Tilting at Windmills

This week presented the first real challenges in ranking

• Do you rank OU ahead of BYU?
• Do you rank Ohio State ahead of USC?
• How can you not rank FSU ahead of BYU?
• How high do you rank the young Canes?
• What’s more important how you lost, or how you won?

As always comments are appreciated and like last week will be integrated into the final ballot that I have to submit Tuesday night.

Just a reminder, here’s the criteria that I’m using

The prior Top 25 will have no significant impact on the new one. Teams won’t hold positions playing scrubs in OOC play over teams with real wins in September. Just because a team is 18th doesn’t mean it moves up because the 17th ranked team loses. Teams resumes will go up and down as the season goes on.

Ah, fall. Just as the mosquitos returning to Waurika (swallows, Capistrano … it’s all I’ve got) signal a shift in the weather, there are those telltale signs that fall is finally here.

USA Today released their Coaches’ Poll today with OU a solid number 3 behind Jesus Tebow’s Gators and Colt McCoy’s Longhorns.

Florida got 53 out of 59 first place votes, meaning six coaches just punched their express ticket to Hell. Texas had four coaches vote them number one, presumably Bob Stoops, Mike Leach, Kevin Sumlin and Bo Pelini. That’s right, Texas: Kevin Sumlin has a vote.

Interesting (that’s one way to put it) that after last year’s BCS-gate in the Big 12 South, Mack Brown decided to take his vote-picking and go home while Stoops picked up a pen again. Maybe somebody’s not quite getting the concept here.

Bottom line, for the top three contenders, seeding doesn’t really matter at this point. They all three have to go undefeated in order to get to the title game and obviously, one of them won’t. For now, OU will play the role of Mark Cavendish and wait for the leadout from the peloton before making a break at the sprint finish. What, no Tour de France fans here?

Texas starting at #2 ahead of the Sooners will surely shut them up until October, too.

So here’s the Preseason TaW Top 25.

This Top 25 will be updated every Sunday night of the college football season.

The prior Top 25 will have no significant impact on the new one. Teams won’t hold positions playing scrubs in OOC play over teams with real wins in September. Just because a team is 18th doesn’t mean it moves up because the 17th ranked team loses.

So here’s the first one, and be sure to let me know in comments how badly you disagree.

