Texas Tech was due for a down game, and they picked the wrong time to do it. Mike Leach dug into his bag of tricks and conjured one of his defenses of the past. In addition, he told his offensive line to spend the night falling backwards onto their butts.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, was mean, nasty, and much, much faster than Tech. Stoops showed no sign of letting up until the game was well away in the fourth quarter. Then he put his second team in and had them fire at the end zone.
The result was a 65-21 rout. In reality, the game was not even that close.
I expected OU to handle Tech, but certainly wasn’t expecting this. The Sooners simply won every facet of the game. I did my best to pull for the Red Raiders, but it was clear just a few minutes in that this was going to be an Oklahoma night.
What now for Texas and the BCS?
For arguments sake, we’ll assume that Texas beats Texas A&M. The degree and quality of victory remains to be seen.
Oklahoma has the Bedlam Series left against Oklahoma State. Tech has to play surging Baylor.
If they both win, we’ll have a three way tie in the Big Twelve South. The representative in the conference championship game will be determined by whoever has the highest BCS ranking. This won’t be Tech. At the end of today, it will be very close between Texas and Oklahoma. After their showing last night, they may well jump Texas. We need a great showing against the Aggies to get that back.
In either case, if Texas or Oklahoma wins the Big Twelve Championship, they will be headed to Miami.
If OU loses to OSU and Tech beats Baylor, Tech will play Missouri in the Big Twelve Championship. Win or lose, they won’t go to the national championship.
In this scenario, Texas should be headed to the national championship.
If OU beats OSU and Tech loses to Baylor, Texas heads to the Big Twelve Championship. Win there, and Texas heads to Miami to play for it all. Lose there, and Oklahoma probably goes to the national championship.
If both OU and Tech lose, Texas is also headed to the Big Twelve Championship, where a win propels us into the national championship.
The odds are really quite good that either Texas or Oklahoma will play in the national championship.
Their opponent will likely be the winner of the SEC championship (Florida or Alabama). If these two get beat up over the next couple of weeks, it’s possible that neither goes.
I don’t see USC or Penn State jumping into it. The computers are going to pummel them too much. It’s possible, however unlikely, that we see a rematch of the Red River Rivalry in Miami.