SCOTT JACOBS

The clock is ticking, the nation is watching, and sports fans (more specifically college football fans) at home and abroad are waiting impatiently in the background.  Like the new movie 30 Minutes or Less, Texas A&M is Jessie Eisenberg.  Unlike the movie, they may hold the detonator to their own explosive.  Because the Aggies have the power to truly blow up college football as we know it, if they take their maroon and white to the SEC.

Forget the fact that the SEC would then have two teams with eerily similar colors (paging Mississippi State), the Aggies have the chance to deface the traditional conferences as we know it.  If the Aggies bolt for the SEC as many are expected them to, it will create the type of domino effect that we expected last summer and didn’t get.  It will be the first domino in conference craziness free-for-all.

If you thought the Big 12 was standing on a broken leg and walking in a cast, A&M’s departure would literally paralyze it.  The vultures are ready to circle.  The Pac 12 waits in the wings.  Last year it nabbed Colorado while offering 5 other Big 12 members (including Texas) the chance to form a super conference.  Texas stayed put and got in bed with ESPN to create the football network that will ultimately undo college sports as we know it: the Longhorn Network.  The Big 12 rejoiced, but secretly the wheels were already put in motion for a brutal breakup.  A&M was jealous of the linchpin Longhorns, and despite agreeing to the pact, they soon wanted no part of it.

So here we are.  Again.  On the brink of College Football Apocalypse Now.

Shivering in the corner are schools like Iowa State, Kansas, and Baylor.  If A&M bolts, it could be the thread that officially undoes the entire conference.  And from there, well, college schools would basically become free agents, open to the highest bidder.

FSU has been rumored to be flirting with the SEC as well.  If they leave the SEC will have 14 schools (assuming A&M bolts). Many believe that FSU holds the strings to a suddenly shaky ACC, which could quickly be a sinking ship itself if FSU bolts and schools like Clemson, Virginia Tech, and others join it.  Sure there could be resentment from that school in Gainesville and the one in Columbia, but at this pointeveryone seems fair game in the unfair system of college (pro) sports.

The roulette wheel is spinning and A&M is the ball. No one knows what will happen of the conferences that we’ve become so accustomed to if both the Aggies and then the Noles leave for the SEC.  It very likely will lead to a feeding frenzy with the Big10 picking at the Big12 and Big East, and the ACC picking from the Big East and Conference USA, and the Pac12 devouring a few more schools from the Big 12.  From there the Mountain West could be at risk, and well, who the heck knows.

Rivalries will be lost, resentment will echo from coast to coast, and many schools will be left in the cold.  As for the BCS, well whose to say there will be one if all this happens.  Super Conferences will take shape leading to conference heavy schedules and then what happens to quality-non conference games? Do those go by the wayside?  What about bowl games?  Does the Super Conferences form a Super League leading to the end of the NCAA?

It’s all hazy right now because this is un-chartered water that we briefly got to put our toe in last year. In 2010 only Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and Boise State along with TCU switched conferences.  In 2011 we’re looking at a seismic shift.

Texas A&M of all schools is the card-holder.  Sure, the don’t care what their selfish move does to college sports.  It’s not like they didn’t know what Texas was planning.  O wait, they did?  ESPN’s commitment to the burnt orange created this whole mess, but it’s not even just about them.

Nope, greed runs college sports now.  It just might ruin them as we know it too.  Which is ironic, because the NCAA is so big about emphasizing the amateur aspect. But they’re not fooling anyone, because the stench of green can be smelt from Florida to Texas to California and everywhere and anywhere in between.

If you believe that this is just amateur sports we’re talking about, then I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. Behind the scenes or in front of the camera, it’s going down, and this toxicity of big TV deals, conference networks, and money grabs is going to haunt college sports for a long time.

Schools and conferences are just too busy rolling around in their money pits to see it.

Photo: AP

SCOTT JACOBS

On Monday Texas stayed put.

