The final week of the regular season in the Big 12 didn’t bring many surprises, besides the victory of Kansas over Mizzou. In the South, all three contenders for the championship and the right to play next week in Kansas City for the Big 12 title won their games. Texas had a pretty easy and solid game against Texas A&M. Beating the Aggies 49-9 showed that Texas hasn’t slowed down and is the front-runner in the eyes of many. Especially since the Longhorns have beaten the Sooners on a neutral field.
Oklahoma makes a strong case as well. Beating the ranked 12 Oklahoma State Cowboys by 20 points and scoring over 60 points in the last four games, the Sooners are the team that is most impressive at the end of the regular season. Especially since one of those over-60 games was against Texas Tech, then ranked number 2 in the BCS. The loss against the Longhorns makes this a very tough decision.
Texas Tech barely won the game at home against Baylor, a loss would have handed the Big 12 South to Texas. In my opinion, the performance against Oklahoma takes Texas Tech out of the race for the Big 12 title game. Getting a beating like that shows you’re not good enough to compete in the final weeks of the season. And with the performance against Baylor not impressive as well, it’s basically between the Longhorns and Sooners.
Which team should represent the Big 12 South in Kansas City? In my view that would be the Sooners. Their performance in recent weeks has been impressive and makes the loss against Texas less relevant. Also, they should be rewarded for playing against stronger opponents outside their own conference.
But this doesn’t mean that Texas is completely out of the picture. In fact, if the Sooners go to KC and lose to Mizzou, Texas will play either Alabama or Florida for the National Championship. Missouri made sure they won’t be considered for that game, even if they beat a much stronger opponent from the Big 12 South. Losing to Kansas ended their season at 9-3, they would have had a chance and a good argument if they would have finished 11-2 after the title game. But either Texas or Oklahoma will finish with one loss, so even if Mizzou wins the Big 12 Championship next week, one of those teams will be ranked higher. And the representative of the Big 12 South better makes sure they win the game next week, otherwise their biggest will play in Miami.
Update: The USA Today poll for this week has Oklahoma 1 point ahead of Texas. The waiting is for the Harris poll (which had Oklahoma ahead last week) and the computer rankings. Based on the tougher opponent this week for Oklahoma, I think the Sooners will be going to Kansas City and face Missouri.
Update 2: As expected, Oklahoma jumped ahead of Texas due to the strength of their schedule in the computer rankings. They will now face the Missouri Tigers and every Longhorn fan is praying for an upset by Mizzou next week.
