40 Acres Sports

Video: Yahoo sports previews Texas at Texas A&M. Both Terry Bowden and other guest beleive Horns win by at least 14.

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.

Longhorns are 9-2 heading into matchup with Aggies. If Jamaal Charles outrushes Stephen McGee Texas will win big.

Is this weekend Dennis Franchione’s last stand? Another loss to Tech may mean even an upset of Texas won’t save him.

Feel like a VIP, read all of Fran’s VIP Connection newsletters straight from official A&M site. The FOIA can provide fun on occasion.

Red River Rivalry and State Fair photos from the Wiz. I can’t believe I had to give up my tickets and work through the game

As you know from reading this site, we like to talk trash just as much as the next fan. But I think Texas Tech fans might have gone a little too far with this one.

It has been reported that a student at Texas Tech has designed a t-shirt that says “Vick ’em” on the front, and the back shows an image of a football player (Vick) hanging Reveille. While I guess you could call this “clever”, it will no doubt cause an uproar in the public.

I am thinking this won’t help with the perception that Tech has a bunch of classless fans. It’s also kind of funny that this comes just a few months after Texas Tech announced Raider Power, a campaign the university start to help promote “Honor, Respect, Pride, Tradition.”

Original Rivals Thread

It’s never easy to lose to [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] but the Horns played their best game of the season and gave some hope that the all is not lost. ESPN’s highlights are below:

Tough loss to stomach made even tougher when USC and other top teams fell Saturday. Texas is clearly down this season but if they could have found a way to eek out a win against the Sooners they would have been right in the thick of things. Now with two Big 12 losses the Horns can’t afford to lose another game this year if they have any hopes of a conference title or major bowl appearance.

ESPN talks about Gut Check Saturday including the two young quarterbacks that will face off in Red River Rivalry.