Poised to Make Some Noise

Amid the chaos and confusion of last weekend’s college football action, one thing became clear: Oklahoma State is more than just the team that upset Missouri. It’s one of the nation’s premier football programs and it’s fighting for control atop the best conference in the country.

In all reality, the Cowboys’ 28-23 victory over the third-ranked Tigers can hardly be called an upset. Oklahoma State entered the Big 12 showdown ranked 17th at 5-0 behind an offense that scored 50 or more points in four of its five games. Even after the five point squeaker over Missouri, the Cowboys still boast an average margin of victory of over 25 points. And if you hadn’t heard of quarterback Zac Robinson, you likely have now. The junior has completed over 70 percent of his passes and is third in the nation in quarterback rating…AHEAD of the likes of Colt McCoy and Chase Daniel.

But if you’re looking for proof that Robinson and Oklahoma State are for real, you needn’t look beyond their conference standings. The Cowboys are tied for first place in the Big 12 South Division with #1 Texas and #7 Texas Tech, all 6-0 overall and 2-0 in conference play. With Oklahoma State jumping into the #8 spot and Oklahoma dropping to the #4 spot after losing to the Longhorns, four of the top ten teams call the Big 12 South Division home. That’s right, FOUR of the TOP TEN teams in the NATION hail from ONE DIVISION of one conference. And geographically speaking, those four teams – two from the state of Texas, two from the state of Oklahoma – seem to point to the Southwest as a hotbed for college football.

This brings me to an issue that has been puzzling me: if Oklahoma State is actually that good – which their #8 ranking and 6-0 record certainly suggest – why did their 28-23 win over Missouri drop the Tigers eight spots to #11? Just a few weeks ago, USC was ranked #1 when they lost to an unranked, 1-2 Oregon State team by a similar score of 27-21. That loss dropped the Trojans eight spots as well, down to #9.

Doesn’t something seem a little off? Should a close loss to a ranked, undefeated team drop Missouri eight spots in the rankings while a close loss to an unranked, losing team dropped USC eight spots? Either the Tigers deserved some more love from the AP voters last weekend, or the Trojans were the lucky recipients of some extremely favorable voting. Perhaps USC gets the benefit of the doubt since it is one of the most storied and well-respected programs in college football. Or perhaps this discrepancy is merely a byproduct of the mysterious workings of the BCS system (more on that is sure to surface in future blogs). Regardless, Oklahoma State is a good football team that is poised to make some noise not only in the Big 12, but on the national stage as well.

Photo: crosscyed.blogspot.com