And on Tuesday the sports world will alas be quiet. The tectonic plates that seemed ready to shift college football’s current state into flux has stopped moving. College sports are still again.

In the end, Nebraska, Boise State, and Colorado moved. Not half of college football.

It was surprising news from a story that grew legs a few weeks ago and seemed ready to forever alter college sports. The Pac 10 and Larry Scott were prepared to change the game. They had Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State all ready to jump aboard the superconference express freight. They appeared ready to leave their other conference rivals in a crumbling demeaning mess.

The apocalypse was coming. Tuesday was the day.

And then, like a hurricane forecast gone terribly awry, the storm ready to break up the 14 year old Big 12 turned around and headed back out to sea, to die a simple, irrelevant death.

College football was prepared for the worst. Instead they got a light breeze. A few trees down, but ultimately nothing that’s irreplaceable.

Finally after a tenuous and strange weekend of constant rumors and approaching inevitability, the storm clouds are gone. Bright sunny skies ahead.

The Big 12 or as they should be called now, Texas+9, is alive and kicking, an unbelievable turn of events for a conference that had already seemed to dig its grave. But Nebraska and Colorado bolting for new conferences didn’t turn out to be the deathblow that everyone projected it to be. Because what Texas wants, Texas gets. The Horns wanted to remain the cash cow of the conference, and their minions within the Big 12 conference once again happily obliged.

They’re dancing in Lawrence, KS where the Jayhawks once looked to be one of the odd teams out. They’re breathing a sigh of relief in Columbia, MO where the Tigers played their Big 10 hand wrong, but didn’t ultimately get burned. They’re relaxing in Waco, TX where Baylor’s people were ready to take the bolting bunch to the courts. In Ames, Iowa State can sit down once again. Same for the Wildcats of Kansas State.

All those programs were outsiders looking in, according to the PAC Plan that never ceased to be. And those schools are today’s biggest winners. Did we mention they get double the revenue they were making? Talk about win-freaking-win!

Texas didn’t stay out of pity. The Horns will once again be the Big 12’s puppeteer with the other 9 schools being its puppets. But with Texas in the fold, the conference is a gold mine of opportunity. And Texas can start it’s own network. Why people want an all UT Network is beyond me, but apparently it would bring in $3-5 million a year which is simply amazing. Oklahoma and Texas A&M (which had been flirting with the SEC) will stay put and cash in big-time. The Big 12’s revenue system will continue to be uneven, but even as the rich get richer, the little guys will still do pretty darn well.

And about those natural rivalries that over the weekend I cited were going to be really awkward after the Big 12 dissolved. Well, scratch that. Kansas and Missouri, you were made for each other.

Texas A&M had thought of jumping ship to the SEC, but no formal invitation was ever actually handed to them. Once Texas said no, the Aggies were more than happy to stay along too.

So in the end, the Cornhuskers were the biggest school to move, and they made the most geographical sense anyways. The Big 12 loses a football title game, but if they really want another one, I’m sure they can lasso in a pair of new schools. The Big 10 will probably stay put now, at 12.

If you’re scoring at home, basically the Big 10 made a trade with the Big 12 for Nebraska, so they could change names. But that would just make this mess more confusing. Addition by subtraction? Big 10 title game in 2011. No such event for the Big 12.

The Big East now looks to be on steady ground, which means that Notre Dame will most likely stay put too. With the Pac 10 stuck to 11 or 12, and the Big 10 at 12, the SEC has no reason to raid the ACC of its schools, which means that Conference USA is safe too.

In the end it wasn’t Nebraska or Colorado that held the cards. It was Texas.

On Monday the Horns got what they wanted, mainly well, whatever it was that they wanted.

And just like that, the storm is gone.

Photo: Reuters

SCOTT JACOBS

Long after Tim Tebow’s tears were wiped away, along with his Heisman hopes, Texas played against Nebraska (as a two touchdown favorite I might add) with a national championship berth on the line.  That was the assumption at least.  Afterall, the way this season had played up until that point, the stars had aligned for Texas to play the winner of the SEC Championship.  It was practically scripted.  And with Texas getting a raw deal last year at the last moment and getting jumped by an Oklahoma team that they had already beaten for the title game in South Florida, the presumption was that they would not get shut out two years in a row.

