OU Sports
Sooners still in title hunt
The roars going through Owen Field Saturday night weren’t just to celebrate Oklahoma’s 62-28 victory over Nebraska. A lot of fans, players and coaches hung around to see what happened in Lubbock, Texas. One of the loudest roars you’ll ever hear at the Switzer Center occurred when Texas Tech sealed its victory over Texas minutes after the Sooners’ win.
Thoughts of being back in the race for the Big 12 title and national championship were invigorating. OU coach Bob Stoops didn’t say much to his team Saturday night. He didn’t feel it was necessary.
“That won’t take long for them to understand that. They already do,” he said.
But anyone that thinks the Sooners (8-1, 4-1 Big 12) have control of their own destiny is sadly mistaken. There’s still several things that must fall into place for that to happen.
OU actually dropped two spots to No. 6 in the latest BCS rankings released Sunday night. It was passed by Texas Tech, which moved from seventh to second, and by Florida, which climbed from eighth to fifth after topping then-No. 8 Georgia 49-10.
Alabama moved into the top spot from No. 2 last week. Penn State is third. Texas remained ahead of the Sooners at No. 4.
The BCS rankings are comprised of votes received in the USA Today coaches poll (the Sooners remained at No. 4), the Harris Interactive poll (OU dropped a spot to No. 5) and an average of six computer rankings. The machines did the major damage to the Sooners. The computer averages spit them out a No. 9.
The rankings are critical to the Sooners not just because Nos. 1 and 2 go to the national championship game, but they could also decide who represents the Big 12 South in the conference title game. The Red Raiders (9-0, 5-0) are currently in the driver’s seat, but still have to face OSU (8-1, 4-1) and OU in their next two games.
Texas, OU and OSU are all a game behind with one loss. The likelihood of the Longhorns losing again is remote. They have three regular-season games left against Baylor, Kansas and Texas A&M.; The Longhorns will be heavily favored in all.
OU’s best chance to represent its half of the South is a three-way tie at the end of the season between Texas Tech, Texas and itself. All three would have beaten each other and the tie breaker would be the highest BCS ranking.
The Sooners have a pretty good chance to take that spot if it can close the regular season with three straight victories. They face the Red Raiders at Owen Field Nov. 22 and Cowboys in Stillwater Nov. 29. Two wins over top 10 teams to close the season would look very good to the computers.
But that’s putting the cart ahead of the horse.
OU still has to get past Texas A&M; at 2:30 p.m. this Saturday at Kyle Field before it can worry about beneficial scenarios.
“We just have to make sure we take care of business,” defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said. “That game is over now, so we just need to handle what is in front of us.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
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