Oklahoma's BCS Outrage: Strip Bowdens, Bellotti of Their Ballots

I can understand a 10-point win in Norman not being enough to convince voters that Oklahoma was better than Missouri. 

Memorial Stadium is a hostile environment. The Tigers were without Tony Temple. And Oklahoma later stumbled at Texas Tech.  

Missouri was the No. 1 team in the nation heading into the Big 12 Championship Game, so clearly the majority of voters weren't convinced.

But Saturday's 21-point pummeling in San Antonio left no room for doubt. 

The Sooners dominated the contest in every facet at a neutral site. The question wasn't whether OU was better than Missouri—it was whether they were better than Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Hawaii, and Virginia Tech.  

Yet when USA Today released the final ballots in its Coaches' Poll on Monday, several coaches still had Missouri ranked ahead of Oklahoma. 

Of the 60 coaches who voted, Bobby Bowden had the Sooners the lowest—at No. 10.

A BCS conference champion...at No. 10? 

Behind No. 6 Missouri. And behind No. 7 Kansas, who wasn't even invited to the conference championship game.

Like father, like son:

Tommy Bowden had Mizzou fifth, Kansas sixth, and Oklahoma seventh.

And that wasn't the end.

Oregon's Mike Bellotti had Missouri fifth, Kansas sixth, and Oklahoma eighth. What—that onside kick debacle last year in Eugene wasn't enough, Mike? Felt like someone had to keep Oklahoma out of the national title game again?

But what's former OU head coach Howard Schnellenberger's excuse? 

He had Kansas No. 2—two spots ahead of the Missouri team that had beaten the Jayhawks in the regular season finale, and five ahead of the Big 12 Champions.

This isn't ignorance. This is tantamount to cheating. 

Take their ballots away. 

Now.

Bob Stoops isn't beyond reproach. He ranked his two-loss Sooners No. 1 and listed two-loss SEC Champion LSU at No. 6.  

Clearly Stoops was dropping the Bayou Bengals as low as he could possibly justify, knowing that they were his main competition for the No. 2 spot.

But then again LSU didn't beat Oklahoma twice head-to-head this season. And, in fairness, Les Miles did virtually the same thing, voting LSU No. 1 and Oklahoma No. 5.

So while that five-spot discrepancy is unacceptable, you can at least attempt to defend it.  

There's no defense for what the Bowdens, Bellotti, and Schnellenberger did.  

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