Who wants a TITLE?

There’s far too much going on with KU football; it’s hard to know what to think or write about. KU won over Oklahoma State last Saturday, playing at night, on ABC, with Brent Mursberger and Kirk Herbstreit on hand. The Jayhawks are now 10-0 and ranked #3 in the BCS poll. QB Todd Reesing is being seriously talked about being invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony (I don’t think anyone really believes he could actually win it at this point).

Today I’m just going to look at the national title picture, starting with Arizona State, Ohio State, West Virginia, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Tomorrow we’ll do Kansas, LSU, and Oregon.

We’ll look at each team with a decent shot at the thing, and what they’ve done so far, and what they have ahead. I’m not going to get worked up about KU being behind one-loss teams right now; there’s too much football to be played. If KU wins their next two games, then it will be time to start really looking at who should be in, and, by then Oregon and LSU (or anyone else for that matter) could have 2 or more losses.

As Bobby Bowden said about the national title race, right after his team lost their first game of the year, “These things tend to sort themselves out, and we just go sorted out.”

Current BCS rankings:

1) LSU, 9-1
2) Oregon, 8-1
3) Kansas, 10-0
4) Oklahoma, 9-1
5) Missouri, 9-1
6) West Virginia, 8-1
7) Ohio State, 10-1
8) Arizona State, 9-1
9) Georgia, 8-2
10) Virginia Tech, 8-2

Here are the BCS Bowls these teams are fighting for. If a team slotted to go to a certain bowl is instead in the title game, they are replaced with an at-large team.

Rose Bowl – Jan. 1, 4:30 pm ABC (Rose Bowl)
Big Ten champion vs. Pac-10 champion
Sugar Bowl – Jan. 1, 8:30 pm, New Orleans (Superdome)
SEC champion vs. at-large
Fiesta Bowl – Jan. 2, 8 pm FOX (University of Phoenix Stadium)
Big 12 champion vs. at-large
Orange Bowl – Jan. 3, 8 pm FOX Miami (Dolphin Stadium)
ACC champion vs. at-large
National Championship – Jan. 7, 8 pm FOX, New Orleans (Superdome)

Setting aside #10 Virginia Tech and #9 Georgia, since a team with two losses is not going to play for the title, there are eight teams alive in the championship hunt. Recent precedent says that a undefeated team out of a non-BCS conference doesn't get in the title game (see Boise State in 2006, Utah in 2004), so Hawaii (9-0, #16) and Boise State (9-1, #18) have no shot at the title game either. The winner of their game, however, on 11/23 in Hawaii, will likely play in a BCS game.

Outside looking in

Arizona State (9-1, #8)
Loss: @ Oregon (8-1, #2) 35-23
Wins: vs. Cal (6-4) 31-20; vs. UCLA (5-5) 24-20
Remaining games: 11/22 vs. USC (8-2, #11); 12/1 vs. Arizona (4-6)

ASU is a program that has had limited success in the past. Jake the Snake Plummer led the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl in 1996 with a perfect 11-0 record, before dropping a heartbreaker to Ohio State 20-17. In the Sugar Bowl that year, one-loss Florida beat undefeated Florida St. in the “championship game.” If Arizona State had held on, they would have had at least a share of the title. I was definitely cheering for Arizona State, as they were a team I hadn’t really seen before, and they wear what I think are quality uniforms (probably top 10, maybe top 5 in college football). When the Snake led them to a score with about 2 minutes left, they led 17-14, but Ohio St. drove the length of the field for the winning touchdown. Having your team give up a last minute touchdown drive with the national championship in their grasp has to be high on the list of gut-wrenching sports moments.

Now, the Sun Devils are back on the national stage. Dennis Erickson is alive! He escaped from his NCAA-mandated prison term in Idaho (nothing against the Vandals) and is again coaching in the Pac-10! Erickson is in his first year after Dick Koetter was fired last year. The Koetter deal was odd, as he had ASU in bowl games 4 of his last 5 years, but they were crappy bowls. Erickson will have your team in a BCS in a year or two, but will bail on your team shortly thereafter, or will leave your team on probation, or more likely both.

Miami under Erickson won titles in 1989 and 1991, but had 3 years of probation after Erickson bailed for the Seahawks. Erickson also led surprising Oregon State to an 11-1 record in 2000, a share of the Pac-10 title, and a total destruction of Notre Dame 41-7 in the Fiesta Bowl. The Beavers were a close loss to Washington from perhaps being champs. He then left for the 49ers.

The Sun Devils were in the top 5 after starting out 8-0, but dropped their big game with Oregon. That’s as good of loss as anyone, but their best win is against 6-4 Cal, who started out strong but is now a major disappointment. ASU's only remaining chance to impress anyone is against USC, which won’t be enough.

