Why the Big 12 isn't that bad

[Harvdog]

Great read....

Oh, sure, go ahead and belittle us.

Run us into the ground now that Vince Young is in that other league and we're breaking in eight new quarterbacks.

Get your shots in now.

Our very own Big 12 last weekend drops a nonconference football game or two — all right, seven — and everybody wants to make like we're a swimming conference.

Never mind that we are — thank you, Eddie Reese, Mr. Olympics.

But we do play a mean brand of football. Or at least we used to.

After all, our league has produced three straight BCS national championship finalists and four in the last six years, delivered two of the last six national champions and had two of the last eight Heisman Trophy winners — maybe even three, if the Downtown Athletic Club retroactively stipulates that all its winners actually pay their own rent during college.

Look on the bright side:

Texas could be the best team in the country outside of Ohio. And maybe Michigan. California, perhaps.

Adrian Peterson could be the first pick of next year's NFL draft. (Hello, Texans. You're on the clock.)

Kansas State's socks match.

Only Baylor is on NCAA probation for football. (Colorado's on double-secret probation for its version of "Sex and the City," but we don't count that.)

Oklahoma hasn't kicked a player off the team in weeks.

Kansas basketball starts soon.

Here are 10 major reasons you and your friends can use to argue why the Big 12 remains the best football conference in the nation.

(1) No one is more candid than our Mike Leach.

There's not another football coach in America who will excoriate his own team like Texas Tech's reigning king of insult. He's the Don Rickles of college football. Who else calls his own team soft and a bunch of prima donnas?

"We were soft and (had) our pretty-boy little attitude. . . . We got what we deserved," Leach said Monday, responding to his team's 12-3 loss to Texas Christian.

(2) Colorado has lost only three games.

Granted, Dan Hawkins' team has played only three, but the NCAA issued a favorable ruling that a poor showing in the Buffaloes' final preseason intrasquad scrimmage will not be held against them.

Of course, Georgia's up next on the schedule.

(3) Missouri's pretty good.

Really. No joke. No punch line. Probably the most improved team in the league.

(4) Nebraska held USC under 40, which is a heckuva lot more than Arkansas can say.

(5) Nobody whines better than our Bob Stoops.

OK, so he has a point after Mike Bellotti's uncle and second cousin by marriage ruled that Oregon successfully recovered the onside kick that a Duck touched before 10 yards.

And we agree that the Zapruder film confirms the Single-Pass Theory — that the Ducks' pass did ricochet off Sooners defensive end C.J. Ah You and the white picket fence at Dealy Plaza and Tom Cruise's baby before safety Darien Williams supposedly interfered with the Oregon receiver.

Report Oklahoma's record as 2-1*.

(6) Speaking of penalties, there's not a team among the 119 in Division I-A that can false-start, hold, block in the back or delay a game quite like our Longhorns.

(7) We rock on fourth-and-inches.

Sure, go ahead, and blast our Dennis Franchione for going for it on a gutsy, fourth-and-centimeters call at his own 31 — when a punt would be the safe and prudent thing to do and seal the Texas A&M win. Just rip into the Aggie coach, who was trying to make a statement against that powerhouse Army.

OK, so he did make a statement. It was dumb. But it didn't backfire, did it?

(7a) Bobby Ross doesn't coach in the Big 12. Yes, the Army coach actually made a worse decision than Fran when he tried to run in the winning touchdown on the last play of the game from the, what, 23-yard line?

(8) Did we mention Mike Leach? The guy is cracked-ribs funny.

(9) No stinking way can Toledo beat one of our teams in regulation. It took the Rockets an overtime before they could knock off our Kansas Jayhawks.

Besides, our Mark Mangino can outeat Toledo's Tom Amstutz any day of the week. If you don't believe me, let's say cheesesteaks at 20 paces.

(10) At least we don't have a blue field like Boise State.

[JayDuck]

Adrian Peterson could be the first pick of next year's NFL draft. (Hello, Texans. You're on the clock.)

Speaking of AD, can we have his nickname changed to "59 minutes", since we all know thats when a game is over anyway.

[See You Next Wednesday]

Jay, I think the OU fans have done a better job moving on than you have. Let it go, man.

[The Seer]

Nice effort, dog.

[campinfool]

That article was from Kirk Bohls of the Austin American Stateman. He pretty much sums it up though.

[Vito Corleone]

Not sure how much I really care if the B-12 is down, SOS only exists in the computer polls.

