It looks like it's over for Texas.
It's over if Oklahoma beats Oklahoma State on Saturday. Although Texas moved up to No. 2 in Sunday's latest BCS standings, it has a very slight lead over No. 3 Oklahoma -- .0084 of a point.
It is almost assured that if Oklahoma beats No. 11 Oklahoma State the Sooners will make up that margin on Texas and win the three-way tiebreaker in the Big 12 South. The tie goes to the team with the highest BCS ranking.
Texas plays its final regular-season game on Thanksgiving against Texas A&M.
The Horns have to hope for an Oklahoma State upset. That would send Texas Tech to the Big 12 championship game (if it beats Baylor)and at the same time strengthen Texas' hold on No. 2. The Horns could become the third Big 12 team since 2001 to play in the national championship game without winning the conference.
• Up to date profiles of the three teams involved in the current Big 12 South tie ...
Texas
Why they're in this position: Blake Gideon, Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree.
Texas had Tech beat in Lubbock until it gave the ball back with 1:29 left in the Nov. 1 game. Harrell was able to drive the team down for the game-winning touchdown with one second left. But that was only after Gideon, a Texas defensive back, dropped a tipped pass that would have ended Tech's drive.
Crabtree made an amazing catch against double coverage and tight-roped the sidelines into the end zone for a 39-33 victory.
Ranked teams beaten (ranking at time of kickoff): No. 1 Oklahoma 45-35; No. 11 Missouri 56-31; No. 7 Oklahoma State 28-24.
Common opponent with other two teams: Defeated Kansas 35-7.
Schedule strength (Sagarin): No. 5 (up from No. 7 last week)
BCS ranking: No. 2
Argument for: Defeated three teams ranked in the top 11, including No. 1 Oklahoma. Colt McCoy is this year's version of Tim Tebow leading the Horns in rushing and passing. Will Muschamp's defense might not be impressive statistically but it is a big play group and is coming off its best performance of the season against Kansas.
Argument against: Not much of one except that it didn't play on Saturday while Oklahoma got all the national love. If Texas doesn't get to the Big 12 title game it will be because of a six-point loss on the road with one second left against Texas Tech.
Regular-season game remaining: Thursday vs. Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Why they're in this position: Worst game of the season came at the worst possible time.
Ranked teams beaten (ranking at time of kickoff): No. 19 Kansas 63-21; No. 1 Texas 39-33; No. 8 Oklahoma State 56-20.
Common opponent with other two teams: Defeated Kansas 63-21.
Schedule strength (Sagarin): No. 19 (up from No. 50 last week)
BCS ranking: No. 7
Argument for: Defeated No. 1 (Texas), last week's Heisman frontrunner (Harrell) and the nation's best receiver (Crabtree). But there's more than this high-flying offense. Texas Tech has been well -rounded most of the season with a serviceable running game and effective defense. Until Saturday.
Suddenly Tech has the best schedule strength of the three jumping from No. 50 to No. 19. Until Saturday, Utah State has played a tougher overall schedule than Texas Tech.
Argument against: You can't lose by 44 on national television on Nov. 22 and expect to play for a national championship, much less a Big 12 title.
But both are still a possibility.
Regular-season game remaining: Saturday vs. Baylor
Oklahoma
Why they're in this position: Colt McCoy. Texas' quarterback had a career day on Oct. 11. The Sooners led by five with 12 minutes but were outscored 15-0 down the stretch the day in beating Oklahoma.
Other than that, Kansas (14) has been the only team to get within 22 points of OU.
Ranked teams beaten (ranked at the time of kickoff): No. 24 TCU, 35-10; No. 2 Texas Tech, 65-21.
Common opponent with other two teams: Defeated Kansas 45-31.
Schedule strength (Sagarin): No. 26 (up from No. 42 last week)
BCS ranking: No. 3
Argument for: Playing the best right now. OU has laid waste to its opponents since losing to Texas. It has won successive games by 14, 23, 34, 38 and 44 points.
Sam Bradford leads the country in touchdown passes and seems to be the new Heisman leader.
Argument against: Beat Tech which beat Texas which beat Oklahoma. Oh no, here we go again.
Regular-season game remaining: Saturday at Oklahoma State
• Maryland dropped out of contention in the ACC Atlantic after losing to Florida State. Chalk it up to inconsistency. The Terps were 4-0 against ranked teams, 3-4 against unranked teams and 0-4 at night.
• North Carolina State captured the "state championship" by beating North Carolina, Wake Forest, East Carolina and Duke. That's the first state sweep for the Pack since 1986. "What it speaks to is we're the best football program in the state," coach Tom O'Brien said.
• Either Beanie Wells is injured or he's turning into Franco Harris. I'm not talking about the Franco who led the Steelers to Super Bowls. I'm talking about the Franco who became famous for stepping out of bounds rather than accept punishment from, or deal out punishment to, defenders.
Wells broke for a long run to midfield in the second half and clearly cut his run short and stepped out of bounds rather than lower a shoulder. Wells could have picked up another five yards, instead he did an out route out of bounds.
That's the not first time I've seen him do that. Wells did leave the game later because of hamstring problems. It will be interesting to see what Wells does after this season because his junior season has been somewhat of a disappointment.
• The recent legacy of bad decision making among Tennessee apparently carries on to the next level. Former Tennessee golden body Erik Ainge was suspended by the NFL for violation of the league's policy on steroids and related substance.It's not like Ainge is blowing his career. First, he would have to have a career to blow it. The Jets rookie quarterback was already on injured reserve so, hey, maybe was bored.
Steroids?
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RollTide123o said: "... Any Division 1-A team who is undefeated should be guaranteed a BCS bowl..."
For that to be true a 12-0 team from the WAC or the Slapout conference could actually weigh more than an 11-1 from the SEC or the Big-12. It's hard for even teams as good as Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Penn State, Southern Cal, and etc. to get through a real conference schedule undefeated. I believe Florida would be undefeated in any of the small conferences this year so why should we reward some little team by pretending they've done something. Even the best teams from the non-BCS conferences play only one or two big teams.
For Oklahoma to go undefeated we would have to defeat 8 Big-12 teams, then 9 counting the Big-12 North champion. Our non-conference schedule this year included: Cincinnati, who would be 9-1 without their loss to Oklahoma and Cin. is now rated #16 BCS and the probable Big East Champ; TCU, now rated # 14 in the BCS, has the number 1 rated defense in the nation, and would be 10-1 if TCU had not played Oklahoma; and Washington who had a pretty good team a few years back when we scheduled them but had a rough year this time. I don't count OU's first game with Chattanooga as a real game.
Now, why in the world should some team who goes 12-0 from a conference like Conference USA or the Sun Belt conference be guaranteed a major bowl???