That's a bummer. Too bad for them Texas took away their opportunity to beat up on ULM. This certainly doesn't help Texas. What a terrible schedule we have this year.
OU's season isn't over, but they MUST be perfect from now on. If they win out (including beating UT in october) then the voters could dismiss this loss as a fluke (whether thats fair or not) and OU could be in the big game. Its very possible for other top teams to have 1 loss, as the last few years have shown us.
Our schedule really isn't that much worse compared to USC. OK St. will likely be in the Top 10 when we play them and OU could be as well. Kansas is likely to be ranked as well. Should we make the Big 12 Championship game, that would likely be against a ranked NU team. That's 3-4 ranked teams with 2 of them possibly being against Top 10 opponents. USC will be playing Ohio State, and while they'll be in the Top 10, their lackluster performance against Navy may take away from the game. Cal and ND will also be ranked. Oregon State also has a chance of being ranked as well. So that's 3 (possibly 4) teams that are likely to be ranked with only 1 being in the Top 10.
When people talk schedule strength, they really mean they're looking at what OOC games you schedule. Because teams don't have control over their own conference. And there's no hiding it, our OOC scheduling f'in sucks ass. Who would you get more excited about... Wyoming, or OSU+ND? I wish we would schedule powerhouses every year, even if that means less undefeated seasons.
Who's cheering the injury of Bradford? Some people here are actually upset that Oklahoma won't be undefeated when they face UT. Besides, remember "Cart McCry?" Yeah, that wasn't classless or anything.
I was speaking generally. And besides, don't think OU fans weren't joining in the fun on that one. (See, I can make baseless accusations, too.)
No need to do that when you play in the Big 12 South. How's scheduling a ranked team in non-conf working out for OU? As long as UT wins out, there's a pretty good chance they're in. Only an undefeated USC and an undefeated SEC team would leave UT out. Penn State could win out but their schedule is even worse than Texas' and have much easier conference games than Texas. It's unlikely an SEC team goes undefeated, and USC is prone to losing 1 game per season they have no business losing. @ Cal could be this year's loss (a legit one this time though).
When these schedules were made, he didn't know how good the Big XXII South was. On this point, the post I was responding specifically worries about the the Big XXII South not being good. So if Ok St and Tech in particular don't have good seasons which is very much possible or at least not top 15 teams which they historically aren't, UT doesn't have a good strength of schedule.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the only national championship UT has won in the past 30 years was during a season when we played a high-ranked Ohio St team on the road. I don't necessarily mean from a technical SOS rating though... I think it really helped us become a tougher and more experienced team that season, and made us win it all.
that's really what I'm concerned about also. they were battle tested against an out of conference ranked team on the road. that's something these kids need, even though the teams in the Big XII they are playing the same guys every year. they need that variety from a good opponent. Just one game is suitable and it doesn't have to be a top ranked team like Ohio St. Just a good ranked team
And when the schedules were made 5 or so years ago, the Longhorns probably figured Arkansas (who backed out this year) and Utah (backed out the last two years) would be formidable out of conference opponents. It goes both ways.
Agree with everything you said. That game had a lot to do with beating USC, but at the same time, we didn't need that game from a SOS standpoint to get to the MNC. But at least we'll get our test this year from a tough Big 12 South compared to that year. Big 12 championship will probably be a decent Missouri or Nebraska, and we have to play @ Oklahoma State, @ Baylor, @ Missouri and @ A&M (rival game, 10 yr anniversary of bonfire tragedy), along with the RRS. Much better in-conference test than the 2005 season. It should be noted that we will play Ole Miss and UCLA in the upcoming years. There have been recent rumors of playing Cal Bears in 2014-15, along with Ohio State possibly again. I'd like to play USC (recently scheduled with A&M), and I'd really like to play LSU every year in Reliant Stadium. Seems too good to be true.
No way would UT go for that. It would give LSU free recruiting advertising in Houston and the state of Texas. Mack doesn't want them stealing any more recruits than they already do from this state... nevermind the fact that LSU is an extremely tough SEC team....with a good chance of a UT loss on a regular basis
It's worked pretty well for OU. Last year, it got them a B12 title and into the national title game even with a loss to Texas. This year, if they run the table, they are still probably in the national title game if it comes down to them or any other 1-loss team because they'll have the most difficult schedule to the combination of the B12 + BYU/Miami in their non-conf schedule.
