To give the Big Ten(leven) bashers credit, they have a point.
Up until you realize that they're from the Big xII and...well....Uh...
"Wait!" Big xII fans will say. "We've got BIG GAME Bob Stoops and the Sooners!" a powerhouse of a team with first round draft picks and.....
Blowout losses by LSU & Florida preceded by a loss to Boise St.
Sorry...try again.
"OK" you say "We've got Texas with Mack Brown and
A schedule that would make even the bluest of Texas blue-bloods cry. Your signature win? Over a 3-loss Okie State team caught up in a scandal involving their best player. Yes, yes, yes we know. You beat OU, and UTEP who beat Houston which means that according to six degrees of football seperation you can keep calling UH "Cougar High" for another year. We get that.
But the fact remains that your chest-thumping, bong-water drinking this season has been relegated to the argument that Case Keenum doesn't deserve the Heisman because he plays for a small school.....That's right, your QB and his attached-at-the-hip-roomate/buddy top passing target aren't even in the picture. And Case? Well...he's had better stats against common opponents. Deal with it Horn fan. You're still on probation for giving this guy a degree. Any reputable institution would have never let him out of the gate. You're responsible for that Longhorn, so deal with it. Last year you barely beat the team you like to make fun of. That's right, you're three points better than Ohio State.
The point I'm making here is that the Big xII is quickly morphing into what used to be the Big Ten(leven) a team that could beat up on each other and beat regional teams to the point that the disinterested media (who pay little attention to the actual games) get fooled into thinking that a 30 point win over UTEP is somehow equivilent to a 10 point win over Clemson. This illusion holds up until the point
That's what is happening to the Big xII right now. We're starting to see them for what they are: A regional conference, much like the Big Ten(leven) who's desperately trying to remain competative with the SEC. Heck, even Cincinatti is probably better than Texas this year, and they're a Big (L)East school. The Longhorns struggled to beat a 4-loss OU team that was overrated all year long. Even Cincy understood how to handle Rutgers.
What this means is that the real National Championship game is going to be played December 5th between Florida and Alabama. Unless, that is, Texas somehow loses to either Baylor, aTM, Kansas or (presumeably) K-State in the Big xII championship game allowing Cincinatti, TCU or even the loser of that game to sneak in the back door. Then we might get something resembling a championship. Sure, Texas fans won't like it, but all they have as an argument is that...well...they're Texas and, despite the fact that their schedule is weaker than Maddoff's defense, that should be overlooked because (and I'm not making this up) "Mack Brown is a really nice guy."
But, and we all know this, it's not going to happen that way. What's going to happen is that Texas is going to walk over what's left of their weak-sister schedule and be in line to play the winner of Alabama/Florida. All that will be left is a bunch of useless media run-up to what's surely to be a lop-sided game. The B(C)S will have their champions (again hailing from the SEC) and t-shirt Texas fans will have something new to run out and buy....
The rest of us will dread the coming of NEXT year, when the Big Ten(leven) will again be deemed "weak" by pundits hailing from Big xII land.
