I just wanted to post my thoughts somewhere and see what people smarter than me have to say.  After seeing that Kansas and Missouri continue to roll, I'm having second thoughts about exactly what to hope for in order for the Horns to get a BCS bid.  Until now, the discussion has centered around hoping that Kansas and Missouri stumble somewhere and then lose to OU and hope that BCS bowls will choose a 2-loss Texas team over the others.  Here are my thoughts on this:

1. Kansas is looking pretty darn good.  Sure, they haven't played anybody with less than 4 losses, but they've looked impressive in the games they have won.  With only two games left (Iowa State and Missouri), I see Kansas potentially only losing 1, which would make them a 1 loss team at the end of the regular season.

2. Missouri has also looked impressive and has only lost to OU, a team that we lost to as well.  They take on K-State next and can beat a team we were embarrassed at home by.  Seeing as how K-State was throttled by a terrible Nebraska team, this is very possible.

3. OU has two more teams to play as well, Tech and OSU, and conventional thinking has been that we cheer for them to win out and roll on in the Championship.

So now we get to the possible end of the season, post Big 12 Championship scenarios.  

1. Kansas beats Missouri and goes on to play OU while being undefeated.  Missouri becomes a two loss team with a resume that is potentially better than Texas'.  If Kansas were to go on to beat Missouri, then an undefeated Kansas team would go the National Championship and a two-loss OU team would probably be selected over a two-loss Texas team.  This much is known already.  However, if Kansas lost and OU rolled on, Kansas would only be a 1 loss team with that loss being to a potential national title contender and a team that beat us.  To get an at large nod over Kansas, we would have to bank our hopes on Bowl officials recognizing our fan base and economic might as a "burnt orange nation".  But I'm starting to believe that would be very difficult to do given how impressive Kansas has looked.

2. Missouri defeats Kansas making the Jayhawks a 1 loss team.  Again if Missouri wins, we're out because a two loss OU gets in before us.  If Missouri loses, they're a two loss team but Kansas is STILL a 1 loss team.  Would BCS Bowls really ignore this?  Why wouldn't they argue they are more deserving of an at large spot?  Why wouldn't Missouri get an at large spot because they lost to the same team twice, with OU being a potential National Title contender?

Given the weak games coming up for both Missouri and Kansas before their big showdown, I don't see stumbling happening for either team.  We then get into a very stick predicament where we are just praying that bowl officials pick us over two other teams that have just as strong a case as we do.  All this is true IF OU goes on to win out.

My point is this, maybe we should be sticking to our guns and follow through on our year after year hope that OU crashes and burns and proves to the rest of the country that they suck as much as we know they do.  If OU stumbles against either Tech or OSU (which I think is much more likely than Kansas or Missouri stumbling), but not both, they go on to the Big 12 Championship as a two loss team.  If they lose that game then they become a 3 loss team and would be out of the BCS picture.  If the team they lose to is Missouri, then there's STILL a 1 loss Kansas team out there for us to contend with and I think they get selected over us because they loss to a Missouri team that may be going on the National Championship.  

Here is what I will be hoping for then.  I'm hoping for Kansas to roll on and win out and for OU to stumble somewhere before the Big 12 Championship.  If this happens, then we only have to contend with a two loss Missouri for an at large spot.  In my opinion, if things don't unfold this way then its a long shot we get into a BCS game and we'll be completely resting our hopes on BCS bowls ignoring the resumes of Missouri and Kansas and picking us purely on our fan base.  And to be honest, even if this did happen, as a fan of college football I'm not sure how I would personally feel abot seeing economics winning over performance.

I'm pretty confident there will be a much larger discussion of all this spurred on by PB and company, but I've been thinking about this since the end of the Kansas game last night and just needed to get my thoughts out somewhere.  Thanks a lot if you made it this far, now what are your thoughts?