1. UF : Why? Absolutely loaded on both sides of the ball and they don’t play Mississippi in the regular season.
2. OU: Why? And the real question is why over Texas? Fortunately this matchup will get settled on the field. Right now OU’s weakest point is interior OL which is matched against UT’s weakest point DT. So that’s a push.  They cancel each other out. Just like OU’s strength at DT is relatively matched by UT’s interior OL strength. Meanwhile OU has significant advantages at CB, TE, RB, DE (Kindle is good but OU has 3 battle tested DEs) and TE, while positions like LB, WR,OT and finally QB are relatively even.
3. UT: Why, see number two.
4. Va Tech: Why? Best team in ACC and they have a loaded offense for the first time in while. You know that the D will be solid. This prediction could come flying off the rails with significant early tests.
5. Ohio State: Why? Big Ten sucks and they clearly have the best talent in the conference. This is a projection based on them beating SC at the Horseshoe
6. Oregon: Why? They return the bulk of their offensive firepower and get SC at Eugene where as Sooners fans know all too well anything can happen. Also, they have an elite OOC schedule to test how good they are.
7. USC: Why? New QB and rebuilding front seven I think leads to a game where they get gashed by the run (like Oregon State last year) and their new QBs struggle with road games.
8. TCU: Why? Quite simply, no OU on their schedule. They return a bunch of pieces and play great defense. Honestly, they were a real FG kicker away from playing Bama in the Sugar Bowl instead of Utah.
9. Mississippi: Why? Best returning talent in the SEC East, and they don’t have to play Florida. They are not higher because let’s see how this team does being the hunted.
10. Alabama: Why? New QB, new OL, new RB and that was what worked for them last year. Things may gel, but they get an early test versus Va Tech which will decide a lot.
11. Oklahoma State: Why? Until proven otherwise they don’t play defense against top ten teams. Also, they have an early test versus UGa which will either drop them or vault them in the rankings.
12. Penn State: Why? Second best talent in the Big Ten. Big Ten is clearly the easiest conference to go undefeated in. Seriously, put OU or UT in the Big Ten and tell me you are not putting them in the title game immediately.
13. Georgia Tech: Why? Year two is supposed to be when Paul Johnson’s offense will really click. He’s got a top five RB in Dwyer, and although the defense has some holes he has a lot of elite talent over there (DE Derrick Morgan)
14. Boise State: Why? Really easy schedule and they are returning their QB. They have one real game versus the BCS in September at Oregon. Win and they stay in the Top 15, lose and I may not rank them again all year.
15. Utah: Why? They went undefeated last year and return a lot of talent. They have to play TCU in Fort Worth – a game that could again decide a BCS slot. Oregon game in September could easily vault Utah into the top ten
16. Cal: Why? Jahvid Best.
17. Georgia: Why? No team has been devastated by injuries more than UGa last year. They have a veteran upperclassman to replace Stafford and host of blue chip backs to replace Moreno. OSU game maybe the best OOC matchup of September
18. LSU: Why? Massive amounts of talent and they might have found a QB who is not Captain Pick Six.
19. Oregon State: Why? Returning a lot of talent on offense
20. Kansas: Why? And more to the point why are they here over Nebraska? Two names, Todd Reising and Dezmon Briscoe. KU has the best returning QB/WR corps in the Big 12 North and it’s not even close.
21. FSU: Why? After what is almost of a decade of underachieving QBs, FSU appears to finally have one in Christian Ponder.
22. USF: Why? Someone has to win the Big East.
23. Boston College: Why? I briefly forgot they were not in the Big East.
24. Michigan State: Why? Nice amount of talent, they appear to be gelling under new head coach Mark Dantonio in his second year. Just need to settle on a QB.
25. Notre Dame: Why? They have a incredibly easy schedule save for USC. They return their QB, top WRs (Tate and Floyd are legit talents).

I can’t make up stuff this good: a day after the world learned that UT claims a 2008 Big 12 football championship, Asterisk-gate continues on the 40 Acres. DeLoss Dodds has decided to pay $44,000 in bonuses to Mack’s assistant coaches as part of a contractual-incentive for winning … the Big 12 championship. Be sure to read some of the comments. They’re priceless.

So, in honor of this silliness, we at TaW thought we’d map out the timeline to see how we got here. A special thanks to DeLoss Dodds and the UT SID for helping out us bloggers during football nuclear winter.

May 20 and 22, 2008: Annual Big 12 spring meetings

Football revenue-sharing and player eligibility highlight the agenda. Most are mainly looking forward to seeing the conference’s success over the past 10 years translating into something besides chicken casserole and soggy rolls at the media trough buffet.

July 31, 2008: Big 12 issues press release regarding divisional tie-breaking procedures

Ah … here they are: the tiebreaker procedures that will be used in the 2008 season. It’s good the Big 12 did this just in case there’s a question later and we need to refer back. Some of these are a little bit overkill, though. A three-way tie? There’s no way would that ever happen*.

Divisional Champion: The (eligible) team with the best winning-percentage of all divisional members in its eight conference games is declared the divisional champion and representative to the Dr Pepper Big 12 Conference Football Championship Game. A team ineligible under NCAA or Big 12 rules for postseason (bowl) competition shall not compete in the Championship Game.

Divisional Tiebreakers:

The following procedure will determine the representative from each division in the event of a tie:

a. If two teams are tied, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative
b. If three or more teams are tied, steps 1 through 7 will be followed until a determination is made. If only two teams remain tied after any step, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative.
1. The records of the three teams will be compared against each other
2. The records of the three teams will be compared within their division
3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5 and 6)
4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents;
5. The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of Big 12 regular season conference play shall be the representative
6. The team with the best overall winning percentage [excluding exempted games] shall be the representative
7. The representative will be chosen by draw.

August 30, 2008: College football season starts.

