1. I wholeheartedly agree that the Big 12 was overrated this year. The problem is, Texas was NOT overrated this year. It seems as though the national media is using the performance of the other teams in our conference against us, and combined with the fact that we won a close game in the Fiesta bowl…Just do me this favor, national media: point out for me the embarrassing game on Texas’ schedule. It’s not there. The only teams who didn’t get embarrassed at some point were Texas and Utah.

Now as far as the Big 12’s bowl performance: Conferences that get 2 teams in the BCS are penalized in the rest of the bowls, as teams end up with matchups that are tougher than they ought to be. Case in point, Okie St. vs Oregon. Also see Arizona’s matchup with BYU (Utah’s jaunt to the BCS affected this matchup). The only game that I see as embarrassing for the Big 12 was Tech stinking it up against Ole Miss. Basically the SEC is the strongest conference, but I think that top to bottom, regardless of the bowl results, the Big 12 is still stronger than the Pac 10.

We also screwed Cal in 2004 by getting in the Rose Bowl over them (though it was later justified).

Couldn’t disagree with this more. It’s also been refuted numerous times, and I’m sure that someone will link that AGAIN.

to another based solely on bowl games.
Besides, what does it even matter?

I have ALWAYS wanted a playoff. Before the BCS, before the Bowl Alliance; always. Big-Time College Football has always employed the most inconclusive, most arbitrary way to decide a champion in all of sport. Perhaps the BCS is a mite better than the old way, but it still blows.

But a few things, my friend

3. The Big 12 may have been overrated this year, but that’s a far cry from saying that the SEC was overly dominant (they weren’t), nor does it mean that both OU and Texas were overrated. The Pac-10 is routinely overrated, but that doesn’t mean USC is. Besides, like I have said before, it is too much to use bowl games to rate conferences. The entire Big 12 did not play the entire SEC.

Ohio State did a good job on us, and it was the best game they played all year. However, it was our mistakes that kept points off the board. We moved the ball well, piling up the yardage. We did, after all, post 21 points in the second half. Greg Davis really didn’t impress in that first half.

4. Nobody is pretending the BCS is robbing us of a “previous” golden age. What critics are saying is that the BCS, even if better than the past, is not where it should be. I would wholeheartedly agree that the current system is better than allowing the AP poll to unilaterally determine a champion. However, while I agree that the horse-drawn carriage is better than walking, I still would argue a car is better. Criticizing the BCS does not amount to wishing for the past; it merely means to want change for the better.

Other than that, I agree with your assessment of the Heisman and our great year. We truly had a great year and I’m proud of our guys. I just wish the current system would allow them to attempt to prove themselves on the field against the other top teams.

1. Completely agree this was a great year. The further we get from the bitterness of losing everything since Thanksgiving off the field, the better the year will begin to feel to us all…

2. The Heisman has been a joke for a good while. This year did not improve its standing as far as I’m concerned. I think you need to add 07 to your list as well, seeing as how Tebow led his team to a resounding defeat against a somewhat marginal Michigan team in a lesser bowl… At the end of the day, John Elway, Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Tommie Frazier and Vince Young do NOT have trophies, while Gino Toretta, Gary Beban, Pat Sullivan, Ty Detmer, Andre Ware, Chris Weinke do… one of those lists sounds like a much better class of college quarterbacks, and it’s not the one with the hardware.

3. The Big 12 was overrated in the sense that halfway through the year it looked like 4 or 5 top ten teams, and that was not the case… If you go by bowls alone, you can make your case for the SEC; of course, you can also make the case for the PAC 10 over them if you base it only on the bowls… I think especially the Big 12 South problems came down to Dez Bryant getting hurt, Oklahoma being in a game it didn’t deserve, and Tech not being in Lubbock. The only one of those that was truly embarrasing was the Tech loss, and even that was somewhat predictable. They’re a completely different team at home, and they’re a completely better team when Crabtree is healthy. I believe if you took Ole Miss’ best player and left him at the same percentage of health Crabtree was at, the results would have been reversed… but who knows? Tech has never been overburdened with heart, shall we say…

When it comes to the whole conference smack thing, the only way to really tell is if we played a dual-match type thing, like college tennis, where the #1s played each other and so on down the line. I think if we actually did that, we probably would not lose to too many conferences, even the dreaded SEC with their ooooooooh defenses…

4. I think in a sense, the BCS is robbing us of a golden age. There are really only a very few years where the teams they put together were clearly the best two – I know 2005 springs to mind, and who knows, maybe that one made it all worthwhile – and the rest of the years, the “finality” they impose has in many ways been counterproductive. The “National Champions” are no less deserving of the leading “M” in MNC than they were in the previous system.

And given that, I’m not sure at all that this illusory certainty of a #1 vs. #2 matchup is worth what we lost. If you’re too young to remember what New Year’s Day used to be like prior to the BCS, you might ask someone a little older… I bet you hear a note of wistfulness in their response. New Year’s used to be a feast, a veritable orgy of happiness for college football fans… and that was even before remote controls!!! Now… eh, not so much…

To be honest, the BCS is a cautionary tale, a reminder that, for fans who support/long for a true playoff, a bad system may be worse than no system. They took a bad situation, in terms of determining a “true” national champion, and they made it worse – very rarely managing to have a non-controversial winner, but taking a great culmination to the season and making all but one game utterly meaningless… Sometimes half a loaf is way worse than none. Of course, that doesn’t mean a whole loaf wouldn’t still be terrific. It’s almost like they spit in the face of those who desire a true playoff – by screwing up the good parts and intensifying the bad. You really almost wouldn’t believe they could have done it this badly if they hadn’t tried so hard…

5. yup!

6. yup! plus… they suck!