It’s a complex argument that was (maybe not should’ve) broken into sub-parts: Oklahoma’s two sub-part arguments:

(1) Texas Tech: We beat the snot out of you.

Ok, that’s sound.

(2) Texas: We beat the snot out of the team that beat you in the last second.

Not so sound.

Texas’s two sub-part arguments:

(1) Oklahoma: We beat you.

Sound.

(2) Texas Tech: You suck but still beat us.

Not so sound.

As for TT, they have an a two-part argument too, but we’re not really discussing whether they should be in the championship. They’re just the monkey wrench in the situation.

Don’t really think OU’s argument is that they beat a team that beat UT. Their argument is that Texas cares about head to head as long as we aren’t talking about UT/TTU. Maybe the guy’s sign was just pointing out the other two games that are responsible for this problem, something that Texas conveniently leaves out when discussing the conundrum.

Many of us think that the UT argument that they won head to head leaves out 2/3 of the eqaution.

Head to head is the first tie-breaker people. It didn’t work. Neither did 2-4. So UT wants to argue that we go back to the first tie-breaker and forget about the lowest ranked team. You know what else didn’t work? Mack Brown’s politicking. How does Texas pass OU and Florida in the Harris Poll? By crying about it.

So yeah… head to head… except in the UT/TTU game.

Under my logic (which is shoddy anyway), you’re right…TT would be screwed as well. But they got shambuckled by Oklahoma. Now, if that had been a close game and all three teams were really in line to make the Big12 Champ. game, then it’d be a different story. Not saying they don’t have an argument at all…I was just looking at it as a Texas vs. Okla. argument. In fact, TT is the whole reason this thing is fouled up with the three-way tie. If they hadn’t gone and gotten all competitive for the first ten weeks of the season, Texas would be in the Big12 Champ. no questions asked.

The main thing that irks me is, for instance, the guy in the background during the Sooner QB’s interview after their win vs. Okla. St. His sign had two scores on it: 65-21 and 39-33. So he was obviously campaigning against both Texas AND TT, but Oklahoma’s argument against Texas just has no merit. (”We beat the hell out of the team that beat you at the last second…so that is more important than you beating us.”) Think about how silly that sounds.

I pray ALL conferences get rid of the BCS ranking tie-breaker after this season. Can’t imagine how Texas feels right now.

I think UT played a slightly tougher Big XII schedule, but their North opponents did have the exact same conference record as OU’s North opponents. UT’s opponents had a an average Sagarin predictor ranking around 1.5 points higher.

Some have mentioned that of the three tied teams, UT was the only one that didn’t get a home game. To me, this is UT’s strongest argument. But you also can’t look past the fact that in the other six conference games, UT had four home games to OU’s two.

As for strength of schedule, I don’t think you can just average opponents to see which schedule is tougher. you have to look at which team had a tougher time getting to a top ranking. You have to look at it probabilistically. If team A plays four opponents that all have a 25% chance of winning, and team B plays two teams with a 50% chance of winning and two teams with a 0% chance of winning, each team plays, on average four non-conference opponents that have a 25% chance of winning any one game. But the chances of team A going undefeated are around 31-32%. The chances of team B going undefeated are 25%. OU is more like team B. Plus, I’d argue that even though the records are about the same, the probabilities are even more in OU’s favor (meaning a top 5 team would have a much harder time going undefeated against OU’s schedule).

Lastly, I think you’re right that some voters would have eliminated TTU even if they’d lost a close one at OU. But that’s mostly based on reputation, which, to me, shouldn’t really be a factor. Also, a lot of people wouldn’t have eliminated TTU if they’d only lost to OU by 14 or so, and you’d have heard a lot more talk about a three-way tie, instead of a two-way tie on ESPN this week.

And while I’ve been more philosophical than most about Texas being left out, I still hang with the majority who say Texas played a tougher schedule overall — so it chaps my ass a bit when OU fans, instead of resting on their luck, decide to deliver a lecture on scheduling. “Martin, you got greedy!”

I’m letting go of my anger and plan to apply Irish whiskey until Saturday — do it Blaise Pascal-style.

@meatbob:
It wouldn’t have mattered how much OU beat Tech by … some voters would still consider them a nonfactor and decide between OU and Texas. Because while the tie dictates that the polls decide it, the human voters then follow their own logic. It’s not like they’ll be incapable of turning in a ballot because of Bob Stoops’ three-way syntax error mind conundrum.

Based on your arguement TT would be equally screwed if Texas got in. You just proved the exception (three way tie) that exposes the failings of the rule.

When deciding which team to rank higher, how does a person/computer choose the team that LOST the head-to-head game??? I don’t care if Texas beat every other team on the schedule by one point and Oklahoma beat every other team by 100 points…TEXAS BEAT OKLAHOMA!!!!!

I don’t like the reality of what you said, but I like that you said it. Finally, someone putting some facts and stats behind the “Florida’s gonna trounce ‘Bama” argument. That’s pretty damn interesting too…did not realize UA has only faced one offense ranked in the top-30…and it’s UGA. The Bulldogs are terribly coached on that side of the ball and are only ranked that high in offense b/c they’ve got studs…so that one doesn’t really even count either.

The Gator hype does not scare me…but those facts and stats you mentioned do. I knew there was a reason the spread for the game is around 10 points right now.

And I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed the hilarity of the Versus announcers in the Civil War. I was in the midst of a bourbon stupor and did one of those double-takes, “Did he just say that guy’s butt was huge?” They also went off about the facial hair of the OSU players, with one of the guys remarking about a player’s “pencil thin mustache” followed by silence from the other announcers.

Cincy and TCU and far better than any OOC team UT played.

What is funny is that if OU only beat tech by 4 instead of by 40, nobody would bitch about this senario ’cause Tech is still involved.

“–Beat I-AA school Chattanooga (who finished 1-11 and in last … in I-AA)
–Beat Big East “champ” Cincy, who got rolled by 24 not only by OU but also by UConn
–joined mighty Wazzu in being able to beat the Willingham Huskies”

-Granted. Horrible team that was all we could pick up when a I-A opponent bailed. Doesn’t matter. The I-A team would have been just as bad.
-You can drop the air quotes. Cincy is the Big East champ, 10-2 I believe, and ranked #12 in the BCS. Using OU’s dismantling of them as proof they aren’t that good is circular and won’t get you very far on this board. Try running that against the USC fans here re:Ohio State and see what happens.
-Granted. Horrible team that was just shy of mediocre when we scheduled them. The results would have been the same and equally unimpressive.
-You left off perennial whipping boy TCU, so easy to dismiss just 3 short hours to the north of Austin. Currently ranked #11 in the BCS.

The strength of schedule argument is essentially what Chloe Denmark said @22. Two teams in the BCS top 12 vs. Rice. That tips for OU and was a mitigating factor against the rush back to UT in the human polls. It may be the luck of the scheduling guessing game of who will be good years down the road, but that’s how it broke this year.

@ mookieszpilman: Yes, you will have to listen to that. Just as you’ll have to live with USC and PSU fans saying the same thing. Just as we all still hear about Auburn’s chances against USC or Miami’s against OU or any number of teams the year Nebraska backed into the MNC. Maybe they’re right. Maybe not. Another year in the BCS.

No.

On a similar note, SEC fans calling out the Big 12 for not having good defense is total hypocrisy. SEC may play better defense, but the offenses collectively suck, as evidenced by the fact that 1/3 of the conference teams are ranked below 100, and only Florida is in the Top 25 offensively. UF is the only SEC team that can play on both sides of the ball. They deserve to play for the MNC after they handle Bama on Saturday.