Our summer of discontent has finally ended and football season has started. #4 OU sleepwalks 57-2 past Tennessee-Chattanooga with Joey Halzle throwing a touchdown pass in the second quarter to put OU ahead 50-0 at halftime. This prompts the first of many shrill cries throughout the season that the Sooners run up the score (hereafter abbreviated “RUTS”). Howard Schnellenburger spends too long at Scholz’s and misses kickoff of the game between his Florida Atlantic Owls and #11 Texas. He missed his quarterback’s happy-go-jacky routine against UT’s young secondary, putting up over 2 bills through the air by halftime. By the time Drunkenberger shows up, UT’s on the way to crushing FAU 52-10.

September 13, 2008: Get bent, Pac-10

Sam Bradford has maybe his finest game as a Sooner, completing 18 of 21 passes for 304 yards and 5 TDs. The #3 Sooners smashed UDub in Seattle, which despite the Huskies finishing the year as one of the worst teams in college football, it finally showed that OU could perform well on the road. The shrill cries this week came from people warning everybody in Austin to build an ark before Hurricane Ike washed the entire city away. UT postpones its ass-kicking of Arkansas while just enough rain fell in Austin to fill a pitcher of diluted margaritas at El Arroyo.

October 11, 2008: UT wins Red River Rivalry

Bradford throws for 387 yards and 5 TDs, but thanks to an inability to stop #5 Texas in crucial second half situations (that was your backup plan, Venables? Seriously?), #1 OU falls to Texas, 45-35. With the win, Texas takes essentially a two-game lead in the Big 12 South (see Tiebreaker A). Brainfart Players of the Game are shared by Brent Venables, Brandon Crow and the entire Sooner kickoff coverage team. Two phantom personal fouls against Colt McCoy and a disallowed Sooner interception in the end zone leave Oklahoma fans seething.

October 25, 2008: OU 58, Kansas State 35

The #4 Sooners look like they’re playing Madden 2008 on Playstation as they put up 55 points by halftime on Kstate, prompting cries of RUTSing by those who didn’t actually watch the game. This running theme will continue.

November 1, 2008: #7 Texas Tech 39, #1 Texas 33.

Tech’s Michael Crabtree shakes free of two Longhorn tacklers and scores with :01 second left to upset Texas and turn the college football nation upside down. Leach says his team plays 60 minutes, including the last minute of the game. By Monday, Texas fans will forget this game ever happened. With this game, Tech is now – gasp – atop the Big 12 South and just has to win at Oklahoma to go to the Big 12 championship.

Meanwhile on that same night back in Norman, #4 OU is teabagging Nebraska 28-0 with 9:30 to play in the first quarter on the way to a 62-28 rout. (insert RUTS meme)

November 8, 2008: #6 Oklahoma 66, Texas A&M 28.

After dropping 60 on Nebraska, the BCS has no love for the Sooners and drops them two spots. OU takes out its frustration by hanging 60 again, this time at College Station. It was 21-0 at the end of the first quarter. OU had 66 points with 3:54 still to play in the third quarter, the final points coming on Dom Franks’ 39-yard fumble return. RUTS cries continue from those who don’t have televisions or eyes.

November 22, 2008: #5 Oklahoma 65, #2 Texas Tech 21.

It was 42-7 by halftime and the entire stadium was jumping around. Bradford threw deep for a 66-yard pass to Ryan Broyles late in the third quarter. OK, maybe Stoops ran this one up, but he and the entire team was pissed. With the win over previously undefeated Tech, there is now a three-way logjam atop the Big 12 South standings between OU, Tech and Texas. Longhorns immediately begin discounting Tech since the Sand Aggies just got beat by 44 points, essentially trying to punish OU for doing what Texas should have done itself three weeks earlier. The politicking begins.

November 29, 2008: #3 Oklahoma 61, #12 Oklahoma State 41.

OU wins a wild, back-and-forth shootout in Stillwater by scoring 17 points in the last 8 minutes of the game. Despite this being a tight, three-point game with 10 minutes to play, people like Geoff Ketchum convince themselves that OU is once again* RUTSing. I call Ketchum’s show and rhetorically call him a “freaking idiot” on the air. UT fans and interwebs posters are convinced that there’s not even a prayer that OU will jump Texas in the BCS poll (UT is ranked #2, OU #3). As shown in the above-cited tiebreaker procedures released from the Big 12 offices four months prior, the team that is rated higher in the next BCS poll will go to the Big 12 championship the following week and will play North Division champion for the Big 12 title.

