Monday, November 10, 2008

Florida-Oklahoma: Book It

Oklahoma seems to be the forgotten team right now. They are two spots below Texas in the BCS, but I think they will jump them with consecutive wins over Texas Tech and Oklahoma St. This would give them the nod in a Big 12 south 3-way tie; and a win in the Big 12 championship would secure their spot in the BCS title game as far as humans and computers are concerned.

The Oklahoma-Texas Tech game should be a major shootout. These are the 2nd and 3rd ranked scoring offenses in the nation. Combined they average just under 100 pts/game. Also, they allow a combined 56 pts/gm (and they are the 2nd and 3rd best defenses in the big 12!). Neither team has scored under 35 points all season, and I don't see any reason that should change next Saturday. I think Oklahoma will win, because it is at night in Norman... and Stoops is 60-2 at home. And I can't help but point out (seriously, I can't help it) that Oklahoma has superior athletes.

49-35 Oklahoma

Edit: Last night during the South Carolina-FL game, Danielson and Lundquist were saying that if Oklahoma does beat Tech then Texas should still be voted ahead of OK, since they beat them.... as in, this is one case where we don't need a vote, its already been decided. The thing they forgot is that its not just between OK and TX.. its between OK, TX, and Tech. In this scenario, all three would have 1 loss. If we put TX over OK because they beat them, then why not put Tech over TX since they beat them? My point is, the whole idea behind a 3-way tie is that head to head no longer matters. Voters will have to look at the 3 teams independently and decide who has the most impressive resume. Since that's impossible to do, voters will resort to the usual "what have you done for me lately" technique. In a scenario where OK beats Tech and OK State, they will have not lost since mid October, while TX and Tech will have both lost in November. Also, let's not forget how much a big win in a prime time game can sway voters (and Texas has the week off).
Of course, like Sean said, we could get into a situation where the better team in the polls isn't the better team in the BCS. You wouldn't think that would happen though, since these 3 teams basically have the same schedule.

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