Boomer Sooner....?

This Week in the Southwest Conference

October 19, 2010

By Dave Roberson

Boomer Sooner! SWC team sits at #1 in the BCS. Hoppin’ Horned Frog! SWC team sits at #5. Tiger Bait! SWC team sits at #6. Throw in numbers 14, 19 and 23 and you have one-half of the conference in the Top 23. Even if you include Nebraska in the Big Ten, they only have 5. Who says that a SWC could not compete? Look at the performance versus other conferences. The SWC has a winning record against every conference, except the Big Ten (0-1). Rice lost to Northwestern back in September.

Overall, week 7 was a great week for the conference. It was Varsity Letter day in Norman, where even 3^rd teamers and walk-ons played. BYU kicked a meaningless second half FG to break the TCU shut-out streak. LSU spent the week preparing for Auburn as they won one of their mid-season scrimmages in yawning fashion. Oklahoma St doubled up Tech. And Baylor did what Baylor has not done in a very long time. They went on the road and beat a BCS team. Sic ‘em Bears! Congratulations Rice on reclaiming the Bayou Bucket from UH. Tough luck to SMU on losing a hard fought game to a good Navy team in Annapolis. Then there was Texas A&M. The good news is that A&M was on TV, which actually turned out to be bad news. I tried to watch the game. Honestly, I tried. But Indiana and Arkansas State were playing their hearts out in a thrilling 36-34 game. I did click back and forth a couple of times to the A&M game. I tried, I really did. As tough a time as I was having though, I can only imagine what it was like to be there in person. But that’s rhetorical because on my last channel jump I could not find anyone wearing maroon left in the stands. To make matters even worse, when I look at their remaining schedule, I can’t find a win for them. So, unless the Aggies can find a pulse and to keep from kicking a dog when she is down (sorry Reveille), I will next write about Texas A&M in the 2011 pre-season blog.

That brings us to the two huge highlights of the weekend. I’ll start with the Hogs visiting the Plains of Eastern Alabama. I did predict an Auburn win, but I never thought that 108 points would be scored. If you bet on this one, I sure hope you had the over. Do you get a double payout if the teams double the over? The nation may not have known about Cam Newton before last Saturday, but anyone who follows college football does now. I like to call him little Vince. If you have not seen him play, you need to catch a game on TV and this week is a good one, but more on that later. And then there was Texas. The Horns played an almost perfect first half, completely taking Nebraska and their fans out of the game. The second half was not as crisp, but as I am known to say, all you really want on the road is to collect the W. Put up the style points at home. Some nicks to two defensive starters gave a couple of freshmen important playing time and they responded well. How about a tip of the 10-gallon hat to ole Bevo?

And now an editorial comment on Nebraska. I try not to stray too often from the SWC, but I want to get one last comment in on Nebraska bolting the Big 12 for the Big Ten. First, I need to thank the Cornhuskers for perfecting their exit strategy, because if my dream of a SWC is ever to get even a conversation, we needed someone like Nebraska to say adios. So, here is a late Paul Harvey “Rest of the Story” moment. Sorry to the younger readers who are saying Paul who? Just stay with me. If the truth were known, Nebraska never was excited about this whole Big 12 concept in the first place. They really had a sweet deal going in the Big 2, Little 6 (aka Big 8). They only played one game a year and that was at the end of the season against Oklahoma. They had all season to get ready for the Sooners, and sometimes they actually won. They would then take their occasional 10-0 or 11-0 record into a bowl game, win a couple of them and claim a National Championship or two. Then came along the Big 12 and that little gig was soon over. Every year they now had to play either Texas or Oklahoma during the regular season and then, if they won the North Division, it was generally either Texas or Oklahoma again in the Championship game. See a pattern developing here. Bye bye national championships. They did claim a split national championship with Michigan in 1997 during Osborne’s last year. But that was before Mack and Big Game Bob arrived in Austin and Norman respectively and that was the last time we heard anything out of Nebraska. Here are the sobering facts. Since the start of the Big 12, Nebraska is 1-8 against Texas, 4-5 against OU, 3-3 against OSU (losing 3 of last 4), 4-4 against Tech (including a 70-10 loss in 2004 and a current 4 game losing streak). Within the Big 12 South, Nebraska only has a winning record against A&M and Baylor. I will let you connect the dots, but there appears to be too much pride in Lincoln for third fiddle, at best.

With that little rant out of the way, how does Week 8 shape up? Another great weekend for sure. Starting from the top, we have OU at Missouri at 7 CT on ABC. Mizzou is good, but not that good. OU is starting to get better every week and they will go to 7-0. TCU is at home against the Air Force. Another good game, but another win for the Frogs. Air Force will probably score a couple of times, but Andy Dalton will get his team into the end zone 3 or 4 times. Then there is a cat fight for the ages; LSU at Auburn and both undefeated. Mike the Tiger taking on Aubie. Dial this one up at 2:30 CT on CBS and see how many players Les Miles can sneak on the field in the 4^th quarter. Take the over on this one and bet the Tigers to win. Oklahoma St hosts Nebraska. See rant above and see Oklahoma St go to 7-0. Texas will wake up in the second half (11 am CT start on Fox Sports) and pull away from Iowa St. The Hogs will make a stand in the hills and run the Rebels back to Oxford. Baylor will punch their bowl ticket before Halloween with a Homecoming win against Kansas St. Tech will go into Boulder and repeat what the Bears did last weekend. Rice goes to Disney World for a game at 4-2 Central Florida. I really want to put a W in the column for the Owls, but I do not see it this week. Hang in there Owls. Our conference game is at the Hilltop in Dallas where UH plays SMU at Ford Stadium. I see Peruna running past Shasta in a high scoring win for the Mustangs. And last, there is a scheduled game in Kansas, but that is all that I will say.

Put your team colors on, grab your favorite beverage, and see you next week. Oh, and let’s hope this Indian Summer is gone by Trick or Treat.