(November 30, 2008)--A week before the final standings are released and the Bowl Championship Series is already ticking people off.

Oklahoma -- not Texas -- is headed to the Big 12 championship game with an inside track to the national title game by finishing ahead of the Longhorns in the BCS standings.

Texas' victory against the Sooners in October wasn't enough to give the Longhorns the advantage in a three-way tie between Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech atop the Big 12 South. And that's sure to leave many in Austin feeling slighted.

The Big 12 had to use its fifth tiebreaker, best BCS rating, to determine which team will play North winner Missouri on Saturday in Kansas City, Mo.

The Sooners (11-1), who lost to Texas 45-35 in October, barely edged the Longhorns. Oklahoma has a .9351 BCS average. Texas' BCS average is .9223.

Oklahoma was a point ahead of Texas in the USA Today coaches' poll and six points behind the Longhorns in the Harris Interactive. The computer ratings preferred the Sooners and that made the difference.

So the Longhorns will be watching two teams they beat play for the conference title, rooting for Missouri.

Oklahoma is second in the BCS standings behind unbeaten Alabama. Texas is third and Florida is fourth.

The winner of the Southeastern Conference championship game between the Crimson Tide and Gators is virtually guaranteed a spot in the BCS national title game on Jan. 8 in Miami.

Oklahoma would earn the other spot by beating Missouri. If the Sooners lose, it could open the door for Texas to go to the national title game, despite not playing for its conference championship.

If voters are squeamish about letting a team that didn't win its conference play for a national championship, maybe Southern California could get a shot at the SEC champ in South Florida.

The Trojans are fifth in the BCS standings with a game to go at rival UCLA.

The Sooners were behind Texas last week in the BCS standings by a tiny margin. The Sooners actually led the Longhorns in the polls, but a week ago the computers had Texas ahead of Oklahoma.

After the Sooners' 61-41 victory Saturday night against Oklahoma State -- 14th in the latest standings -- and the Longhorns' 49-9 win over lowly Texas A&M on Thanksgiving night, the polls tightened but the computers flipped.

The strength of the Big 12 South led to this new BCS controversy, with the top three teams in the conference each finishing 11-1.

After beating Oklahoma and jumping to No. 1 in the polls, Texas (11-1) lost at Texas Tech 39-33 on Nov. 1. The Red Raiders (11-1), No. 2 at the time, then lost at Oklahoma 65-21 on Nov. 22.

The lopsided loss dropped Texas Tech way back. The Red Raiders were seventh in Sunday's standings.

After beating Texas Tech, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops touted his team publicly. But later in the week, Stoops passed on a chance make another pitch to poll voters and said the politicking that's become a part of the BCS was making more coaches favor a playoff system in major college football.

Brown, maybe sensing that his team was in danger of losing its spot despite the head-to-head advantage, did his best to campaign for his team without slighting the Sooners in several national television and radio interviews last week. Brown was even part of the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State broadcast, doing a telephone interview with ABC's announcers during the game.

Brown has stopped short of supporting a playoff, saying only that the BCS is flawed.

Brown also lamented the Big 12's tiebreaker system, which removed the head-to-head element. In the SEC, a similar three-way division tie would be settled by eliminating the lowest rated team in the BCS standings, then reverting back to head-to-head results between the remaining teams.

But ultimately, the Longhorns victory against Oklahoma couldn't trump the Sooners' surge over the last two months.

Oklahoma has scored at least 60 points in its last four games, and has won its last five games by at least 20 points each.

Though it's not as if Texas has been struggling down the stretch. The Longhorns only loss came on a Graham Harrell-to-Michael Crabtree touchdown pass with 1 second left in the game. That was also the fourth of four consecutive games for the Longhorns against teams ranked in the top 11 of the AP poll.

Since losing to the Red Raiders, Texas has won three games by a combined score of 129-37.