December 1, 2008: OU jumps Texas in BCS poll.

Neither airplane banners nor Mack’s politickin’ nor the plaintive wailing of “45-35” could make BCS voters forget that Texas lost to Texas Tech. OU’s blowouts down the stretch impressed the voters as much as UT’s whining turned them off, and they install OU as the #2 team in the nation, behind Florida and just ahead of Texas. Since there is a three-way tie in the Big 12 South (not a two-way tie, but a three way … you don’t get to discount losses whenever it’s convenient, Texas), according to rule b(5) posted above, OU will play Missouri for the Big 12 championship next week in Kansas City:

The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of Big 12 regular season conference play shall be the representative

In a presser following the announcement, Stoops makes sure to point out that there were three teams, not two, involved in the process. Oh, and maybe (just maybe) OU deserved to go just as much as the other two.

December 14, 2008: Sam Bradford wins Heisman

Bradford had the best season in school history for a quarterback, throwing for 4,700 yards and 50 TDs, and leading the highest-scoring team in NCAA history. Heisman voters chose him over Colt McCoy and Jesus Tebow. What does this have to do with Asterisk-gate and UT not playing for the Big 12 championship? In reality, nothing. However, in the failed logic of UT fans, it was just another reason to think that somehow the rules they couldn’t change after the fact or whine their way around screwed them.

January 8, 2009: #2 Florida 24, #1 Oklahoma 14

The Sooners come up just short of winning their 8th national championship, but when the other team has Jesus at quarterback, really what can you do? What does this have to do with Asterisk-gate and UT not playing for the Big 12 championship? In reality, nothing. However, in the failed logic of UT fans, it was just another reason to think that somehow the rules they couldn’t change after the fact or whine their way around screwed them. Obviously UT would have been in this game if they had just played in Kansas City instead of Oklahoma because, you know, it was like a foregone conclusion and whatnot that they’d beat Missouri. Duh.

February 13, 2008: Asterisk-gate gains momentum

Woodward and Bernstein Our friends at the Red Dirt Kings are among the first to notice that UT is somehow claiming a Big 12 championship they did not win. Unfortunately, the big boy media either doesn’t see the story, or because they didn’t report it themselves, choose to ignore it. Of course we at TaW, never to be confused with the big boy media, were all over it and so were the tens of loyal readers.

April 5, 2008: The sh*t hits the fan

Texas’ spring game the prior Sunday had all kinds of media inside the bowels of UT’s Moncrief-Neuhaus athletic shrine. Somebody finally noticed what had been up there for at least two weeks: the Horns are claiming they won* a Big 12 championship. Much laughter and derision ensue.

April 6, 2008: UT decides to take down the 2008*

After repeated calls and guffaws from, well, pretty much everybody, the UT SID decides to pull the offending numbers (and asterisk) off the wall. Mack Brown claims he knew nothing about it, according to Asst. SID John Bianco, who prefaced the canned statement it with “let me answer that for Mack.” I sort of don’t blame Mack for not minding the 2008* being on the wall. After all, if you only have one conference title in a quarter century as a Division I head coach, you’ll take all the help you can get.

April 7, 2008: Longhorn coaches get bonuses for winning* Big 12 Championship

In what essentially amounts to “yeah, we still think we won it,” UT decides to go ahead and pay Mack’s assistants bonuses they would have received had they actually won the Big 12 Championship the way you’re supposed to: playing for it on the field and taking home a trophy. UT president William Powers said it was “the right decision.” Mack didn’t get a bonus, ostensibly because after further review, the Longhorns actually didn’t win shit.

April 8, 2008: Where does Asterisk-gate go from here?

Bloggers can only hope the madness continues as we search for something – anything – to write about from now until fall practice begins. Given the reputation for clownish antics on the 40 Acres, we at TaW might have to dig deep and hire a phalanx of writers to keep up.