BCS Got it Right: Oklahoma More Deserving than Texas or Texas Tech

I'm not a Texas fan or a Texas Tech fan and I don't like Oklahoma.

I don't like Oklahoma because they appear to get overrated in the polls each year and because I seem to remember Bob Stoops once saying, "The Big East and the Atlantic Coastal Conference should  play an elimination game for a BCS automatic bid."

I'm hoping Oklahoma loses to Missouri this weekend and ends up playing Boise State in a bowl game.

However, I really do believe that the Sooners rightfully deserve the chance to play in the Big 12 Championship game over Texas or Texas Tech.

I know that Texas beat Oklahoma 45-35 on a neutral field and I know that Texas Tech beat Texas and Oklahoma beat Texas Tech.

You can go around in circles forever about which one deserves the higher BCS ranking on the basis of these three games. That's up to you.

Oklahoma is still the right choice!

The Sooners aren't more deserving because they totally annihilated Texas Tech as some people suggest, but rather because they went out and beat some tough non-conference teams while Texas and Texas Tech did not.

Oklahoma beat Cincinnati, the Big East champion, and TCU, currently ranked 11th in the BCS.

Texas played and beat Arkansas, Rice, UTEP, and Florida Atlantic. Meanwhile, Texas Tech had the easiest schedule of any Divison 1A team in the country—the Red Raiders beat Umass, Eastern Washington, Nevada, and SMU.

There is a lesson here—if you want to be highly-regarded, go out and schedule some tough non-conference teams!

Alabama, No. 1 in the BCS, didn't make an effort to play a tough non-conference schedule. I don't consider Clemson, Tulane, Western Kentucky, and Arkansas State a real test. They're No. 1 because no one else from a BCS conference is undefeated.

Florida did play some tough games out of conference. They beat Miami (FL) and Florida State. This didn't get them ranked higher than Alabama because they have a loss, but it did help the odds makers to decide they should be a 10-point favorite over Alabama in the SEC Championship Game this weekend.

USC is another team that made an effort to play a good non-conference schedule—Virginia, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. Nobody knew how bad Notre Dame was going to be, but I believe it's the way they beat Ohio State and the great defense they play that makes USC the best team in the country.

Back to the topic: Oklahoma should be rewarded for aggressive scheduling and Texas and Texas Tech should be penalized for poor scheduling.

This makes more sense than arguing about which one of the three had better wins against each other.