40 Acres Sports

Texas leads Big 12 with 23 all-academic selections. Not only are we better but we’re smarter than everyone else too.

Maturation has been a key for Texas during 5-game winning streak. Plus other notes for Texas-Texas A&M game.

There’s a bit of confusion over the issue but it appears that Texas will win the Big 12 South if [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] falls to in-state rival Oklahoma State this Saturday. Even if the Longhorns lose to the Aggies on T+1 the three-way tiebreaker rules in the Big 12 seem to indicate that Texas would represent the south if the Horns, Sooners, and Cowboys all end conference play with identical records. Or at least that’s one interpretation.

Here’s the confusing explanation from the Statesman:

1. The records of the three teams will be compared against each other. (If Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are tied with 5-3 records, this tiebreaker would not decide things. The teams would all be 1-1 against each other.)

2. The records of the three teams will be compared within their division. (Again, no decision here. All three would be 3-2 in the division.)

3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish — 4, 5 and 6. (Now it gets confusing, because at this point Texas Tech and Texas A&M would be tied for fourth in the South with 4-4 records. Big 12 officials say that they won’t implement a tiebreaker at this point to decide who’s fourth (if they did, Tech would be considered fourth, and Oklahoma ultimately would be eliminated from the championship game mix). Instead, that fourth-place tie would mean that this criteria wouldn’t settle anything.)

4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents. (Again, this doesn’t settle anything.)

5. The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of Big 12 regular-season (intra-) conference play shall be the representative. (This, then, should settle it, but it’s up to the human voters and the BCS computers, which will produce new standings when all the dust has settled next Sunday.)

6. The team with the best overall winning percentage shall be the representative.

7. The representative will be chosen by draw.

Every explanation I’ve seen other than this one has Texas winning the thing because of the 4th tiebreaker. I’m not sure why you would ignore the other tiebreakers when calculating this one. If there’s a tie for fourth place it seems to be common sense that you would break that one before figuring out who wins the division. If that tiebreaker doesn’t fall Texas’ way I think OU wins the thing because they likely have the highest BCS ranking if both teams lose.

Of course all this is a moot point if the Longhorns win against the Aggies on Friday. With a win the only possible outcomes would be a two-way tie which favors the Sooners or with an OU loss Texas would win the South outright. The Horns need to take care of business on the field and let us dorks figure the rest of this out.

DKR renovations are now only two weeks behind schedule. Rain this spring and early summer slowed things down but they’re catching back up.

AJ Abrams leads in easy win against Arkansas-Monticello. Abrams scores 30 in 100-52 victory over the Boll Weevils.

UT women’s soccer advances to NCAA third round with win over Texas A&M. Three second half goals to move past the 2nd seeded Aggies.

Oklahoma 27, Texas Tech 34.

Because of the Oklahoma loss the Horns are still in the hunt for the Big 12 crown and the Sooners are knocked out of the national title discussion. Not that the team needed it, but now the team has a little something extra to play for next Friday against the Aggies.

Go Raiders!!! (Your quarterback is still a punk and your coach is still whiny and wrong. And your fans suck too.)

Vince Young is ABC’s tenth greatest college football player ever. Definitely would have been higher if he returned for senior season.

No Texas game today so you can spend all day rooting against teams ranked ahead of the Horns, or you’ll have time to catch up on the chores your wife has been bugging you about since August. Either way you’ve got a busy day ahead of you. The game of the day is Ohio State at Michigan. Not as exciting as we thought it would be a week ago but the outcome will decide the Big 10 winner.

If you choose to tick off the misses, here’s what to watch today:

(7) Ohio State at (21) Michigan – 11:00 am on ABC. Winner goes to the Rose Bowl and Ohio State could still back their way into a national title shot if they win.

Duke at Notre Dame – 1:30 pm on NBC. Please don’t actually watch this, I just wanted to point and laugh at the worst nationally televised game in history.

(6) West Virginia at (22) Cincinnati – 6:45 pm on ESPN. Cincinnati “upset” South Florida and UConn the last two weeks but I don’t think they can hang with the Mountaineers if White and Slaton play the whole game. The Big East has been terribly overhyped all season but I think WVU is legit.

(17) Boston College at (15) Clemson – 6:45 pm on ESPN2. This is a game between two decent, ranked teams but I still couldn’t be any less interested in watching it. The media keeps screaming about how many second ranked teams have lost this season, maybe it’s because they keep putting decidedly average (or worse) teams like BC and South Florida in that spot?

(4) Oklahoma at Texas Tech – 7:00 pm on ABC. A win by the Sooners means they clinch the Big 12 South. If the dirt burglars win out they also are probably going to get a shot at the MNC. So in other words… GO RAIDERS!

AJ Abrams leads Men’s Basketball to 73-42 win over UC Davis. Close first half but Texas defense holds UCD to 13 points in second half.