Mustang Rambles

Read an article this morning discussing the pro’s and con’s of the BCS and who should be the 2008 National Champion in football. Seems three teams say they should be picked even though they are not in the BCS Championship Game tomorrow night between Florida and Oklahoma. Before I go any further, I must let you know that I am a Sooner, Class of 66.

First the two teams in the Championship Game.

1. Florida won a tough conference with a convincing win over No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide. The rest of the wins were high scoring affairs usually over very good opponents, although a couple were pushovers. Their only loss was to Mississippi, a team that played tough all year but lost to a couple of patsies. Mississippi did win a convincing bowl game against the Texas Tech team that beat Texas.
2. Oklahoma played a tremendous year, losing only to Texas in mid year. They came back from that to be the highest scoring team in college history. In their last five games, they scored 60 or more points in each game including three top-twenty teams in their last three games. They had four other games where they scored over 50 points. Oklahoma scheduled the easy ones early and blasted the tough ones late in the season. They showed a lot of comeback late and carry all that into the championship game.

Okay, now let’s look at the three pretenders to the throne. All claim that they should be No. 1.

1. Let’s start with USC in the PAC 10. They lost early to Oregon State who finished 9-4, and barely scraped by Arizona State and UCLA. They are a good team, but not championship material.
2. Texas had a great year in the Big Twelve, and was one of three teams at 11-1 considered for the Big 12 Championship Game. Texas had beaten Oklahoma who was the final selection, and had lost to Texas Tech whose only loss was to Oklahoma. Texas bases their claim solely on their win over Oklahoma. They had a chance to show what they were against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl but were not convincing as a National Champion as they barely slid by the 10-2 Buckeyes.
3. Finally, the Utah Utes, a team with a serious claim on the National Championship. At 13-0, the only undefeated major college team in the country, normally being the Champ would be a cakewalk. However, the BCS doesn’t consider their conference as “good enough” to be considered for the championship game. Exactly how that works is being investigated by the Utah Attorney General. Utah, which crushed a highly rated Alabama team in the Sugar Bowl, did have a less than stellar schedule. Their conference is weak, and that is why people don’t consider them to be much. Two points are to be made in their favor: 1) The great decisive victory over Alabama; and 2) In the 1950’s, Oklahoma won consecutive national championships in the Big Eight, which was known in sports journalism at the time as “Oklahoma and the Seven Dwarfs”.

We’ll have to see how the ratings shape up after the game in Miami. It’s anybody’s guess at this point, but most of us love the underdog. Wouldn’t it be great if Utah managed to pull it out?