First BCS Poll: How Does a 'Struggling' Team Claim the Top Spot?

When the first BCS rankings were announced on Sunday, Oklahoma was sitting pretty at the top, and columnists and sports fans around the country seemed to have the same thing to say.  “How can OU be on top?  They struggled to win against Utah State, Air Force, Cincinnati and Texas!”  This seems to be the common argument against the Sooners’ lofty ranking. In an era in which opinions are formed more from what is written by pundits or spoken by talking heads than by observation of the facts, this is not surprising.  However, is it accurate?  Let’s take a look.

Under the definition of “struggle” on dictionary.com, there is a specific definition relating to athletes and competitors.  It defines the word as, “to be coping with inability to perform well or to win; contend with difficulty.”  Let’s examine the definition as it relates to OU’s season thus far. 

The inability to win is obviously not in question as the Sooners are undefeated.  What about the “inability to perform well” or “contend with difficulty” parts of the definition?  Here are some statistics for Oklahoma’s first 6 games of the season:

Total minutes played: 360
Total time playing from behind: 3 minutes, 3 seconds.

That’s correct.  In the first six games of the season, OU has only trailed for a mere 183 seconds, which was in the first quarter of the game against Cincinnati.  The Bearcats kicked a field goal on their first drive, and in less time than it takes to wait in line for a latte at Starbucks, the Sooners took the ensuing kickoff and drove down the field to score.  Those few ticks of the clock are the only time in all of their games they have trailed.   

Average lead at halftime – 16 point
Average lead at end of third quarter – 22 points

Granted, these take into account the huge halftime and third quarter leads against FSU and ISU.   Take those numbers out of the equation, and the average halftime lead against the teams they “struggled” against was still 10 points and third quarter lead was 12 points.  In both of these instances, OU averaged a two-score lead at halftime and with 15 minutes left to play. 

So if OU has been either tied or ahead for 99 percent of their time on the field, and have had double digit leads at the end of both the half and third quarters, then where is the idea they are struggling coming from?  The final margin of victory is what people point to, which in turn is attributable to the Sooners “struggling” in the fourth quarter. 

Total points scored by OU in fourth quarter – 24
Total points scored by opponent in fourth quarter – 51

The last 15 minutes of the game seems to be where OU has not lived up to expectations.  Of the 51 points scored, 10 were by Florida State in a game that was well in hand by Oklahoma.  Air Force scored 14, Cincinnati scored 17 and Texas scored 10.  Strangely, the team that everyone points to that OU “struggled” the most with, Utah State, did not score in the fourth quarter.

So what does this tell us?  Did Oklahoma really “contend with difficulty” against perceived lesser competition?  In the fourth quarter perhaps, although game plans change in the fourth quarter depending on the score at the time.   An in-depth look into the fourth quarters might show some weaknesses on the part of OU, both from an offensive and defensive perspective.  It might also show that the game plan changed to adapt to closing out the game with a win.

Struggling teams rarely trail in only one percent of their minutes played.  Struggling teams rarely lead by double digits at the end of the half or third quarter.  Struggling teams rarely top the BCS polls either.