But not so fast.  After an unimpressive showcase of ineptness most of the game, Texas overcame some baffling mistakes and kicked their way to a Big 12 championship.  But just because they’re number three, and next in line after Florida lost, shouldn’t immediately mean that they should go to the championship.  Playing for a title is not a right, it’s a privilege, and the question voters should be asking themselves tonight is: does Texas deserve to play for all the Roses (and then some)?

The odds on likelihood is that they will get the nod.  The reason for this is twofold: number one, Texas is still undefeated, and number two, they got shafted last year.  But they overwhelmed no one tonight, and they’re not the only undefeated team left.

Far from it.

Cincinnati and TCU were licking their chops as Texas fell behind with less than two minutes to go.  They must have burrowed their head in nausea when the Huskers inexplicably kicked the ball out of bounds and then garnered a horse collar tackle on top of a huge gain.

Texas won.  Yes.  But barely.  McCoy almost made the gaffe of the century when he lost track of time, and heaved the ball out of bounds casually.  That’s how I feel the title game will play out.  The voters will put Texas at number 2 lazily, because that’s the easy thing to do.  Who has the guts to go with the best resume?  Who I ask who?

This is the big problem.  Texas has history, tradition, and is well recognized as a football power.  They were number two to start the year.  TCU?  They were 17th in both polls to start out.  Cincinnati?  Unranked entirely.

Look, I love polls.  I think college football isn’t the same without them. We love numbers in this nation.  We eat them up.  Numbers help make things make sense.  Numbers rile up hype, numbers give us grounds to compare things against, numbers help us determine a national champion.

It’s just unfortunate when those numbers have such bearing months and months later.

The order going into today’s games:  Texas, TCU, Cincinnati.  Nothing has changed.  The only difference is Texas actually took a step back, while TCU flew up 13 spots, and as for Cincy, well they came out of nowhere (despite being in the Orange Bowl the year before) to crash the BCS title game debate.

If you throw out numbers, and conference affiliations and all that jazz and just compare the three teams side by side, as if it was a Coke-Pepsi taste test, it’s hard to see how anyone goes with Texas.  Their wins over ranked teams:  Oklahoma State, which was shellacked and shut out at Oklahoma with a Fiesta Bowl bid on the line, and Nebraska, which snuck in at number 22, just to make them a little more imposing.

Texas has the weakest resume of those three, but again, they’re Texas.

I don’t feel like throwing numbers at you.  Look it up if you want.  But Texas shouldn’t get in because they’re Texas.  People have to have some imagination.  This was a down year for the Big12.  The Big East is given no respect, and TCU, what conference do they play in again?

I don’t know who should go to the title game.  The obvious solution is an 8 team playoff.  But there are no signs that will ever happen.  So the only P word I’ll throw out there is preposterous.  It’s preposterous that Texas should get to go the title game just because they are who they are.

It’s like that line from Knocked Up, “life doesn’t care about your plans.”  Just because Texas beat an anemic Nebraska offense by a point, doesn’t mean they should automatically move up.  Cincy won in the snow, over a top 15 team.  Texas squeaked by a team that barely attained 100 yards of total offense.  TCU’s resume speaks for itself.

But tradition is everything in college football.  It’s why the big wigs at the top were so reluctant all these years to let one of the teams outside the Big Boy table (the big 6) play in their BCS bowl games.  It’s the reason that many would object to a TCU in the national title game.  It’s the logic that explains why Boise State has to try scheduling more elite schools if they want to even crack the discussion.

Cincinnati is not only getting overlooked, they’re getting attention for all the wrong reasons.  While Brian Kelly plays hush, hush with the media about his (cough, cough) interest in the Notre Dame opening, his Bearcats find themselves undefeated and Big East champs.  Instead of fielding questions about the incredible comeback his team put together, he was sidestepping questions about South Bend.

