While the OU win over Notre Dame was a big one for Sooner fans, it may end up being an even bigger win for the Big 12 conference. As stated earlier the OU/ND game was a must win. While the Fighting Irish are not the team they were last year, it is still Notre Dame and a win in South Bend is still a big deal. The win keeps the Sooners in the hunt for national honors and keeps the conference relative in national terms. If the Sooners had lost, prospects for the conference would have gone down-hill fast, not only for this year, but also for the all-important 2104 playoff season. With the win, the Sooners and the Big 12 now have hope for survival.
Going into Saturday’s game, the Big 12 was the ranked fifth among America’s BCS conferences. If the 2014 CFP selection Sunday were held today, a fifth place conference standing would land the conference winner out of the playoff picture. If this were to happen, the conference would be on the outside looking in along with the BYU’s and Boise States of the world during the playoff season.
The conference has a lot of work to do between now and next season, but the Sooners took a big step on Saturday of making that happen. Given the demoralizing performance of Big 12 teams during the non-conference phase of the 2013 season, the conference now faces an uphill struggle for credibility in 2013. With conference headliners Texas and Oklahoma State going south in-a-hurry, it is now up to the big name Sooners to carry the mantel for the conference. The ground work for conference survival was laid on Saturday. Only time will tell if the Sooners can finish the deal.
Here is the lay of the conference land…
- An undefeated Oklahoma who won in one of the most hostile environments in America and as a result will carry the mantel for the Big 12 this year.
- An undefeated Baylor team that will come down to earth as soon as they start playing somebody. Two losses are likely…
- An undefeated Texas Tech team with an incredibly soft early season schedule. Raiders play a Bataan March schedule at the end of the season. Two/three losses are likely
- A scandal ridden and one loss Oklahoma State team that spent the weekend being exposed offensively by a bad West Virginia team. Another loss or two can be expected…
- A two loss West Virginia team that almost lost to Bill and Mary and was embarrassed by a middle-of- the-road ACC conference Maryland team.
- A two loss Texas team who will be playing the rest of the season with a bad quarterback tandem and a lame-duck head coach.
- A two loss TCU team who must play several more games with an anemic quarterback.
- A two loss K-State team that lost to a Division II team this year. Unfortunately for the conference this K-State team will upset a conference upper level team thereby hurting the conference RPI rating.
- A two loss Iowa State team that will upset an upper level team at home in order to save their season and their beloved coach. Bad news for conference leaders again.
- A two loss Kansas team already thinking basketball…
In summary, some national media experts have begun referring to the Big 12 as the Big Least, an obvious slam at both the Big 12 and the former football-playing Big East conference. Only the Sooners can turn this national perspective around. While it is to be expected that Big 12 fans will root for their own teams when playing the Sooners, these same fans should also root for Oklahoma against everyone else. If the Sooners can run the table with an undefeated season the conference will be saved. The Sooners took a big step on Saturday by winning one for the conference.
Boomer Sooner…