New top 25... Now that the Pac 10 agrees with me, anyone care to recant?

The fact that the officiating crew was rightly slapped around doesn't change the problem at all, Mr. Whitlock. There's little question WHETHER the Sooners got screwed. They did. They got screwed big-time. Nobody's disputing that.

The PROBLEM ... is that if you take results, which are FACTS, and invalidate them, then wins and losses cease to really be wins and losses. I don't think Oregon's giving the game back; I don't think Oklahoma would take it if they did.

 

The Pac-10s action does nothing to change my opinion, Jason. Bad calls are random acts of fate which have an unsurprising tendency to go the home team's way. I agree with what Bob Ryan wrote decades ago-it's on any team to play well enough to render the bad calls null and void. If they can't, tough.
The score is still Oregon 34-Oklahoma 33. If that doesn't change, neither will my theory that to the victor goes the spoils.

 

Not according to the SEC, it didn't..

 

Wilbon had the same argument as Whitlock on PTI yesterday re: Oregon/Oklahoma.

 

the ap vote is an opinion about which team you think is the best.

and, michael gee, you're just like most of the voters, when the discussion started up you didn't have a clue about the controversial ending.

 

To the same token there is -- and should be -- a human element in the polls, so if Whitlock can (in some small way) make a statement about how things should be, his voice is as relevant as the official's. Both have been asked to offer judgment on college football and Whitlock should not dumb down his to match that of the Pac-10's officials.

That said, no conference has received more breaks in the BCS era than the Big 12, so whatev. Nebraska fails to win its division of its conference, yet plays for the national title (over Oregon, BTW). Oklahoma gets hammered in its Big 12 title game and plays for the national title anyway when LSU and USC were clearly the best teams in the nation. The Pac-10 needs to make a fix, but I'll weep not for any Big 12 team (OK, maybe Baylor).

 

I know you're from the South, but geez, man. You haven't heard the incessant bitching by LSU fans? Several hours after the game, one of my best friends called (super LSU fan), and just lit my ears up. The only reason he waited was he was making sure that I was done writing everything I had to for the LSU-AU game.


Oh, they're crying all right.

 

Jason, thanks to the miracle of television, I did see the replays on highlight shows. Yeah, Oklahoma got screwed. They still had a kick to win it, and didn't. Now HAD Oklahoma won on the last play, I could see ranking them quite a bit higher for triumph against maximum adversity.

 

Was OU's president as indignant about Kelvin Sampson's violations?

 

Of the 96 replies ahead of this one, 40 were directly related to the Oklahoma-Oregon fiasco. Three were tied to LSU.

I'd say the numbers are convincing.

 

Considering that the thread is based on the Sooners-Ducks fiasco, that percentage is about right. I think it's safe to say that LSU fans complain just the same as anyone else. I seem to remember that much from the running college football thread as it happened.

 

If that's the criteria -- and I think I can take your word for it -- then your ballot is valid, top to bottom. Your opinion is your opinion.

I'm just wondering about that hypothesis if you take it out to its natural end. If somebody thought Syracuse looked really good against Iowa and (gasp) Illinois, and voted them 24th, the screaming would commence. All because somebody used their opinion.

The more I think about it, the more I'm amazed that the AP voters have the time to form opinions on all Division I-A teams. Wouldn't that mean they'd maybe have to ... I don't know ... see them all?