion because Texas proved then it was the better team.
Which, of course, is ludicrous.
And what is it we're always being told?
It's not if you lose, but when you lose.
Did the season end after that game? Presumably there were still games left to play, right?
Nothing had been settled.
And if we're using common sense, let's step away and compare the situation to Southern California's hiccup earlier this season against Oregon State. Are we to believe that if the Beavers hadn't gotten thumped by Oregon over the weekend, 65-38, that the Pac-10's best team really was OSU? Of course not, but we wouldn't have argued who was deserving of the league's Rose Bowl berth because the Beavers would have earned it outright.
But the Big 12 was in a jam because head-to-head doesn't prove a thing when three teams are in the mix. And when UT beats OU but loses to Tech, and when OU throttles Tech, it only complicates the entire picture.
"Going into the last couple of weeks, we knew that a good team was going to be left out of the Big 12 championship," said Brown, the Texas coach. "Unfortunately, in this situation, it was us."
All things considered, the tiebreaker rules, which Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said this week might require tinkering, got it right. Why?
Because the most worthy representative from the South, the most-tested team, will represent the division Saturday against Missouri.
Sure, Texas had it rough for a four-week stretch against ranked opponents, a stretch the Longhorns almost emerged from unscathed. That it occurred Oct. 11 to Nov. 1 wasn't necessarily UT's fault, but failing to line up enough rugged foes during August and September might be.
Florida Atlantic, UTEP and Rice don't fool anyone, especially the computers.
Now take a look at what the Sooners did during the first five weeks of the season prior to the Red River Shootout — wins against Big East champion Cincinnati, which is ranked 13th in the BCS rankings, and TCU, which is ranked 11th, solidify the Sooners' case.
And closing the season against ranked foes such as Tech, which controlled its own national championship fate until being routed in Norman, and Oklahoma State, which hadn't lost all season in Stillwater?
No one else had to navigate such a treacherous, yet delicate finish.
"Each of us have identical records and one of us had to go," said OU's Stoops. "... We're excited to be in the situation. And again, I can understand with the way Tech and Texas feel — can't be good. But in the end it's your whole body of work through the year and how you've played down the stretch."
And now, the Sooners are being justly rewarded.
"It is what it is," Brown said. "We don't like it, we don't agree with it or think it's fair but, like anything else, we'll handle it and move forward."
Jeffrey Martin is a frequent contributor to FOXSports.com. He also writes for the Kansas City Star and the Wichita Eagle. He can be reached at [email protected].