Clay Horning
COLUMBIA, Mo. — It kicks off at 11 a.m.It’s an ABC game, so that says something. It’s not like it was booted over to Fox Sports Net. It’s even the only game in the nation today between two ranked teams.
And still, it’s better.
This is a great game.
Remember Oklahoma in 2000?
Well, believe it or not, that can still be Missouri in 2006.
It’s a long shot, but it’s still out there.
More on that in a moment.
Then there’s Oklahoma.
Bob Stoops was asked about the Oregon game earlier in the week and here’s what he had to say.
“That loss haunts you all the way through,” he said. “There’s no way around it.”
There isn’t, but every couple of weeks its worth putting things into perspective by asking yourself what everybody would be saying about OU if the officials hadn’t all gone dumb, from the field to the replay booth, simultaneously.
It’s too late to for the Sooners to be the elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about. Loss No. 2, at the Cotton Bowl, took care of that. But what if this was 6-1 Oklahoma (the Sooners are 5-2, 2-1 in the conference) against 7-1 Missouri (the Tigers are indeed 7-1, 3-1 in the conference), with the Sooners not completely out of the South race, and the Tigers still atop the North, with the Sooners about five spots higher in the rankings and both teams thinking they could still reach a BCS bowl?
Now that’s a matchup.
Well, the subplots are not the same, but the teams are.
And then, something bigger may even be at stake, like the direction of the conference for the next two, three or four years.
For so long, the Big 12 has been OU, Texas and everybody else, or Texas, OU and everybody else. Take your pick.
Well, Nebraska’s much better (the Huskers host the Tigers next week). And then there’s Missouri, already very good and led by a sophomore quarterback, the Tigers don’t appear to be going anywhere but up for the foreseeable future.
And lest we forget, Gary Pinkel made a living confounding BCS conference foes when he ran little old Toledo, so it can’t be too shocking all it took for the old Rockets’ coach to turn things around was Brad Smith’s departure to the NFL.
Meanwhile, who plays quarterback at OU next season? Who runs the ball? Who, other than Demarrio Pleasant plays linebacker? Who, other than Alonzo Dotson, plays defensive end?
Should the Tigers win today, who says OU isn’t looking up at Mizzou, much less Texas, for the foreseeable future?
And even while the biggest game of the Tigers’ season appears to be next week, on the road at Lincoln, where, win or lose today, the North Division should still be on the line, if Pinkel can spin it just right, the Tigers might be under the impression they can still win it all.
Because, well, they can.
Winning out means the Tigers take care of the Sooners, the Huskers, then Iowa State, then Kansas. Do that and the North Division is theirs, with Texas waiting at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium at the Big 12 championship game.
Win that, and the Tigers might well be the highest ranked one-loss team in all the land. At the moment, the Longhorns hold that distinction.
Losing at Texas A&M; isn’t the best lost in the world, and certainly not as forgivable as Michigan falling to Ohio State or the Buckeyes falling to the Wolverines, of which one must eventually happen. But losing late’s never a good idea either and the Tigers have already taken their lump.
USC is still perfect, as are Louisville and West Virginia, but the Cardinals and Mountaineers must still play.
The point of it all being, if the Tigers can figure a way to win out, don’t count them out. And the Sooners are in the way.
OU’s won three straight and 17 of 20 in the series.
Might history start moving the other way?
It’s a great game, even so early in the morning.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