It’s a slap in the face to an incredible year for the Cats, who do play in a power 6 conference.  But ya sure as heck woudn’t know it.  Cincy doesn’t have that tradition or those incredible alumni players who went on to big things in the NFL.  If Pitt was in their shoes, I’d argue the Panthers get a lot more love.  Why, because Pitt has that history and tradition on their side, even if it hasn’t been recently.

Alabama proved they should be in the title game with their demolition derby over the Crying Tebows, err… Florida.  They won on a neutral field in dominant fashion.  Texas did anything but.  But they’re Texas, and when we wake up tomorrow they’ll most likely be number two in the polls.  And on Fox’s BCS selection special, that little Longhorn emblem that is so synonymous with college football glory, will appear on your screen, next to the well known A of Alabama’s.

Texas-Alabama just looks good.  It sounds good.  Two historic programs with huge fan bases facing off in Pasadena?  Mmmm… delicious.  And the last time Texas went to a California bowl game, they won the national championship in one of the most exciting games ever played.  How do you go against that for a team like TCU or Cincy?  Ratings wise, Texas-Bama will score high marks.  On paper it looks like a great matchup.

Whether or not it is the right matchup for the national title, well, that’s obsolete.  It’s what we’ll be getting.  Sex sells in advertising.  Tradition sells in college football.

Life isn’t fair.  Neither is college football.

SCOTT JACOBS

There’s a reason people love college football.  Say what you want about the playoff system or lack of one in the game, but college football purists have always argued that what makes their game unique is the added importance to a regular season that usually leaves minimal room for error, and lots of room for good, pure chaos.

But that seems to be abscent from the game this year.  Unless of course you consider the wild situation shaping up in the Pac10 where four plus teams seem to still have a crack at a Rose Bowl berth.  But that’s not what we’re driving at.

What happened to the week by week wild top 10 showcases, the games that could completely turn the college football world on its head.  What happened to the Texas Tech’s of the world?  Teams that sort of came out of nowhere to shock the world.  While we’re making Big12 references what about Kansas and Missouri?  What happened to games like those?  Games that showed up on the schedule at the end of the year, but all of a sudden merited the entire nation’s attention.

This season has been by all accounts, boring, predictable, and a bump-free ride to a seemingly foregone conclusion.  Florida and Alabama have drudged through the once again mediocre SEC (ya I said it) with the Tide boasting one very nice out of conference win (Va. Tech).  They’re still perfect, although I’d argue that they’re two of the more mediocre elite teams in some time.  Florida has Tebow, Alabama has tradition, and for me, that’s where the excitement with those teams ends.  On the other end of this joyless ride is Texas, a team screwed over by the BCS title game last year (after they played a very tough schedule and beat some very good teams).  This year’s Texas team is nowhere near as impressive and boasts a resume laughable compared to last year’s superior team.

But at number three in the polls, and with two heavyweights at one and two set to duke it out in Atlanta, the Longhorns are in the perfect spot.  Win out and no one will screw them over this year.  The question is, with just one win, ONE! over a ranked team (Oklahoma isn’t ranked) are they even worthy?

While you ponder that, consider this: It’s one thing to have two titans land on a crash course to play each other in the championship game.  It’s another to have three rather underwhelming teams with great defenses monopolizing the damn polls for a good 95% of the season.

This has been just an abysmal year for huge mega games on a week to week basis.  Remember last year with the Big12?  I mean wow, that was great.  Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma all jockeying for positioning.  No one in the Big 6 of the BCS conference world went undefeated last year.  This year we could be looking at three.  But it’s been about as enjoyable as watching paint dry.

Cincinnati is in the mix, but playing in the lesser-thought-of Big East hasn’t helped their cause.  The ACC could argue that Georgia Tech is a nice team that deserves some more pub, but, who are we kidding, can anyone from that conference truly be taken seriously as a championship team?

