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Nov 24, 2008 8:42 am US/Central
Big 12 South All Tied Up With 1 Week To Go
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Quarterback Sam Bradford #14 of the Oklahoma Sooners and Colt McCoy of the Texas Longhorns embrace after the Sooners defeated the Longhorns 28-21 at the Cotton Bowl on Oct.6, 2007, in Dallas, Texas.
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
It seems that the poll voters have forgiven Oklahoma's lone loss of the season. Just in time to keep the surging Sooners in the hunt for the national championship, not to mention the Big 12 South.
After that dominating victory over Texas Tech, the Sooners pushed ahead of Texas -- the team they lost to six weeks ago -- in the polls.
Oklahoma (10-1) jumped two spots to third, a mere four poll points ahead of the Longhorns, in the new AP Top 25 poll Sunday, and also hopscotched over Texas in the Harris poll with both also 3-4. But the coaches in the USA Today poll elevated the Sooners more, up three spots to No. 2 behind Alabama, and two slots ahead of the Longhorns.
"If you're going to forgive other teams with one loss because they're playing well now, well, we're playing pretty well now too," Sooners coach Bob Stoops said after his team's third consecutive 60-point game. "If it's logical for someone else, it's logical for us. We're in it with everybody."
The human voters apparently agreed.
But the computer? That still gives Texas (10-1) an edge. By a very slim margin.
The idle Longhorns moved up a spot to No. 2 on Sunday night in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings, which take into account computer rankings. Combining the polls and the computer put Texas only .0084 points ahead of Oklahoma, also up a spot in the BCS standings.
And that BCS ranking is what will determine the Big 12 South title if Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech are all still tied in the conference standings after playing their regular season finales this week.
Let's assume for a minute that Texas beats Texas A&M on Thanksgiving night, Texas Tech defeats Baylor on Saturday and Oklahoma wins at Oklahoma State in another Saturday night prime time game.
Each team would then be 7-1 in Big 12 games.
Since the only loss for each team would have been to another of that trio, the Big 12 tiebreaker would get down to the fifth step -- the BCS standings -- to determine who plays Missouri in the conference championship game.
That scenario would knock out the Red Raiders, who dropped to seventh in the latest the BCS standings and AP poll.
Before being dismantled in Norman, Texas Tech had consecutive prime-time victories over Texas (getting the winning TD with 1 second left) and Oklahoma State to rocket to No. 2 in every poll. The Red Raiders were the only team that could control their destiny, but Oklahoma took that away -- mostly likely along with Tech's national title hopes.
So that would leave Oklahoma and Texas, which probably has a disadvantage despite holding the BCS edge at this point.
A victory by the Sooners over Oklahoma State (No. 12 in the BCS, 11 in the AP) would certainly be impressive. And it would likely carry more weight in the computer ranking than a Texas victory over the struggling Aggies (4-7), who have given up 41 points in each of their last six losses.
The Longhorns, who lost their last two games against their instate rival, have only one sure way of winning the South title. They have to beat Texas A&M, then have Oklahoma win and Texas Tech get upset at home by Baylor.
In that two-way tie, Texas wins the South because of its 45-35 victory over the Sooners at the State Fair of Texas the second weekend in October. That was the first in a four-week stretch of games for the Longhorns against top-11 teams, and they came only that one second at Tech away from getting through it undefeated.
If there is a two-way tie between Texas and Texas Tech, the Red Raiders win the South.
Don't forget the Big 12 South winner has to play Missouri (9-2), 13th in the BCS, in the conference championship game Dec. 6 in Kansas City. The Tigers have won four straight games since losing against Oklahoma State and Texas back-to-back weeks.
What if Missouri wins the Big 12 championship game? Whichever team the Tigers beat would be knocked out of the national title chase for sure.
But there would still be the possibility that Oklahoma or Texas could still be No. 2 in the final BCS rankings and get a chance to play for the national title without even winning the Big 12 title -- or even the division.
Think about it, both finish the regular season 11-1, one goes to the Big 12 title game and loses. By the time all the Big 12 and other conference championship games are done (particularly the SEC), the remaining 11-1 team without a conference title could still be in the BCS national championship picture.
There is even another possible scenario in the Big 12 South.
Remember Oklahoma State's only losses are to Texas Tech and Texas. If the Cowboys win, and Texas and Texas Tech both lose, there would be a four-way tie for the South title.
But considering that's so unlikely, let's not tie up things even more.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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