Outlook: ASU only gets in if they are one of only two one-loss teams. That’s unlikely.

Ohio State (10-1, #7)
Loss: vs. Illinois (8-3, #19) 28-21
Wins: vs. N’Western (6-5) 58-7; @ Purdue (7-4) 23-7; vs. Mich. St. (6-5) 24-17; @ Penn St. (8-3) 37-17; vs. Wisconsin (8-3) 28-21
Remaining game: this week @ Michigan (8-3, #21)

Does anybody want to read about Ohio State? Good, because I don’t want to write anything. But I guess I will give a little bit. They lost two title games last year to Florida, it is a gigantic university with a gigantic stadium, and they have a gigantic rivalry with the Wolverines.

The Buckeyes have 5 national titles, with the most recent coming under current coach Jim Tressel in 2002. That team featured Chris Gamble playing both ways, a clear rip-off of what Charles Woodson had done for Michigan in the late 90s. Maurice Clarett was the star freshman running back, who is now a star freshman cell phone thief. That was the bizarre story of last year, as I woke up hazy on New Years Day to hear that Clarett had spent his night sticking people up for cash and cell phones. Dude, the iphone wasn't even out yet!

My memories of Ohio State are mostly connected to my uncle Don, who went to grad school at Ohio State (KU undergrad of course). Several times while I was growing up Ohio State went undefeated and would then lose their last game to arch rival Michigan, and my uncle would go nuts on John Cooper. I never understood his anger, as Ohio State was always pretty good and much better than KU. But looking at Cooper’s record, he was 2-10-1 against Michigan and a 3-9 record in bowl games. Ouch. Check out the Buckeyes’ record going into the Michigan game and the result in those games in the following years: 1993 9-0-1, 28-0 loss in Ann Arbor; 1995 11-0, 31-23 loss in Ann Arbor; 1996 10-0, 13-9 loss in Columbus; and 8-0 in 1998 before losing at home to unranked Michigan State on the way to an 11-1 record.

This year, that loss to Illinois killed Ohio State. They have no marquee wins and a home loss. Illinois isn’t terrible, but it’s probably the worst loss of all the teams here (OU losing @ CU is probably as bad though). A win over Michigan isn’t going to impress anyone either. Some real funky stuff will have to go down in the Big 12 for Ohio State to get to the title game, which also applies to West Virginia. Either KU or Mizzou would have to lose this weekend, or lose to a Oklahoma team with more than one loss (or Texas) in the Big 12 championship game. Otherwise the winner of the Big 12 triumvirate challenge will be ahead of Ohio State. Or LSU and Oregon would both have to lose.

Outlook: Slim chance, still Big 10 title and a Rose Bowl berth to play for, and the Buckeyes will probably be able to get up for Michigan.

West Virginia (8-1, #6)
Loss: @ South Florida (7-3) 21-13
Wins: @ Maryland (5-5) 31-14; vs. Miss. St. (6-4) 38-13; @ Rutgers (6-4) 31-3; vs. Louisville (5-5) 38-31
Remaining games: this week @ Cincinnati (8-2, #22); 11/24 vs. UConn (8-2, #24); 12/1 vs. Pitt (4-5)

I have a friend from law school that went to West Virginia, and one day I yelled at him while we were talking football “Major Harris! Major Harris!” He was very excited about my knowledge of Mr. Harris - apparently Major Harris is a legend in Morgantown still today. Major Harris was definitely my first memory of West Virginia football, as he led the Mountaineers to an 11-0 regular season record in 1988 before losing to undefeated national champs Notre Dame (boy, those words sound odd together these days) in the Fiesta Bowl. The way I remember it, West Virginia had an outside shot at winning the title, as Miami had only one loss (by one in South Bend), but maybe they could’ve gotten a split title at least.

I researched what Harris did after he played at WVU, and I think this sentence from wikipedia sums it up nicely: “Harris played one season in the Canadian Football League with the British Columbia Lions before spending parts of the next five years in the Arena Football League, where his 429 rushing yards in 1991 stood as a single-season league record until Michael Bishop ran for 459 yards in 2005.”

Major Harris and Michael Bishop. Interesting.

This year’s team is near the top of college football for the third straight year under Coach Rich Rodriguez. Quarterback Pat White and halfback Steve Slaton led West Virginia as freshmen in 2005 to an 11-1 record and a wild 38-35 win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Last year, West Virginia’s first loss was to Louisville (only team to beat WVU in 2005), and then lost in an upset to South Florida.

