By Bob Markus

If Oklahoma hopes to add an eighth national championship to its already over-stuffed trophy case, it is going to have to find a way to leapfrog Texas in the BCS standings. Oklahoma diehards, overcome by the euphoria of the biggest Saturday night massacre since the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal, will tell you: The Sooner's the better. In view of the Sooners' 65-21 unfrocking of then unbeaten and second ranked Texas Tech in Lubbock, who can blame them?
Well, how about Texas fans for starters? Didn't Texas defeat Oklahoma in their annual Red River Shootout earlier in the season? Yes it did.

Thus are the pollsters, both human and robotic, caught on the Longhorns of a dilemma. Texas beat Oklahoma, which brutalized Texas Tech, which beat Texas, albeit by one point on a touchdown in the final second. All three have lost just that one game and are locked in a three-way tie for the lead in the Big 12 South division. Three coins in the fountain. Which one will the fountain bless? The merry-go-round has one final turn this week, but that may not prove decisive.

Of the three, Oklahoma has by far the toughest assignment, a visit to arch rival Oklahoma State, which has been known to put up a fight against the Sooners even in years when it isn't 9 and 2 going into the intrastate showdown. Should the Cowboys unhorse the Sooners and the other two win, as they should, Texas Tech would go to the conference championship game because of its victory over Texas. Therefore, the Longhorns have to root for an Oklahoma victory--but not too impressive an Oklahoma victory--which would put the decision in the hands of the voters.

No telling what that decision will be. Only sure thing is that Texas Tech can fuggedaboudit. In the event of a three-way tie the decision comes down to this: Does Texas' head-to-head victory over Oklahoma in October trump Oklahoma's November stomping of Texas Tech and over-all stronger schedule (The Sooners have victories over Cincinnati and Texas Christian, both ranked teams, on their resume)? I think not.

So Oklahoma will play the Southeast Conference champion (Florida or Alabama) for the national championship? As Lee Corso would say, "not so fast." Overlooked in all these speculations is the BCS's worst case scenario--A Missouri upset in the Big 12 title game. That seems as unlikely as a Texas A & M victory over Texas, but the Big 12 championship game has a history of producing eye popping upsets. In 1996, the first year the merger of the Big Eight and four teams from the defunct Southwest conference mandated a playoff, Texas, unranked with four losses, upended 10-1 and third-ranked Nebraska 37-27. In 2003, a 9 and 3 Kansas State team shocked unbeaten and No.1 ranked Oklahoma 35-7 to win the Big 12 championship. In the true spirit of BCS lunacy, however, Oklahoma was still picked to play in the national championship game, despite not winning its own conference title.

That wasn't the biggest BCS fiasco, however. That would have to be the 2001 decision to match Nebraska against Miami in the championship game when the Cornhuskers didn't even get to the Big 12 title game. They were, in fact, humiliated, 62-36, by Colorado in their final regular season game and didn't fare much better against Miami in the Rose bowl, losing 37-14 to the unbeaten Hurricanes.

A Missouri upset appears highly doubtful, however. The Tigers lost twice to Oklahoma last year and this year looked dreadful in a blowout loss to Texas. Their best hope is that somehow Texas Tech gets into the showdown game. With their Chase Daniel-led circus offense, the Tigers might--but probably won't--match the equally glitzy Red Raiders offense touchdown for touchdown. It might take longer to decide such a game than the 2000 Presidential election. However, Missouri's defense has been so woeful much of the season, even in games it won, I don't see much hope even against Texas Tech.

It hurts me to say that because I am a Missouri graduate and my association with Missouri football goes all the way back to 1954 when, as a student, I covered the Tigers for the Columbia Missourian. I was not nearly as sure of myself then as I am now and I can remember my father assuring me, as I timorously prepared to meet Coach Don Faurot for the first time: "remember, he pulls his pants on one leg at a time." He would have done better to warn me that Faurot was missing a finger on his right hand and liked jabbing the stump into the palm of your hand on first meeting you. That was disconcerting, to say the least, but I came to revere Faurot, as most people who knew him did. That was a different time, but Faurot managed to win his share of games while recruiting almost exclusively within the state of Missouri. In fact, that season there was only one squad member from outside the state and he was from East St. Louis, Illinois, just across the river.

I pretty much gave up predicting how Missouri would do after that first season. The Tigers opened at Purdue and we all thought it would be a sure win. That, however, just happened to be the day that Len Dawson and Lamar Lundy both made their college debuts. Dawson, of whom we had never heard, threw four touchdown passes in the 31-0 Purdue runaway. Lundy was an outstanding two-way player in football and a basketball force, as well, the only player in Purdue history to be most valuable player in both sports. I later came to know Dawson pretty well when he was quarterbacking the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super bowl victory and I was columnizing for The Chicago Tribune.

But that's a story for another day. I'll end this one by fast forwarding from the season opener to the season closer agasinst Maryland. It was the only game I didn't cover. The paper, which is run by journalism students, with faculty editors, didn't have much of a travel budget. Most away games I stayed in student dorms and once had to share a bed with sports editor Joe Pollack. The game was played on Thanksgiving day and Maryland was a heavy favorite. On Wednesday of that week, as he was dismissing the class, my favorite history professor called me to the front of the room and asked me if the Tigers had any chance against the powerful Terrapins. I assured him they had an excellent chance. The final score was 74-13. Fortunately, I knew more about Spanish history than I did about football and still got an A in the class.