Draegerman
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Hey guys,
I thought it would be interesting if we all played a game where each of us makes an argument for our adversary's favorite college football team. Since most of us here have a favorite team in the Big XII, I thought we could begin there in making an argument for which team deserves to represent the Southern Division (since the North has already been decided) in the Big XII Championship. I think that this will help some of us with a more biased view by learning how to put things in a more proper perspective - needless to say, honesty is a must if you want to be considered credible and objective.
I'll start first by arguing for OU and why they deserve to represent the South:
First, you have to factor in the fact that the Sooners had a tougher out-of-conference schedule, easily defeating a top 25 ranked Cincinnati and TCU team (currently 16th and 14th ranked respectively in the BCS in that order). The best Texas could do was beat 49th ranked Rice and a 57th ranked Arkansas team.
Secondly, I want to talk about the loss to Texas. Yes, I realize that this was played on a neutral field and OU lost fair and square to them. But for three-fourths of this game OU was leading and had it not been for a costly mistake on the OU STs that resulted in a 96 yd td return by Shipley that gave Texas some momentum, this game's outcome would have been decided differently. Had someone (anyone) made that stop on Shipley, there was a good chance that a (then sputtering) Texas offense would not have been able to score (because they haven't proved the ability to do so up to that point) and with Texas down already 14-3 before the Shipley td, OU came right back with a 52 yd strike to Gresham, that should have made the score 21 to 3 - an almost insurmountable lead for even a talented team like Texas to overcome. The fact is that Shipley did score and it did help with UT's confidence. But OU was still leading in the third qtr when they lost their best defensive player, middle linebacker Ryan Reynolds (for Cowboys fans - this would equate to losing D. Ware). As costly of a loss Reynolds was to the Sooners, OU continued to be competitive halfway thru the 4th qtr when it was still their game to lose. But UT took advantage and played their best football of the season going into the 4th quarter while Oklahoma stumbled during the worst possible of times.
Finally (and most importantly), like Hank Johnson said on another thread, OU has stepped up their game since this matchup against UT. They have literally annihilated everyone in their path (including a very good Tech team that beat UT) while the Longhorns have either stagnated or even quite possibly regressed since beating Missouri. The bottom line is that even though Texas had beat OU earlier this season in their only head-to-head matchup, the Sooners are the much better team right now and that's what the decision-makers are going to focus on this week when they factor in the overall body of work and the season ending rankings are announced in the polls.
I thought it would be interesting if we all played a game where each of us makes an argument for our adversary's favorite college football team. Since most of us here have a favorite team in the Big XII, I thought we could begin there in making an argument for which team deserves to represent the Southern Division (since the North has already been decided) in the Big XII Championship. I think that this will help some of us with a more biased view by learning how to put things in a more proper perspective - needless to say, honesty is a must if you want to be considered credible and objective.
I'll start first by arguing for OU and why they deserve to represent the South:
First, you have to factor in the fact that the Sooners had a tougher out-of-conference schedule, easily defeating a top 25 ranked Cincinnati and TCU team (currently 16th and 14th ranked respectively in the BCS in that order). The best Texas could do was beat 49th ranked Rice and a 57th ranked Arkansas team.
Secondly, I want to talk about the loss to Texas. Yes, I realize that this was played on a neutral field and OU lost fair and square to them. But for three-fourths of this game OU was leading and had it not been for a costly mistake on the OU STs that resulted in a 96 yd td return by Shipley that gave Texas some momentum, this game's outcome would have been decided differently. Had someone (anyone) made that stop on Shipley, there was a good chance that a (then sputtering) Texas offense would not have been able to score (because they haven't proved the ability to do so up to that point) and with Texas down already 14-3 before the Shipley td, OU came right back with a 52 yd strike to Gresham, that should have made the score 21 to 3 - an almost insurmountable lead for even a talented team like Texas to overcome. The fact is that Shipley did score and it did help with UT's confidence. But OU was still leading in the third qtr when they lost their best defensive player, middle linebacker Ryan Reynolds (for Cowboys fans - this would equate to losing D. Ware). As costly of a loss Reynolds was to the Sooners, OU continued to be competitive halfway thru the 4th qtr when it was still their game to lose. But UT took advantage and played their best football of the season going into the 4th quarter while Oklahoma stumbled during the worst possible of times.
Finally (and most importantly), like Hank Johnson said on another thread, OU has stepped up their game since this matchup against UT. They have literally annihilated everyone in their path (including a very good Tech team that beat UT) while the Longhorns have either stagnated or even quite possibly regressed since beating Missouri. The bottom line is that even though Texas had beat OU earlier this season in their only head-to-head matchup, the Sooners are the much better team right now and that's what the decision-makers are going to focus on this week when they factor in the overall body of work and the season ending rankings are announced in the polls.
