Oklahoma Sooners Football: Stoops' Troops Win Big Despite Bye Week

Let the chaos begin.

Saturday began with a total of five undefeated football teams left in the FBS. Four of these teams were ranked ahead of the one-loss Sooners and were blocking the way back to the program's fifth BCS Championship Game appearance since 2000.

After home-field losses by both No. 4 Stanford and No. 5 Boise State, there are only three undefeateds left. One of them, Houston, plays in Conference USA and has no shot at playing for the national championship.

The other two, top-ranked LSU and No. 2 Oklahoma State, still have stiff tests left in the season.

The Tigers must still beat the high-scoring Arkansas Razorbacks, another team sure to be ranked in the top six in the country after this weekend. Win that one and LSU will have to defeat the SEC East champion—likely to be a Georgia team on a ten-game win streak—in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.

Oklahoma State hosts the Sooners in Stillwater on December 3rd. If LSU stumbles against Arkansas, this could be a meeting between a No.1 OSU and a top-five-ranked Sooners squad.

While it is likely that the Sooners may not move up in the BCS standings this weekend from their current spot at No. 6, the table is set up perfectly for the Sooners to make it back to the BCS title game.

Look for Oregon to take over Stanfords' spot at No. 4 in the BCS after the Ducks' victory in Palo Alto over the weekend. That is to be expected after shooting down the undefeated Cardinal on the road.

There is also a good possibility that Arkansas could jump the Sooners, going from No. 7 up to No. 5 in the BCS standings, after curb stomping Tennessee on Saturday. That is OK, too.

Why? Because the odds say that all the Sooners have to do now is win out from here and they will be in the top two of the final BCS standings.

While there are sure to be fans in Oregon and down in SEC country who do not want to hear this, the truth is that as long as neither Oklahoma or Oklahoma State lose before the Bedlam game, the winner of this game will be playing for the national championship in New Orleans come January 8th.

How can this be certain? Well, there are a number of reasons.

The first would be because the winner of the Bedlam game will be ranked no lower than second by the computers. This regular-season-ending game will give the winner a huge bump in their strength of schedule.

While SOS is no longer an individual component used in the BCS rankings, the computers all factor it into their rankings. Both Oklahoma schools will have played a tougher schedule than any other contender, with the exception of LSU.

The second reason is, particularly if LSU wins out, nobody will want to see a rematch between Oregon and LSU after the Bayou Bengals won handily in the first week of the season. In fact, nobody will want to see Oregon against Alabama, either.

While it is possible that the Ducks could beat them, it is not highly likely. Both LSU and Alabama have defenses perfectly suited for stopping Oregon's run-first, read-option offense.

The next reason is we will not see two schools from the same conference play for the title. Sorry, 'Bama fans, but your only real hope is for LSU to lose to either Arkansas or Georgia.

Despite what ESPN is trying to sell us, all the LSU victory over Alabama proved was that both teams are really good at stopping the run and 'Bama's field goal kicker choked.

This was not the instant classic that it was hyped to be—it was a mistake-filled game between two teams with outstanding defenses that both desperately need better quarterback play.

There is no doubt that the SEC-ESPN network would love nothing more than two teams from its own conference to play each other for the national championship. This will allow them to tell us during the long offseason how the SEC has once again proven their superiority by winning a sixth NC in a row.

However, the rest of the country wants to see what these great defenses can do against teams that can complete a forward pass.

We already know that if you shut down either team's run game, they are going to struggle to move the ball. And a one-dimensional offense can be stopped.

The poll voters will also recognize this and not allow an Alabama/LSU rematch.

Which brings us to the final reason.

Both the Sooners and the Cowboys are pass-first teams that protect the quarterback well. Neither LSU nor Alabama faces a team with a sophisticated passing scheme very often. 

How will the Tigers or Crimson Tide defenses fare against a team with an accurate quarterback who can stay in the pocket and pick apart the secondary?

They have great defenses built to stop the offenses in the run-heavy SEC conference, but what will happen when they face four- and five-receiver sets with upwards of 50 passes being thrown against them?

The intrigue of this matchup of contrasting styles is sure to be the final draw for poll voters that puts the winner of the Bedlam game into the top two of the BCS standings, and guarantees one of the Okie teams a spot at the table.