BCS National Championship: War of words - It’s not Big 12 vs. SEC
It’s OU vs. Florida, and stats won’t really matter to winner
By Berry Tramel
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65
Published: January 5, 2009
Modified: January 7, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Modified: January 7, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Florida quarterback Tim Tebow will face a Big 12 defense on Thursday night against OU. AP photo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — SEC broadcaster Gary Danielson compares Big 12 stats to pesos. Florida quarterback Tim Tebow did or didn’t say he couldn’t wait to go against a Big 12 defense. OU cornerback Dom Franks says Tebow would be no better than the fourth-best quarterback in the Sooners’ league.
The Oklahoma-Florida Big Bowl is becoming less a quest for that Waterford crystal football and more a barstool argument on conference bragging rights. Which is just downright silly. "It’s not the SEC vs. the Big 12,” said OU d-coordinator Brent Venables. "It’s not defense vs. offense.” It’s Sooners vs. Gators, and whether the score is 13-2 or 41-38 makes no never mind. The winner will be remembered long after everyone has forgotten which conference won this spitting match. I blame the SEC for the posturing. They are a provincial bunch down South. "SEC! SEC!” they chant at the end of bowl wins, just like their basketball cousins in the ACC. It builds great conference love and serves as a dandy PR pulpit. It also can grate on anyone who wearies of partisan politics. The Southeastern Conference does play some fine football, starting with these Gators, who are loaded in every way. But the SEC’s dominance stems in part from standing on Stone Mountain and yelling through a megaphone. For instance, the Big Bowl theme that Big 12 defenses are not up to SEC standards. No duh. The top-rated Big 12 defense, Texas’, ranks 49th nationally. Nine Big 12 defenses rank between 77 and 117 in the 119-team division. Meanwhile, 11 SEC teams rank in the top 40 in total defense; eight rank in the top 30. But turn it around. SEC offenses are el stinko. Half the league, six teams, rank between 97th and 117th. And that’s not because of sabertooth defenses. Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Auburn, South Carolina. Those teams fail the eye test. Bad quarterbacking, bad blocking, bad offenses, whether they’re playing Florida or Wyoming. Team statistical rankings are fool’s gold. "Stats are for you guys, not us,” said OU safety Nic Harris. "If we come out on the 8th, have more points than Florida does, I’m pretty sure you’re not going to be talking about the numbers.” Here’s the dead-level truth. The Gators aren’t playing a Big 12 defense. They’re playing Oklahoma’s defense. The Sooners aren’t playing an SEC offense. They’re playing the Gator offense, and with apologies to Dom Franks, if Tebow is the nation’s fourth-best quarterback, it’s a heck of a quarterback year. "We know we can play good defense and always have,” Venables said. Well, not always. But mostly. And very well in big games down the stretch. Oklahoma State popped the Sooners pretty good, but OU’s D was superb against both Texas Tech and Missouri down the stretch. "There’s a lot of great teams in the Big 12,” said OU d-tackle G.K. McCoy. "Our numbers are what they are. It’s not about what our numbers are. It’s what they’ll be Thursday.” When you play against big-time quarterbacks, bad numbers happen. Defenses are best served, Harris said, by thick skin and short memory. "I’m pretty sure we’re coming out with the win,” Harris said. "All the critics will be silenced. All the stats will go down the drain.” Franks more than most seems tired of the Big 12 defense theory. "A lot of people say we don’t play any defense,” said Franks, a stoic interview who was more emboldened by the minute in a Sunday press briefing. "We do play defense. This is going to be our chance on a national stage to prove it. If we stop them, all the doubt will be gone.” Let’s make a deal: If the Sooner D plays great, or Master Tebow makes a solid case that he deserved a Heisman bookend, let’s hail the victors and proclaim them the best in the land. But let’s leave the conference argument alone. Berry Tramel: 405-760-8080. Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.
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Hook 'EM
Go Gators.
CJ Savannah
My belief is that USC, obviously, can play with anyone, week in, week out. My guess, and it's only guess as there's no way to know, is that Oklahoma or Texas, in the Pac-10 without USC, wins virtually every year, like the resurgent Trojan program. USC loses only because they don't get up for every game, not because Cal or Oregon St. is better. Please.
But there are no other traditionally strong programs in the Pac-10. In the Big 12, there are at least three, OU, Texas, and Nebraska. Now, one might suck in any given year, but there are three national championship programs in the conference recruiting, etc.
Sure Oregon might have a great team one year, or a pretty darn good team for a few years. But if you're USC, and your big game is Oregon (or Cal, for crying out loud), vs. being Oklahoma and having your big game be Texas, every year, and then have the TTs, OSUs, Nebraska, etc. to trip you up...I'd rather be USC.
It's not a big chest-thumping thing, I just don't have much respect (and neither do the objective computer rankings) for the strength of schedule the Pac-10 represents.
But hey, I'm not one of those "The Big 12 rawks!!!!!" kinda guys, either. I just think the only thing you can say is that teams with more than one or two national championships, those kinds of programs, dictate the relative strength of various conferences, over time.
Put OU and Texas in the Pac-10...then you have a real conference.
My belief is that USC, obviously, can play with anyone, week in, week out. My guess, and it's only guess as there's no way to know, is that Oklahoma or Texas, in the Pac-10 without USC, wins virtually every year, like the resurgent Trojan program. USC loses only because they don't get up for every game, not because Cal or Oregon St. is better. Please.
But there are no other traditionally strong programs in the Pac-10. In the Big 12, there are at least three, OU, Texas, and Nebraska. Now, one might suck in any given year, but there are three national championship programs in the conference recruiting, etc.
Sure Oregon might have a great team one year, or a pretty darn good team for a few years. But if you're USC, and your big game is Oregon (or Cal, for crying out loud), vs. being Oklahoma and having your big game be Texas, every year, and then have the TTs, OSUs, Nebraska, etc. to trip you up...I'd rather be USC.
It's not a big chest-thumping thing, I just don't have much respect (and neither do the objective computer rankings) for the strength of schedule the Pac-10 represents.
But hey, I'm not one of those "The Big 12 rawks!!!!!" kinda guys, either. I just think the only thing you can say is that teams with more than one or two national championships, those kinds of programs, dictate the relative strength of various conferences, over time.
Put OU and Texas in the Pac-10...then you have a real conference.
Watching Bama against Utah, you could see the SEC-Big 12 argument is silly. All such arguments are (except the ones where we say the PAC-10 is a bad conference). TT vs. Ole Miss...It proves nothing. The teams, the players' heads, motivations, etc., are all very different. It's some teams' Superbowl, some teams' toilet bowl.
Watching Bama against Utah, you could see the SEC-Big 12 argument is silly. All such arguments are (except the ones where we say the PAC-10 is a bad conference). TT vs. Ole Miss...It proves nothing. The teams, the players' heads, motivations, etc., are all very different. It's some teams' Superbowl, some teams' toilet bowl.
You want real results, they should move into a playoff right after the end of the season. Otherwise, it's fun to talk, brag, whatever, but the hype, the month off, the prep time and all the rest...It changes the dynamics of these games in ways we can never know.