My Errant Mind

OU defeated #1 ranked Missouri (the second time this year they have beaten the Tigers) soundly, 38-17. West Virginia fell victim to the season’s #2 curse, losing to Pittsburgh. Now it is time to decide who goes to the BCS title game.

Please, please, please…don’t let it be Ohio State. They are 10-1, have not beaten a single team in the top 20 all season and their conference doesn’t have a title game to make them earn the top spot in their division through head-to-head competition as in other divisions.

They will only make the title game suck. We fans deserve better than that.

Seriously, if Ohio State gets into the title game, I am not going to even watch it. Unless they play a legitimate team. Which means not Georgia (they did not even win their conference) and not USC (they lost to Oregon and Stanford). Oklahoma is the best candidate, followed by LSU.

Actually, I would rather see Hawaii play Ohio State and kick their ass…though Kansas could probably do it. The two teams we want to see play for all the marbles are Oklahoma and LSU.

Keep in mind that OU only has two losses in 13 games. They won their conference title. Their loss to Colorado was by a field goal at the last second; they weren’t outplayed by Colorado. What about OU’s loss to Texas Tech, you ask?

Well, in the game I was watching, OU lost mainly because of more bad officiating that helped Tech out…for the second year in a row. A ref took away an OU touchdown at the end when the player clearly came down in-bounds in the end-zone. He had control until he hit the ground out of bounds…that was pretty clear to everyone I know who watched the game.

Had OU not been robbed, it would have been a tied game. They might have been able to win in overtime. Or, they might have walked away with a tie. One thing is for sure—while they had a hard game, it was because their quarterback who leads the nation in passing efficiency and has set an NCAA record for most touchdown passes by a freshman quarterback was out with a concussion. And still…they fought back to within one score against a team with one of the top offenses in the nation.

Contrast that with Oregon after they lost their quarterback and losing by 10 against a team with a ho-hum offense. Even having lost Bradford, OU might have come out a winner if it weren’t for bad officiating, which is on the verge of becoming a new tradition in Tech games.

I am not saying OU should be number one, but they ought to certainly be #2 and get a shot at the title. A last second field goal and bad refereeing and they still win big and perform. Unlike LSU who squeaked by all season and played a trio of #17 ranked teams.

Incidentally, Colorado beat Texas Tech.

Which makes a good point. If both those teams beat OU, and Colorado beat OU, are they better than the Sooners? No one thinks that. Yet those critics who say wins are all that matter should then be happy to see Hawaii play Kansas for the BCS title, right? After all, Hawaii has won every game, and Kansas (#1 at the time) was only beaten by Missouri (who was the #4 team at the time). If your only loss all season was to the fourth rated team (who went on to become the top-rated team), shouldn’t you be closer to the top than Virginia Tech and Ohio State?

Certainly, Kansas shouldn’t drop behind Ohio State who hasn’t even played a single team in the top 20…never mind beaten one.

Sadly, we’re likely to see Ohio State and Virginia Tech play for the national title. Both are overrated and neither have faced any serious competition. Hawaii at least defeated a top 20 ranked team and is undefeated. They ought to be playing in the title game against someone. I would like to see them play OU because I want to see OU in the title game.

But more than that, I want to see OU kick Ohio State, LSU or USC ass. The PAC10, the SEC have been overrated all season long; let us not forget that Illinois is better than Ohio State. They ought to make the two play a bowl game just to make Ohio State prove it even deserves to be in a bowl game—against Illinois. Illinois would beat them again. Then, Ohio State’s record would be 10-2 with no wins against a top 20 team and two losses to a team whose best ranking all season was #5.

I’ll ask again, oh football gods. Please, please, please…put anybody in the BCS title game but Ohio State! They don’t even deserve to be in the top 10 and would not be if it weren’t for pre-season rankings.

I’ll say it just in case none of the millions of other college football fans have: the BCS sucks, and we need a playoff system. At the very least, every team should play the same number of games and be forced to win a conference title game to play for the national title. That right there would keep perennial disappointments from the Big Ten from getting an easy/free pass to a title shot they don’t deserve.