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LIKE IT IS : Big 12 foolish to let BCS standings break tie Published: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 PRINT E-MAIL Don’t blame Oklahoma for being happy about going to the Big 12 Championship Game. Don’t blame Texas for being upset that it is not going to the Big 12 Championship Game. The problem is the Big 12 ’s fifth tiebreaker, which sends the highest-ranked team in the Bowl Championship Series standings to the conference championship game. Thanks to a consensus of six computers, it was the Sooners. Technically, it was only four computers that ranked OU over UT, but for the sake of consistency, which there is very little of in the BCS, we’ll say six.
Six computers that obviously didn’t watch when Texas beat Oklahoma 45-35 in Dallas, which is still a neutral site. Six computers that don’t take into consideration the Longhorns ’ one and only defeat came on the road to Texas Tech with one second remaining to be played. Six computers that could actually determine a rematch between Alabama and Florida for the national championship. Oh yeah, want to see some scrambling ? Let Missouri beat Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game and Florida squeak by Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday and some BCS folks might be praying for a computer crash. Or at least a virus. It is even possible that the computers could pit Texas and Oklahoma against each other in the BCS championship game, which would be the Dead Ratings Rivalry for Fox. Forget the Oklahoma-Texas controversy for a moment and consider that of those six computers used for determining the BCS rankings, only two had undefeated Alabama with the top score. Three gave the 25 points (most possible ) to Oklahoma, which (and it really can’t be stated enough ) lost to Texas by 10 points on a neutral field. Two others gave it 24 points. One computer gave Texas the top score. Jeff Sagarin’s computer ranked Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech ahead of Alabama and Florida, in that order, which hints of a programming problem that favors the Big 12. Even someone who reboots his computer at the first sign of a problem has to question the data that is being fed to the computers. If the human vote (66. 6 percent of the equation ) were removed from the BCS formula, Oklahoma would be No. 1 and Texas No. 2, followed by Alabama, Texas Tech and Utah. Florida would be No. 6. The Gators, like the Sooners, are playing their best football of the season, but the calendar is not supposed to be factored into the computer rankings. There is no sense in even writing anything positive about a playoff; the colleges and universities went after the ESPN contract for the BCS games like Jesse James did a train. ESPN will have the power until 2014, and there is no reason to believe some television entity won’t have the rights after that. But the bottom line is that the BCS is flawed, and the Big 12 should never have allowed the BCS rankings to figure into its tiebreaker, without a head-tohead clause. That’s what the SEC uses, and, just for the record, if the Big 12 had the same tiebreakers as the SEC, ACC or Conference USA, it would be Texas headed to the championship game with Missouri this weekend. Oh, wait. The computers don’t care if Texas beat both Oklahoma and Missouri, the Big 12 championship teams. None of this has anything personal to do with OU. The Sooners are very good. Yes, late in the season they ran the score up, most likely in an effort to sway the human voters. The Harris poll, made up of former coaches, players and administrators and current and former media members, actually reversed its field this week and went with Texas ahead of Oklahoma. Why ? Its voters realized what the computers were going to do and tried a counterattack. It didn’t work. The computers computed that a team that lost by 10 points to another team with the same won-loss record should represent the Big 12 South in the championship game. Shame on the BCS, and shame on the Big 12. More Stories From: WALLY HALL · LIKE IT IS : Pops, Pepsi's pop flies great way to forget heat · LIKE IT IS : Stephens helped Jackson plot his own course · LIKE IT IS : Griffin No. 1 choice, then it's anybody's guess · LIKE IT IS : Hogs' NCAA run provides food for thought · LIKE IT IS : Hill, Ripley keep adding to, improving school Yesterday's Most Popular 1. HOG FUTURES JERRY MITCHELL : Hurricane brings Mitchell to Hogs 2. THE RECRUITING GUY : Purifoy's size fits into UA's plans 3. Iowa prep standout Kelly joins UA track 4. Former Diamond Hog Richards inks contract with Marlins Today's Most E-mailed |
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