TCU and Boise State are both undefeated and both knocking on the BCS door. The Horned Frogs are fourth and could vault into the championship game if hell freezes over.  The Broncos beat Oregon.  And uh, yeah, did we mention it was the first week of the season?

No one boasts a resume that just blows your mind.  Who has Florida played?  O right, LSU.  And they get Alabama in the title game, but that’s not part of their REGULAR season schedule.  How about Alabama?  We love to pat them on the back for their game against the Hokies, but the rest of their non conference schedule: North Texas, FIU, and Chatanooga reads like one big joke.  UF and Bama have one thing to hang their hats on: they both beat LSU… who barely just beat Lousiana Tech.

As for Texas, well they did beat UCF, which just beat Houston!  Yeah, send ‘em to Pasadena.

It would never happen, but what if a team like Cincinnati, which has arguably played better teams this year, leap-frogged the Horns?  I’m not saying they’re better, but they sure as heck seem to play much better competition.  Their non-conference slate:  Oregon State and Illinois (okay so the Illini suck, but that’s not the point).

The point is this: college football needs CHAOS!  What happened to two loss teams still being in the mix?  Parity is needed.  Dictatorship is what it feels like.  Florida needs to lose to FSU, Alabama needs to get taken out in the Iron Bowl by Auburn.  Texas needs to be uphended by Texas A&M (Hey it could happen, no?)  All of a sudden the BCS title game picture would be crystal clear with fuzziness.  UF and Alabama would be anything but locks for the title, even with a win over each other.  The Horns would probably be dropped entirely from the discussion, because HELLO!  they haven’t beaten anyone.  All of a sudden the Cincy’s, TCU’s, Boise’s, and even Georgia Tech’s of the world would have a chance.

And that’s what this season needs.  A chance.  A chance to stir the pot.  This season has gone way too long going according to plan.  We need some glitches to send the final few weeks spiraling out of control.

So here’s a plea to the underdogs taking on the self appointed big dogs: knock em down a peg would ya?  And make this season a whole lot more interesting.

SCOTT JACOBS

Texas started the day. Oklahoma State just about finished it, and somewhere in between the titans (s0-called that is) of college football’s top five fell like the troops fighting against the 300 men of Sparta. O, this wasn’t a big Hollywood blockbuster, but boy did it feel like one. Number one, number three, and number four all fell, and all fell hard, and in that 24hour time period, a whole heapload of stuff changed in the road to the BCS Championship.

The Big 12 is loaded
From five to one, o it can be done. After the Longhorns impressive win over previously unbeaten and number one Oklahoma in a thrilling Red River Shootout (that lived up to its name) the Longhorns jumped from good team that hadn’t really been challenged, to potentially elite team ready to compete for a national championship. In a game that had it all, including come back after comeback, bizarre penalties (including one of the best acting jobs ever by a punter), gutsy calls (like Oklahoma faking a punt on 4th and 6 and only getting 5), and brilliant quarterback play (Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford threw for five TD’s and lost!), the dust settled, and Texas emerged victoriously 45-35, dethroning the Sooners at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

Colt McCoy was clutch, and stood toe to toe with Bradford, and in doing so, proved he might be good enough to lead this Longhorns team to a championship. But first things first: the Longhorns have to survive a brutal Big 12. Next week, they get Missouri (also knocked from the ranks of the unbeatens by surprising Oklahoma State) and that will be a huge game, that doesn’t even have implications within their own division. Just how good is the Big 12?

Going into the day Oklahoma was number one, Missouri was number three, Texas was fifth, Texas Tech was seventh, Kansas was 16th, and Oklahoma State was 17th. That’s half the conference in the top 20! So while people are all ready to crown the SEC as the superior conference in college football, maybe those pundits should take another look. The Big 12 is loaded!

