Texas A&M heads to Miami for a Thursday night game.
Oklahoma fans need to be pulling for the Aggies.
Or the Hurricanes.
This is a tough one if you’re a Sooner fan. OU finds itself clearly in the national championship chase after three weeks. And yet, if it stays undefeated and Southern Cal and LSU do likewise, the Sooners will be the team on the outside looking in.
The reason: strength of schedule.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the Big 12 is in a bad place right now. OU has been impressive, but Texas has struggled, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas A&M and Texas Tech have been so-so, and no other team has notched a big-time victory. In fact, the conference might be known as much for its foibles as its triumphs. High-profile losses like Oklahoma State’s at Georgia and at Troy stick in people’s minds.
A Texas A&M victory at Miami would be a nice step back toward recapturing some of the conference’s respectability. It won’t get the conference there all by itself — Miami, after all, is a nice team, not a world-beater — but it’s better for the conference to win these type of games than to lose them.
But is it better for OU?
Once the BCS standings come out, the Sooners’ strength of schedule will be tied, in part, to the teams that they’ve beaten and the teams that those teams have beaten. OU throttled Miami a few weeks ago, and a Hurricane loss would definitely hurt the Sooners’ strength of schedule.
So, what’s a Sooner fan to do?
Well, far be it from me to try to figure out the BCS formula, but since OU will have a chance to play and beat Texas A&M later this season, I say that an Aggie victory in South Florida would do the Sooners the most good. Their BCS battle will be raged more with the humans than with the computers. The perception is out there that the Big 12 is no good, and if the voters believe that and have to pick between USC, LSU and OU, the Sooners will be the odd team out.
The Big 12 needs a makeover, and every win, no matter how big or small, helps.
September 24th, 2007 at 11:27 am
If you hate the Big 12 so much, why do you write here? And teams don’t want to hear crap about how bad you think they are and that they have no chance. The big 12 has 4 teams floating in the top 25 at any given time, and you want to throw us in the trash? and if ever there was a conference that throws down some big upsets against other conferences, we’re it.
September 24th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
You were right on the money with this Jenni. . . damn. . .i wish A&M would have won this game. . . .just think about how much more respect OU would have. . . wait what, oh, yeah, OU moved up in the polls and Miami won. . . and wait, oh yeah, it really doesn’t matter for the computers either way because the combined record of OU’s opponents at the end of the year would be the same no matter who won. . . and so would the opponent’s opponent’s records. . . oh, well, what the hell do i know anyways. . . i wish i was a writer