Harris USA Today Computer BCS
Rk Pts Pct Rk Pts Pct Rk Pct Avg Pv
1. Alabama 1 2815 0.9965 1 1521 0.9974 3 0.920 0.9713 1
2. Oklahoma 4 2569 0.9094 2 1397 0.9161 1 0.980 0.9351 3
3. Texas 3 2575 0.9115 3 1396 0.9154 2 0.940 0.9223 2
4. Florida 2 2619 0.9271 4 1385 0.9082 6 0.820 0.8851 4
5. Southern Cal 5 2378 0.8418 5 1298 0.8511 8 0.730 0.8076 5
6. Utah 7 2111 0.7473 7 1153 0.7561 5 0.850 0.7844 6
7. Texas Tech 8 2090 0.7398 8 1116 0.7318 4 0.870 0.7805 7
8. Penn St. 6 2177 0.7706 6 1176 0.7711 9 0.670 0.7373 8
9. Boise St. 9 1937 0.6857 9 1044 0.6846 7 0.740 0.7034 9
10. Ohio St. 10 1856 0.6570 10 999 0.6551 11 0.590 0.6340 10
11. TCU 12 1502 0.5317 11 836 0.5482 10 0.610 0.5633 14
12. Ball St. 11 1526 0.5402 13 765 0.5016 12 0.550 0.5306 15
13. Cincinnati 13 1425 0.5044 12 770 0.5049 15 0.440 0.4831 16
14. Oklahoma St. 14 1217 0.4308 15 613 0.4020 t13 0.450 0.4276 12
15. Georgia Tech 16 1065 0.3770 16 590 0.3869 t13 0.450 0.4046 22
16. Georgia 20 833 0.2949 19 440 0.2885 16 0.410 0.3311 11
17. Boston College 19 834 0.2952 20 435 0.2852 17 0.380 0.3202 21
18. BYU 17 990 0.3504 18 461 0.3023 18 0.290 0.3142 18
19. Oregon 15 1076 0.3809 14 658 0.4315 23 0.100 0.3041 23
20. Missouri 18 896 0.3172 17 470 0.3082 20 0.220 0.2818 13
21. Michigan St. 21 688 0.2435 21 414 0.2715 19 0.250 0.2550 19
22. Northwestern 22 414 0.1465 22 333 0.2184 NR 0.000 0.1216 24
23. Pittsburgh 23 346 0.1225 23 154 0.1010 t24 0.080 0.1012 25
24. Florida St. 29 30 0.0106 29 15 0.0098 21 0.210 0.0768 20
25. Virginia Tech 27 71 0.0251 26 41 0.0269 22 0.120 0.0573 NR
---
AH RB CM KM JS PW
1. Alabama 25 25 23 21 22 22
2. Oklahoma 22 24 24 25 25 25
3. Texas 23 22 25 23 24 24
4. Florida 20 23 22 20 20 19
5. Southern Cal 17 21 19 19 18 17
6. Utah 24 19 21 22 21 21
7. Texas Tech 21 20 20 24 23 23
8. Penn St. 18 16 17 16 16 18
9. Boise St. 19 18 18 18 19 20
10. Ohio St. 16 17 16 11 13 14
11. TCU 15 13 12 17 17 16
12. Ball St. 13 15 15 12 9 15
13. Cincinnati 12 9 14 9 11 12
14. Oklahoma St. 7 12 7 13 15 13
15. Georgia Tech 10 11 10 15 14 9
16. Georgia 14 10 13 8 8 10
17. Boston College 9 3 9 14 12 8
18. BYU 6 14 6 5 6 11
19. Oregon 0 7 4 0 0 6
20. Missouri 8 8 5 4 4 5
21. Michigan St. 11 5 11 1 2 7
22. Northwestern 1 0 0 0 0 0
23. Pittsburgh 5 1 8 0 0 2
24. Florida St. 4 0 3 10 10 4
25. Virginia Tech 0 0 2 7 7 3
---
Explanation Key
Team percentages are derived by dividing a team's actual voting
points by a maximum 2825 possible points in the Harris Interactive
Poll and 1525 possible points in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Six computer rankings calculated in inverse points order (25 for
No. 1, 24 for No. 2, etc.) are used to determine the overall
computer component. The highest and lowest ranking for each team is
dropped, and the remaining four are added and divided by 100 (the
maximum possible points) to produce a Computer Rankings Percentage.
The six computer ranking providers are Anderson & Hester, Richard
Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin, and Peter
Wolfe. Each computer ranking accounts for schedule strength in its
formula.
The BCS Average is calculated by averaging the percent totals of
the Harris Interactive, USA Today Coaches and Computer polls.

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