Politics of BCS don't favor locals

Watch out for the politicking going on in the race to the BCS Championship game.

ESPN's gazillion dollar deal with the SEC has some calling foul with their unabashed promotion of Florida. Florida is really good. But come on, they lost at the vaunted swamp to an unranked Ole Miss team in their fifth game.

Joe Pa' should get no special treatment from the voters just because he's 180 and a wonderful legendary figure of the game. That's like rigging the ballot box, although we'd better not begin talking acorns and pecans.

Texas just lost to Texas Tech and yet one Harris Poll voter ranks them number one! Who's voting, Bevo? Despicable. Now, the best person breaking down the BCS is saying Texas has the inside track in the Big 12 and is likely to be in the title game if they can beat KU and a pair of puds.

Alabama and USC get the homer-field advantage because of tradition. Having said that the coaches will do their best to vote for anyone but Nick Saban and USC's Squack-10 schedule and a loss to a team less that Texas should put them on the outside looking in.

I'm hearing from reliable sources OU will be up against it for two reasons: The accepted and nationally-promoted idea that their defense is not championship caliber-despite the fact that anyone in the country would have to put up more than forty to beat Bradford's Boomers.

Second, OU's failures in BCS bowls-going all the way back to the USC thrashing and poor night in losing their second straight BCS title game when they lost to LSU, have tainted them with some power-brokers who are down on the Sooners....regardless how they finish.

OU leads 35-0 over a respectable Nebraska team...could have named its score...but mercifully "only" wins 62-28 and drops two spots in the BCS and AP poll and one spot in the Harris. What?

And OSU....the word has been for weeks now that even if they run the table-and beating No. 2 Tech and No. whatever OU would not be enough to get them past Texas (this assumes the scenario where Texas wins the South by just winning its final three)-that since OSU does not have the tradition of the other heavyweights, they'd also be on the outside looking in.

If either OU or OSU wins out and then wins a Big 12 title game against a likely Top 10 Missouri team in Kansas City, politics would be the best case one could bring against them.

But unfortunately for our locals it's a political season, and this is a red state in an election where by tomorrow night, the national color of choice seems to clearly be blue. If red somehow prevails tomorrow night then anything-and I mean anything is possible.  

It's an incredible tribute to OSU and Mike Gundy to only be a 3-3 and a half point underdog on the road this Saturday in Lubbock against the No. 2 team in the country. If they win, the line with OU that started at 16 in the summer and is down to five right now, would zoom down to perhaps a Bedlam pick'em.

And it's a tribute to OU to once again be favored in every game by double-digits, except when they were seven-point picks against Texas and whatever the single-digit number winds up being in Stillwater. Further kudos are in order when they will be favorites to Tech and OSU, although taking them heads up to win both those games would be a bigger gamble than some of us are unwilling to take at this moment.

The winning QB of the OU Texas Tech game should have the inside track at the Heisman if both teams beat OSU. That's unless the Harris Poll voters wins some swing states for Colt McCoy-although in fairness, I love McCoy. I just think if Bradford runs the table and continues to be the darling of the NFL evaluators or if Graham Harrell runs the table and thus will have thrown for 28 miles and have the No. 1 team in the nation by ballot time that one of that tandem would have the edge.

The Big 12 needs LSU to beat Alabama and Vandy or Florida State to or their potential SEC Title game opponent to beat Florida.

OU must have TT and needs dandy teams its beaten finish strong-once-beaten TCU and twice-beaten Cincy.

OSU must simply win, win, win and hope for the best while realizing if they keep winning but don't have a dog in the big race that it will have been the most amazing season in OSU history.

What a season...and still five BCS polls remain. I prefer a four to eight team playoff. But you've got to admit the BCS has generated incredible interest and it's only the beginning of November.

Later....Dean