Monday, December 01, 2008

Monday 12/01 A.M. Quickie:
BCS, Texas, Plaxico, Steelers D, More

Texas got screwed. That's the lead of today's SN column and you can follow my posts from yesterday about the situation below.

By the way, I appreciate all of the arguments in favor of Oklahoma -- particularly the one about OU's season=ending quality road win, which Texas lacks. But I can't get around "45-35."

Let's be clear: This isn't a BCS mess; it's a Big 12 mess. Why they relied on BCS ranking as a tie-breaker, rather than doing what other conferences do -- use BCS to winnow 3 tied teams down to 2, then use head-to-head -- is beyond me.

Anyway, most glaringly, you'll see my latest BlogPoll ballot below is kind of a mess at the top: I dropped Oklahoma from No. 1 a week ago to No. 4 -- and that is AFTER they beat Oklahoma State on the road. It makes NO sense, from a "resume" standpoint.

But this penultimate rankings week, I had to go with a mish-mash of resume, eyewitness account, synthesis of a season (that Alabama and Florida are both better than either Texas or Oklahoma) and -- mostly -- my need to rank Texas ahead of Oklahoma. Thus: OU at No. 4.

My rankings, in a vacuum, aren't crazy -- that's what the AP came up with. But in the context of last week's rankings, the OU drop looks and feels ludicrous in light of their result on Saturday.

Anyway, at this point, I'm mainly concerned that Florida will beat Alabama yet somehow find themselves outside the BCS Top 2. There may need to be a campaign where human pollsters -- if they think the Bama-Florida winner should be in the title game -- need to rank that winner at No. 1, if only to ensure that the computers don't screw things up by giving us a UT-OU rematch.

Oh, there was NFL this week? I couldn't tell behind the haze of crazy related to the Plaxico Burress story.

I know that the Giants are the best team in the league. I know that the Pats are on the ropes, and that the Steelers put them there by force. I know that Peyton Hillis confirms that this is the best class of rookie RBs in the history of the league. And I know that I am far enough out of playoff contention in all four of my fantasy leagues that I barely noticed how my rosters did yesterday.

NBA: The Blazers are on fire.

CBB: I think that Xavier, Gonzaga and Oklahoma are 3 of the Top 5 teams in the country - and Louisville (my preseason pick to be champs) is not, at least based on their loss to Western Kentucky.

Complete SN column here
. More later, although I'm sure that BCS talk will dominate the airwaves and blog universe today.

-- D.S.

3 comments:

The Fisher Family said...

dan, if you 'can't get around 45-35,' how can you 'get around 38-33'?
fish

Johnny b said...

Dan,

Let's say Florida and Oklahoma play for the "title." Let's have Florida win a close game. Let's have Texas and Ohio State play a tight game with Texas winning. Let's have either USC or Penn State have a decisive victory in the Rose Bowl. In this case you'll have three 1 lost major confrence teams who in my eyes can claim a share of a title.

Seriuosly how would you objectively choose between them? Resume? Sure Florida would have the best win (Alabama) but at the same time they would have the worst lost of the three (Yes losing at home to Ole Miss is worse than losing on the road at Texas Tech or Oregon State or Iowa)

You say that the season is a playoff but it won't be settled on the field this year which is a shame

The Real Stoney said...

I just want to see Bama or Florida play a team with a functioning offense, not another SEC team with a quarterback throwing righty when he may as well be throwing lefty..
And an ESPN televised texas hold em game between McCoy, Harrell and Bradford to decide the Big 12 South