The loss to South Florida this year hurts even more, as it has kept the Mountaineers from being at the top of the BCS. White was also injured in the first half, and the usually stout West Virginia offense struggled in the second half without him. It is a loss that is respectable, but not as good as it looked at the time (isn’t weird talking about losses as being “good”?), with South Florida losing three games since.

Outlook: See above. A lot of things need to happen. Here's a cheerleader:

Can make a pretty good argument (if they win out)

Missouri (9-1, #5)
Loss: @ Oklahoma 41-31
Wins: vs. Illinois (8-3, #19) 40-34 in St. Louis; vs. Texas Tech (7-4) 41-10; vs. Texas A&M (6-5) 40-26
Remaining games: this week @ K-State (5-5); 11/24 vs. Kansas (10-0, #3) in Kansas City; possible Big 12 title game – likely vs. OU

Missouri has a football team?

I’ll have a lot more on Mizzou leading up to BORDER WAR! Until then, I’m just going to leave them alone, except to give a little warning to the Tigers:

Beware!

Outlook: Mizzou wins out they are in the title game, unless both Oregon and LSU both win out. Then Missouri will be left out in the cold to whine, just like in 1960 (scoreboards never lie fools!).

Sorry about the ugly meth chick, here's a real picture of a Mizzou Golden Girl:

Just kidding again (but the Mizzou dancers are really called the Golden Girls! I bet I'm the first to make fun of that!) Here's a real girl:

Oklahoma (9-1, #4)
Loss: @ Colorado (5-6) 27-24
Wins: vs. Tulsa (7-3) 62-31; vs. UT (9-2, #13) 28-21 in Dallas; 41-31 Mizzou (9-1, #5); vs. Texas A&M (6-5) 42-14
Remaining games: this week @ Texas Tech (7-4), next week vs. OSU (5-5); possible Big 12 title game vs. KU/MU winner

Something I just learned, OU’s football history begins with a former KU football player. Bennie Owen was the quarterback of the 1899 Kansas team that went 10-0. He was coach at Oklahoma from 1905 to 1926, compiling a 122-54-16 record. Oklahoma now plays at Owen Field, though there is some other stupid name for the stadium. Good looking guy too:

Bud Wilkinson was the coach in the 1950s, and had the famous 47 game winning streak, which was snapped of course after Sports Illustrated ran the famous cover with the caption “Why Oklahoma is Unbeatable.” OU has seven national titles: 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000.

The 2000 team is definitely the most interesting to me, and not just because it was under current coach Bob Stoops. It kind of came out of nowhere, and had Mark Mangino as offensive coordinator. Sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it Jayhawk fans? It really was no less surprising than KU’s run this year, and only isn’t remembered as such because it was by a team wearing jerseys that say “Oklahoma.”

John Blake preceded Stoops as coach and had the following seasons: 1995 - 5-5-1, 1996 - 3-8, 1997 - 4-8, and 1998 - 5-6. Stoops in his first year, 1999, was 7-5 and lost to Mississippi State in the Independence Bowl.

In 2000 Oklahoma entered the season ranked #19 in the AP poll, and shredded UTEP, Arkansas St, and Rice in the non-conference (similar to KU this year). This is where the 2007 KU/2000 OU comparison falls apart a bit, as OU played some highly ranked Big 12 teams, something KU has not had the opportunity to do this year. OU won the Red River Shootout over #11 Texas (63-14), then won the next week at #2 K-State (41-31), and after a bye week, beat #1 Nebraska in Norman (31-14). OU eked out a win in Big 12 title game over KSU 27-24, then beat an overrated Florida State 13-2 to win the title. K-State was good that year, and beat Tennessee in Cotton Bowl to finish 11-3. Nebraska was 10-2, losing only @ OU and @ K-State (thank god they fired Solich! Hahaha.)

Of course, if KU beats MU and OU in back-to-back weeks, they would have a similar run.

This year’s Sooners have that bad, bad loss at Colorado. It’s an interesting debate between OU and Mizzou, and hinges on the stupid whose loss is better question. Mizzou claims to be better, as they have a “better” loss – at Oklahoma. Of course, Oklahoma won the head-to-head match-up. I’m thinking OU fell asleep in Boulder with a lead late, and are the better team since they, you know, WON THE GAME against Missouri. And Missouri, a 10 point loss is not that close of a loss - try to stay within one score of a team if you're going to crow about the loss later.

Outlook: Gotta win out and hope for help from someone to jump Oregon and LSU. Possible that a win over a highly ranked Kansas (or Missouri I suppose) could leap them over the Ducks.

Best team in the country with three losses: Florida Gators! Yeah, I just had some pics that seemed a shame to waste...