Why the Big 12 isn't that bad
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:31 pm
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.
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.