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College Football Tailgate Raiders and Sooners Square Off
Jonathan Lee    AccuScore Analyst
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There has been one familiar refrain this season in college football:the game of the week is in the Big 12.While the SEC likes to trumpet itself as the nation’s best conference, I believe the Big 12 has played the best football all season, and it is not particularly close.Both conferences are top heavy so that argument is out the window.Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State, while all clustered in the South division, still form the four best teams in any one conference this season.Two of those teams, Texas Tech and Oklahoma, face off Saturday in a game that could clear up the BCS picture, or throw it into even more chaos.

If the Red Raiders win they would move onto the Big 12 championship game and face Missouri.Oklahoma would have two losses leaving Texas still with an outside shot at the national title (with just one conference loss).If Oklahoma were to win it would create a three-way tie in the South, and the highest ranked team in the BCS would go to the conference championship game.That team would more than likely be Oklahoma leaving Texas Tech and Texas with an outside shot at the BCS should the Sooners stumble.*

Bradford is expected to lead the Sooners to a win with a more efficient day than Harrell.
Bradford is expected to lead the
Sooners to a win with a more
efficient day than Harrell.

*After this weekend, Oklahoma still has Oklahoma State remaining on its schedule.Texas has Texas A&M while Texas Tech has Baylor remaining.These following hypothetical situations assume that all three would win these games.

Currently AccuScore projections place Oklahoma as the solid favorites winning over 60 percent of simulations and winning by more than 4 points.The one thing should be as close to a lock as can be in sports is that there will be plenty of points scored on Saturday.On average, our simulations have the two teams combining for nearly 1000 yards of offense and 77 points.Both teams have played solidly on defense this season, but neither has faced an offense quite this prolific aside from Texas.

The two quarterbacks will likely be the focus for both teams as their accurate, efficient passing power the offenses.Graham Harrell is projected to throw for over 335 yards and nearly 3 touchdowns.Sam Bradford is projected for 270 yards and 2.6 touchdowns, but much more efficient with fewer interceptions and a better completion rate.

The Sooners have the bigger advantage on defense as they are +1.7 in turnover margin in the average simulation while collecting 3+ sacks.They have also not lost at home in Norman in their last 23 games dating back to 2003.Texas Tech will need to play their best game to date to continue on with its unbeaten season.

FLORIDA PREPS FOR ‘BAMA…WITH CITADEL?

I’ll admit, I have no idea why Florida, ranked No. 4 in the BCS, is playing the Citadel this week and haven’t bothered to find out why.I don’t know if it is the renewal of some rivalry from the 19th century, some sort of strange contractual obligation, or straight bribery or backdoor shenanigans by university presidents.What I do know is that Florida versus Citadel this late in the season makes absolutely zero sense.

The Gators need to be preparing for Alabama in the SEC title game.Instead they have set up a scrimmage for their second and third string to get some late season work.The guaranteed victory does not even matter since the Citadel is not even a FBS squad.Even in a down year the win wouldn’t help Florida become theoretically bowl eligible.The Citadel probably gets a nice check for getting walloped in the Swamp.Florida?They get…nothing.

WHY WE NEED A PLAYOFF – REASON NO. 4,283

Ball State moved to 11-0 with a 31-24 lead over Central Michigan ending a two-year run by the Chippewas atop the MAC.The Cardinals need to beat Western Michigan next week to lock up the West division (the Broncos are 6-1) to finish an unbeaten regular season.Despite all that, Ball State will more than likely be left out of the BCS party.

The most compelling reason to me for a playoff is that half of the Football Bowl Subdivision is immediately excluded every year from having a chance to win the national championship.In what world does that make sense?Ball State has won every game it has played, many of them convincingly.Why shouldn’t they at least have a chance to win a title?What more must they do?

Only teams in the big six conferences even have a chance to win the national title when the season begins.It renders every game played by the Mountain West, WAC, MAC, Sun Belt, and Conference USA essentially meaningless.Every other sport has a mechanism for every team to win the championship except for major college football, and that needs to be rectified as quickly as possible.
 
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