the tindog coffeehouse

How many teams does the Big 12 Conference have to lose before it stops being the Big “12″? And when exactly is it no longer considered “Big”? We may find out pretty soon now that Texas A&M has officially declared they’re packing up their marbles and leaving the Big 12 for a shot at the bottom of the SEC.

The Aggies apparently weren’t too keen on their intrastate rival Longhorns getting their own television network, despite the fact that the Longhorn Network will be available to exactly seven households in America, none of which are in Austin. But logic has never been A&M’s strong suit, so they’ve chosen to abandon 100+ years of tradition and possibly as much as $30 million in exit fees in hopes that the SEC will let them in to their exclusive club. Yeah, good luck with that. Let’s see, how many Big 12 football titles has A&M won? How many BCS games have they gone to? How many National Championships have they won since the rise of the BCS? Zero. And yet they really expect to do better against the likes of Auburn, Florida, Alabama, and LSU?

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In the final moments of the Big 12 Championship game before kicker Hunter Lawrence kicked the game-winning field goal with 1 second left on the clock, Texas Longhorns wide receiver Jordan Shipley gave him a word of encouragement from Jeremiah 17:7: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.”

A month later Lawrence returned the favor before the BCS National Championship game, giving Shipley a verse from 2 Corinthians 12:9: “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Those words, ironically, seem to have even more meaning in the wake of the Longhorns’ disappointing loss to Alabama. But the final score is only part of the story.

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The cover of the September issue of Texas Monthly proclaims of Texas Tech coach Mike Leach: “This crazy pirate may be the best college football coach in the country.” They got the “crazy” part right, but I definitely wouldn’t say he’s the best coach in the country.

Granted, he’s very good at what he does, and he deserves a certain amount of recognition for that. If nothing else, his ability to recruit virtually unknown players and turn them into one of the most dominant passing offenses in the nation is worthy of admiration.

But NCAA records are one thing; results are quite another. At some point, those billions of passing yards have to translate to meaningful wins, and that’s where Leach has so far come up short. Sure, they beat Texas last year in what was arguably one of the biggest games in the country, but at the end of the season, all they had to show for it was a shared Big 12 South title and a loss to Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl. In fact, in the nine seasons Leach has coached at Tech, they’ve never outright won the Big 12 South division or played in a BCS bowl game.

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Texas coach Mack Brown wasn’t happy. Because of an odd tiebreaker rule in the Big 12 Conference, OU will play Missouri for the Big 12 Championship with a shot at the National Title game should they beat the Tigers. The Longhorns, meanwhile, finish behind OU even though the Sooners lost to the Horns in October and will likely end up in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.

That, apparently, isn’t a good enough consolation prize for Mack:

I’m really disappointed for our kids that two teams we beat this season will be playing for the Big 12 Championship. I’ll try to explain it to them, but most importantly, my message will be that you’ve done enough to put yourself in position to play for the conference championship, you had a great season and there still is a lot out there for you to play for. …

Since this situation has never happened before in the Big 12, I think the conference should follow the lead of all of the other BCS leagues with championship games (ACC/Conference USA/Mid-American/SEC) in how they settle three-way ties. I think their systems are fairer and give more credit to how the two highest ranked teams performed against each other on the field.

I have to wonder, though: Would Mack and all the other angry Longhorn fans feel the same way if they had come out on top?

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Well, rooting for Tech against OU did absolutely nothing. I can’t say I’m surprised. Tech only plays well at home.

So here’s where we stand: Texas moved up to No. 2 in the BCS while OU is No. 3 by a razor-thin margin, with Tech dropping to No. 7. Texas has to beat A&M, period. That shouldn’t be hard this year since the Aggies are 4-7 for the year. And Tech will almost certainly beat Baylor. That leaves the OU-OSU game as the wildcard.

If OU wins, they’ll probably leapfrog UT in the BCS and will face Missouri for the Big 12 Championship. A win there would probably put them in the National Championship against the SEC Champion (either Alabama or Florida). Texas still ranks higher than Tech and would probably go to the Fiesta Bowl.

If OSU wins, Tech wins the Big 12 South tiebreaker and heads to Kansas City to play Mizzou for the Big 12 Championship. If the Red Raiders win there, they are guaranteed a BCS bowl, but it wouldn’t be the National Championship. Texas would move back up ahead of OU in the polls, and it’s very possible they could end up in the National Championship game.

So as long as the Horns beat A&M, they should be fine regardless of the outcome of the Bedlam game. But an OSU win would probably be more beneficial. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? I think it’s 50/50, but only because they’re playing in Stillwater, so the Cowboys will have the home field advantage.

Of course, all of this is ammunition for the anti-BCS crowd, and I kind of agree. How would it look for the Longhorns to be playing for a National Championship when they didn’t even win their own conference?

I’d like to find out.

The BCS makes for strange bedfellows. Had the Texas Longhorns beaten Texas Tech on November 1st, they would still be the undisputed No. 1 team in the country, or possibly a very close 2nd. As it is, Burnt Orange Nation will spend the bye-week nervously watching what happens in Norman between No. 2 Tech and No. 5 OU.

Should OU win and then beat Oklahoma State on the 29th, there would be a three-way tie in the Big 12 South between OU, Tech, and Texas, with the winner decided by the BCS results. Consequently, there is a slight possibility Texas could come out on top (probably thanks to the BCS computers), and then a Big 12 victory over Missouri would then give them a very good shot at the National Championship.

On the other hand, in a three-way tie Texas could end up in third place in the Big 12 with an invitation to the Holiday Bowl. (Although apparently it is possible all three teams could end up in BCS bowls — if the rules are bent.)

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