Oklahoma/Texas

[CoachBo]

The head-to-head argument is one of the great ESPN-fed strawmen of our time. You can't arbitrarily discard Texas Tech from the equation - unless you've got a pro-Texas agenda, as ESPN clearly did.

That kind of tiebreaker is clearly constructed to advance the conference's best bet to qualify for the national championship game. Texas forfeited that right by losing in November - which has been penalized heavier than an earlier loss in college football for decades. If Texas wants a spot, then beat Tech in Lubbock. Catch an oskie. Schedule a credible non-conference opponent, as Oklahoma did in TCU and Cincy. They did none of the above. Game over.

The system got it right. OU beats Texas by 21 if they play today. The best two teams in the country are playing in Miami on Jan. 8.

[Fan from VT]

The head-to-head argument is one of the great ESPN-fed strawmen of our time. You can't arbitrarily discard Texas Tech from the equation - unless you've got a pro-Texas agenda, as ESPN clearly did.

That kind of tiebreaker is clearly constructed to advance the conference's best bet to qualify for the national championship game. Texas forfeited that right by losing in November - which has been penalized heavier than an earlier loss in college football for decades. If Texas wants a spot, then beat Tech in Lubbock. Catch an oskie. Schedule a credible non-conference opponent, as Oklahoma did in TCU and Cincy. They did none of the above. Game over.

The system got it right. OU beats Texas by 21 if they play today. The best two teams in the country are playing in Miami on Jan. 8.

Agree. You cannot use head to head in a three way tie. just doesn't work. Can't do it. You must use other factors like strength of schedule, in which case I trust computers way way more than subjective voters.

[blake]

What's the feeling in Austin about the Big 12 division system, blake?  Have folks been campaigning for a realignment at all?  The disparity was awful this year...and the Saturday night I spent watching us get hammered by your team is three and a half hours I'm never getting back...

Austin doesn't mind the division system.  They don't like the BCS as the tie breaking system.  Rightfully so.

I think you throw Texas Tech out of the argument because they got destroyed by Oklahoma.

You can't penalize OU for beating Tech by a huge margin.  That is completely counter intuitive.  That is saying that if OU wouldn't have played as well then they have a better chance to go.

Here's the kicker for me.  The head to head matchup in Dallas.  This game was played on a neutral site so there was no home field advantage.  Texas wins by 10.  That carries the most merit for me. 

I don't buy into the home field neutral field angle either.  OU played Missouri on a neutral field (sorry steve) and throttled them by more than Texas throttled them when TX played them at home.  OU lost their game against TX because they lost their best defensive player to injury in the middle of the game (at the time of the injury OU was winning).  If that had happened to Sam Bradford people would understand and accommodate, but since it happened to a defensive player it didn't get the publicity.

[Steve Weinman]

What's the feeling in Austin about the Big 12 division system, blake?  Have folks been campaigning for a realignment at all?  The disparity was awful this year...and the Saturday night I spent watching us get hammered by your team is three and a half hours I'm never getting back...

Austin doesn't mind the division system.  They don't like the BCS as the tie breaking system.  Rightfully so.

I think you throw Texas Tech out of the argument because they got destroyed by Oklahoma.

You can't penalize OU for beating Tech by a huge margin.  That is completely counter intuitive.  That is saying that if OU wouldn't have played as well then they have a better chance to go.

Here's the kicker for me.  The head to head matchup in Dallas.  This game was played on a neutral site so there was no home field advantage.  Texas wins by 10.  That carries the most merit for me. 

I don't buy into the home field neutral field angle either.  OU played Missouri on a neutral field (sorry steve) and throttled them by more than Texas throttled them when TX played them at home.  OU lost their game against TX because they lost their best defensive player to injury in the middle of the game (at the time of the injury OU was winning).  If that had happened to Sam Bradford people would understand and accommodate, but since it happened to a defensive player it didn't get the publicity.

blake, if you're going to be kind enough to simply call the Big 12 title game a "throttling" and leave it at that, trust me, you've got nothing to apologize for.  What an understatement.  Ugh.

The sad part?  It was hardly a neutral field - Arrowhead is barely offset westward of the heart of Tiger Nation.

-sw

[CoachBo]

From where I sit, as someone who teaches journalism to high school kids, ESPN grossly overstepped its boundaries here by trying to influence the outcome of the BCS. We've had some pretty good classroom discussions about it.

While it's interesting to contemplate what would have happened if Baylor had sealed the deal against Tech on the last weekend of the season, they didn't and the result was a three-way tie. Tossing Tech out while failing to credit OU for a decisive win simply has no foundation in logic.

[blake]

From where I sit, as someone who teaches journalism to high school kids, ESPN grossly overstepped its boundaries here by trying to influence the outcome of the BCS. We've had some pretty good classroom discussions about it.

It was pretty amazing how much they and abc were loving UT.  It almost made me puke when Herbstreit said something to the effect of "I have 2 boys and I want to them to grow up to be like Colt Mccoy."! 

[Donoghus]

Like I mentioned earlier and some people don't seem to understand, its completely SUBJECTIVE. You could make a compelling arugment for Texas, Oklahoma, or even Texas Tech.

Personally, based on the merits I assigned, I think Texas should go.  Sorry, getting blown out by 44 in November when you're ranked #1 in the country eliminates you in my book.  Losing a tight one on the road and beating OU means more to me than blowing out someone at home and losing at a neutral site to Texas.  I could care less what these two teams did against Missouri because you could then bring up every common opponent played. I could turn it around and say that UT beat Kansas by a larger margin of victory than OU.  I'm not gonna deal with that.  It was only a 3 way tie and the debate should be left to how the three teams did and the way they played in those head to head matchups.  That's my criteria.

[blake]

I agree that it is subjective.  Anyway you go about it, some team is going to get screwed.

I think I have figured out the answer:  each team in the tie must elect a player to play ncaa 2009.  Play each other until there is a clear winner.  Winner goes on to the Big 12 championship.  This seems like the only truly fair way to go about it.