Oklahoma will probably drop to 7th or 8th, Mizzou is likely to fall to around 10th, Texas Tech will most likely move into the top five (even after their nailbiter over Nebraska in OT), Kansas will move up after pushing aside Colorado, and how about Oklahoma State! The Cowboys are 6-0, already bowl eligible, and they have a huge program building win after stunning Missouri on the road 28-23.

I remember reading a story a few years ago that Rick Reilly wrote about how T. Boone Pickens, a filthy rich alumni, was flooding the football program with huge donations. The number, $163 million, was considered controversial at first, because people felt it could have been best served going to academic departments. Well, that money went to new facilities, and state of the art equipment, and lookie now- the Cowboys are looking good. I should note that while wins quiet issues, the money probably would have been served best elsewhere going to a department that needed it. But for Oklahoma State they’re now back on the map.

With Oklahoma State’s resurgence came a stunning fall from grace for Missouri, which was coasting along in it’s bid for number one. Chase Daniel went 27-31 in the second half, but three of those were interceptions, including a bad forced throw that was picked late in the game, sealing the deal. Now, the Tigers have to rebound against potential number one Texas (we’ll get to that in a moment) at Austin. Remember, the Tigers didn’t have to play the Horns last year, and so next week should be really interesting. Going into the nightcap, Missouri fans foresaw a top five clash once again, but the only smash they felt tonight was the pain of their national title hopes crashing and burning.

This just in: No chance of LSU repeating in 2008
51-21. LSU went into the Swamp, and got mutilated on Saturday Night. They fell behind 20-0 , made it a game early in the third with a touchdown which made it 20-14, and then the Gators just ran the Tigers out of Gainesville. A full on bullying display by the number 11 Gators not only ruined LSU’s previously unbeaten season, but it also ended any chance they had of getting back to the national title game. When you lose a game, voters look at how you lost. Was it a close game, did you blow a big lead, were you just downright embarassed? Chalk LSU’s status to that last one. In the meantime, the Gators turned a lot of heads on Saturday with their 30 point thrashing, but they really just knocked out a team I said was over-rated a few weeks ago. It’s a great win, especially over a top five team, but c’mon! The Tigers don’t have a quarterback right now, and their offense has been inept. I said a few weeks ago that one Tigers team (In the LSU-Auburn game) would beat the other, and then a few weeks later the other Tigers team would get exposed. LSU beat Auburn, and today got destroyed by Florida. The Gators add a nice bounce back win to their resume after that debacle two weeks ago against Ole Miss.

So who’s number one?
Number two Alabama was off this week, but at 6-0 they have a case.

Number five Texas made the biggest statement of the day, taking down number one Oklahoma, and making numerous comebacks to do it, including one from 21-10.

Number six Penn State slaughtered the free falling Wisconsin Badgers 48-7 at Camp Randall to improve to an impressive 7-0.

Number seven Texas Tech just snuck by Nebraska 37-31 in overtime, and they’re now they’re 6-0.

So who’s number one?

Here’s my rankings after a wild weekend:

1. Texas- their win was impressive enough, coupled with three top five teams falling and Alabama not playing to claim number one.  But there’s no rest for the Longhorns who have Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech back to back to back.  Wow, is that a brutal upcoming three game stretch!
2. Alabama- they didn’t lose, they didn’t win. They stay where they are for now.
3. Penn State-Joe Pa’s still got it, and the Lions look like legit championship contenders.
4. USC- Guess who’s creeping back into the picture: USC. After they throttled the Sun Devils 28-0 they jump Texas Tech.
5. Texas Tech- the Red Raiders top five? After a shaky win over the Huskers at home, they find themselves here because practically everyone else lost.
6. Oklahoma- That Texas game was really close most of the way. This team is still very, very good.
7. BYU- Forget BCS busters. The way this season is playing out, could the Cougars (6-0) contend for a championship?
8. Florida- their obliteration of LSU merits their spot here. But LSU is over-rated I tell ya.
9. Georgia- Not an amazing win over the Vols, but sufficient enough.
10. Oklahoma State- It’s the way they beat Mizzou, with defense, that impressed me the most.

What do you think?