I would put the conference way behind the SEC, on par with the Big 10 and Pac 10, and above the ACC and Big East.

CU and a$m are down. Texas is down but still top 10. The big conf disapointment is blOwU and Nebraska. Tech is still a mystery because TCU is a mystery. Missou, ISU, OSU, and Baylor, are all improved. KU and KSU are crap but expected crap.

[War Wagon]

Missouri's pretty good. Really. No joke. No punch line. Probably the most improved team in the league.

aw, shucks

For real?

Seems like some guy around here has been saying that for some time now, before the season started, even.

It just warms the heart to see some start to take notice.

Too bad that any win they get against a down North division will instantly be discounted as having come against inferior competition...but I don't care. I'm taking these checks to the bank, and I'm cashing them, baby.

[Van]

Not sure how much I really care if the B-12 is down, SOS only exists in the computer polls.

I would put the conference way behind the SEC, on par with the Big 10 and Pac 10, and above the ACC and Big East.

CU and a$m are down. Texas is down but still top 10. The big conf disapointment is blOwU and Nebraska. Tech is still a mystery because TCU is a mystery. Missou, ISU, OSU, and Baylor, are all improved. KU and KSU are crap but expected crap.

Besides blatant homerism I'm not sure how you can possibly arrive at this conclusion...

The Pac 10 just went 4-0 against the Big 12 and the Pac 10 currently has the #2 or #3 (depending on the poll) ranked team in the nation. They also have 5 teams currently ranked in the top 25.

The Big 10 has the #1 team, which just smoked the Big 12's #1 team in their own place, plus the Big 12 has Michigan, which is top 6. Michigan St is a top 25 team too and even though they got smoked by ND Penn State would likely be favored over everybody in the Big 12 not wearing burnt orange or possibly crimson and cream.

Don't see any way you can say the Big 12 is currently on par with the Big 10 or Pac 10. I'm not even sure I could put the Big 12 above the Big East right now, what with so many teams in the Big 12 having down seasons...

[Vito Corleone]

Not sure how much I really care if the B-12 is down, SOS only exists in the computer polls.

I would put the conference way behind the SEC, on par with the Big 10 and Pac 10, and above the ACC and Big East.

CU and a$m are down. Texas is down but still top 10. The big conf disapointment is blOwU and Nebraska. Tech is still a mystery because TCU is a mystery. Missou, ISU, OSU, and Baylor, are all improved. KU and KSU are crap but expected crap.

Besides blatant homerism I'm not sure how you can possibly arrive at this conclusion...

The Pac 10 just went 4-0 against the Big 12 and the Pac 10 currently has the #2 or #3 (depending on the poll) ranked team in the nation. They also have 5 teams currently ranked in the top 25.

The Big 10 has the #1 team, which just smoked the Big 12's #1 team in their own place, plus the Big 12 has Michigan, which is top 6. Michigan St is a top 25 team too and even though they got smoked by ND Penn State would likely be favored over everybody in the Big 12 not wearing burnt orange or possibly crimson and cream.

Don't see any way you can say the Big 12 is currently on par with the Big 10 or Pac 10. I'm not even sure I could put the Big 12 above the Big East right now, what with so many teams in the Big 12 having down seasons...

There are over a hundred posts on this site about one of the games between pac10 and Big 12, do you really want to claim it?
P10 #1 team beat the B12 #2 or #3 team Big surprise there
P10 #2 beat the B12 #2 or #3 team in a game that we can all agree was pretty shady
P10 cellar dweller WSU (who I admit is much improved) beat B12 cellar dweller Baylor (who is also improved) Who cares neither should be part of any discussion about strength of conference.
P10 #3 or #4 team beat B12 worst team CU - Why is this even part of the discussion when CU is in such transition that they lost to a 1AA school.

My point is that if you want to look at the strength of a conference put them in order and look at how the match up with their counterpart.
Texas vs USC
OU vs UO
Nebraska vs Kal
Tech vs ASU
and so on.

Yes I think we are on par with the Pac 10, unless the games are using P10 officials, but if you want to claim Bode because Pac 10 teams beat the two worst teams in the Big 12, your best team beat our 3rd best team and your 2nd best beat our 2nd best with the refs; well it is your right.

Scoreboard Pac 10

BTW As for the Big 10, I still think Michigan is a fraud, all they did was expose a bigger fraud. Penn State is probably on par with Tech o Missouri but not with blOwU or Nebraska.