40 Acres Sports

Texas’ loss to last week to [tag]Texas Tech[/tag] didn’t knock them completely out of the national title race but it certainly shook things up. Texas fans spent the next 72 hours crunching numbers and running scenarios that could result in the Longhorns still making it to the title game. That may make math and stats nerds happy but its just another sign of just how ridiculous the NCAA Division I FBS not having a playoff really is.

ESPN’s Pat Forde makes a(nother) strong case for a playoff in college football:

No less a voice than Barack Obama’s called on Monday night for a playoff in college football. To which The Dash says hallelujah, it’s time for some pressure on the ossified system from the top down. Once upon a time, the Tide wooed Butch Davis to be their coach. The first round of The Dash’s eight-team playoff would shape up as follows today: Top seed and SEC champion Alabama versus eighth-seeded ACC titlist [tag]North Carolina[/tag] in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The backstory would make this interesting, since the Crimson Tide were interested in current Tar Heels.

The first round of The Dash’s eight-team playoff would shape up as follows today:

Top seed and SEC champion [tag]Alabama[/tag] versus eighth-seeded ACC titlist [tag]North Carolina[/tag] in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The backstory would make this interesting, since the Crimson Tide were interested in current Tar Heels coach Butch Davis as far back as 2000, when he was the coach at Miami. That was before Mike Price, before Dennis Franchione and before Mike Shula. Then Bama got it right — royal-flush right — with Nick Saban.

Second seed and Big Ten champion [tag]Penn State[/tag] versus seventh-seeded Big East winner [tag]West Virginia[/tag] in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando. Just for fun they could award the old Lambert Trophy for the best school in the East to the winner.

Third seed and Big 12 champion [tag]Texas Tech[/tag] versus sixth-seeded Pacific-10 champ USC in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Would anyone enjoy seeing the Red Raiders’ O (first nationally in passing offense, second in total offense, third in scoring) against the Trojans’ D (first nationally in pass defense, first in total defense, first in scoring defense)?

Fourth seed at-large selection Texas versus fifth seed at-large selection [tag]Florida[/tag] in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and Tim Tebow on the same field might be a little fun.

(Dash apologies to [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] and Utah for being the best teams left out. Y’all can console each other in, say, the Alamo Bowl.)

After that: semifinals at the Orange and Fiesta Bowls. National title in the Rose Bowl. Championship trophy presented by Dashette Irina Shayk.

Decide for yourself whether that playoff would generate any interest. After you’ve thought it over for five seconds, call the president of your favorite university and scream into the phone that you want a playoff. Do not stop screaming until you are out of breath or they have hung up on you — and then redial and scream again.

Maybe it will come to pass by the time Tebow’s kids are in college.

Or maybe it happens a little faster depending on Tuesday’s election results.

Just imagine adding the Texas Rose Bowl win over USC, plus the brutal four game stretch the team just finished, plus even more on the line than ever before. How fun would that be?

Texas sophomore offensive lineman [tag]Buck Burnette[/tag] has been kicked off the team by head coach [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] for an unspecified “violation of team rules.” Rumors are swirling about what Burnette did, but it appears it is related to comments he made about last night’s election results on his Facebook page. He has reportedly apologized and is aware of his mistake, hopefully he will grow and learn from it but that won’t happen as a member of the Texas football team.

Burnette played in seven games this year as Chris Hall’s backup at center. Burnette’s departure leaves true freshman [tag]David Snow[/tag] as the primary backup at both guard and center.

Update: Burnette has sent out a formal apology to the AP. Read it. (9:49 pm)

Absolutely fantastic play by a couple of high school football players from Lassiter High School in Marietta, Georgia. A high pass in the back of the end zone and tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen volleys it back into play and his teammate grabbed it for the touchdown.

Might be one of the best, smartest plays I’ve seen. Check it out:

The Longhorns lost the battle to [tag]Texas Tech[/tag] on Saturday but they still haven’t lost the war. The new BCS rankings were revealed tonight and Texas fell only to number four, behind [tag]Alabama[/tag], [tag]Penn State[/tag], and Texas Tech who moved all the way up to number two. The Horns still have a every good chance to end up back in the top two and headed to the national title game.

