The Rome report

The Big 12 South division has been the best division in all of college football this season. The play of Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech made people question whether the Big 12 was better than the SEC from top to bottom this year. The Big 12 has gotten more respect this year because of those schools and that is a good thing. But now, the conference has a problem. Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech are all 7-1 in the conference and have gone 1-1 against each other. Texas beat Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas but lost to Texas Tech on a last second touchdown pass. Oklahoma pounded Texas Tech but lost to Texas. Texas Tech beat Texas but got drilled by Oklahoma. You have three teams but only one can win the division and move onto the
Big 12 title game. So how do you decide?

Big 12 tiebreaker rules state if you have three or more teams tied you follow these steps to determine the division winner.

1. The records of the three teams will be compared against each other. That doesn’t help. All three teams are 11-1.

2. The records of the three teams will be compared within their division. That doesn’t help either. All three teams are 7-1 in the Big 12.

3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5 and 6). We are still at a stalemate. All three teams beat the 4th (Oklahoma State), 5th (Baylor) and 6th-place (Texas A&M) teams in the Big 12 South.

4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents. We still don’t have a winner. The teams were 4-0 against all common conference opponents (Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas A&M and Kansas).

The fifth tiebreaker is where the conference is going to have a problem. That’s because the fifth tiebreaker is BCS ranking at the end of the Big 12 regular season. The reason this is a problem is because the BCS rankings are subjective. The BCS rankings are determined by polls. Basically, human and computer polls will determine who will win the Big 12 South instead of it being decided on the field.

The reason this is going to be a problem because while it seems most people believe Texas should win the division, most people are projecting Oklahoma will win it (at the time of writing this piece, the polls have not come out). Texas’ supporters think the Longhorns should go over Oklahoma because they beat the Sooners head-to-head. But if you use that logic, Texas Tech’s supporters could use the same argument. Oklahoma supporters think they should go because they are the hottest team right now. But should they go ahead of a team they lost to?

No matter what happens, someone will be unhappy. I think all three teams have good arguments on why they deserve to win the division. If I had to choose, I would take Texas. The reason I would take the Longhorns is because they beat Oklahoma and barely lost to Texas Tech. I eliminate Texas Tech because they lost so late in the season and losing late in the season hurts you more in the eyes of the voters. I don’t agree with that, but that’s how college football works. My advice to the Big 12: don’t use BCS rankings to determine tiebreakers. Try using point differential between common conference opponents. At least that’s determined on the field.