All the Horns need is for two teams ahead of them to go down, and with the remaining schedules ahead for both Tech and Alabama that is a distinct possibility. Texas fans need to be rooting hard for [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] and [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] the next few weeks and for [tag]LSU[/tag] this week against Alabama. The team needs to take care of business during the final weeks of the season for any of this to matter, but fans will be doing a lot of scoreboard watching.

The BCS top 10 rankings are listed below:

Related: View the full BCS rankings

Wow. What a tough, heartbreaking loss to take. The Longhorns fell in the last seconds to the Red Raiders and may have had both their national title and Big 12 title hopes dashed in less than 90 seconds. Bevo Sports will have additional postmortem on the game in the next couple of days, for now watch the ESPN highlights below if you have masochistic streak:

No full post, if you want to see our in-game rantings and ravings and screaming about holding calls that aren’t, follow 40acressports on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/40acressports

Quan Cosby should have a big day against Texas Tech

The final game of Texas’ incredible four-game gauntlet is tonight at 7pm in front of a national television audience. The Longhorns will face off against the Red Raiders on ABC and with a win will become only the second team in college football history to beat four top 11 teams in a row. Check out how the Bevo Sports editors believe the Horns will fare tonight below:

Brian – A week ago the national media talked about how overrated Tech was and undeserving of being in the top ten, now this week somehow the same people are predicting the Longhorns will be upset in Lubbock. Not me, I think the Horns go out there and win big. The Texas Tech defense is not improved from years past and this is the same Tech team that struggled against Nevada, [tag]Nebraska[/tag], and Texas A&M. [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] continues to dominate and the defensive line doesn’t give Graham Harrell time to think on the way to another solid Texas win over a top 10 opponent. Texas 48 – Texas Tech 28

Matt – I think what determines the outcome in this game is the Texas defensive front seven. Can they put pressure on Harrell and slow down the explosive Tech offense? I think think they can, and will do so in a dominate fashion. Everyone thinks this one will be close, but this one could get ugly quickly. Remember when we were all worried about the Mizzou game? Not sure we should be for this one. Texas 58 – Texas Tech 27

Mike – I keep trying to get nervous about this game. I know, I know, the game is in Lubbock, it is at night, Tech’s offensive is explosive and the defense is improved, Texas has to have a let down eventually, and Colt McCoy can’t be this good. I’ve heard it all and I may agree with some of it, but I just don’t see any team beating this Longhorn team right now. This team responds better on the road than at home and I think all the hype in Lubbock is only feeding into this team’s mentality of us against the world. Tech’s defense isn’t slowing Texas down, and Will Muschamp’s group can at least slow down this group enough for Texas to win. I don’t think this one lives up to the hype either. Texas 45 – Texas Tech 30

The football team is fighting hard for a national title but forget about the men’s basketball team because they’ll be back on the court and vying for a championship of their own soon. The first official poll of the season has been released and the Longhorns are ranked number eight in the ESPN/USA Today college basketball coaches’ poll. The Horns are behind some of the nation’s perennial elite teams and with the way [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] is recruiting it looks like the team will remain in that company for years to come.

Check out the top ten teams below or view the full top 25:

Texas players [tag]Roy Miller[/tag] and [tag]Chris Hall[/tag] spoke the media earlier this week about the season and the upcoming [tag]Texas Tech[/tag] game. The Statesman has posted excellent videos of the players answering questions, which you can watch below.

Roy Miller talks about leadership and not being satisfied…

Chris Hall very happily answered all sorts of questions…

Source

For the third time in four weeks the number one Texas Longhorns will be playing a game with the ESPN College Gameday crew on hand. Not too many people voluntarily go to Lubbock but Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso will head to West Texas to see the Horns clash with number seven [tag]Texas Tech[/tag].

Gameday airs from the campus of the biggest match-up of the week. Tune in at 10 a.m. Saturday to see Red Raiders fans in action. The last time the Gameday crew took in a Texas/Texas Tech game the Horns rolled the Red Raider 52 – 17 back in 2005 on the way to a national championship. Let’s hope we’re headed to similar outcomes both for this Saturday and the season.