Jay Kersting's Blog

By now you may have read about the experience at the Border Showdown on Saturday.  The Associated Press (writers) Poll has Mizzou at number 1.  The USA Today (coaches ) poll has Mizzou at number 2.

But the one that matters is the Bowl Championship Series poll.  THE BCS is argued every year.  The call for a playoff is heard every year.  It makes for great talk radio fodder.  One thing that everyone can agree on is this....the system ain't perfect.

This week, the BCS poll spits out Mizzou as number one, with West Virginia at number two and Ohio State close behind at number 3.  Last week LSU was the top of the heap.  Then they got thrown to the scrap heap by Arkansas.  Arkansas?  Anyhow, two weeks before that Ohio State got bumped over to the land of also rans after dropping one to a team coached by Ron Zook?  Did anyone check Zook's fax transmit/received log that week?  Lucky for the Buckeyes, if you can call it luck, is that their timing has allowed them to circle the Tigers and Mountaineers like a shark waiting to attack....or maybe more like a vulture waiting for one of them to die.

So here is what it sets up.  The West Virginia Mountaineers have to beat the Pittsburgh Panthers to keep their spot secure.  The Panthers haven't been much to worry about since Johnny Majors' first term there as head coach.  And Tony Dorsett does not have any eligibility left, so the Mountaineers need to simply keep from being over-confident.

As for the Tigers, they have the EXCITING road to travel.  And that road goes through San Antonio with Oklahoma waiting for the Tigers.  The Sooners gave the Tigers their ONLY loss back on October 13th.  But a lot of football has been played since then.  Since that time, Oklahoma lost to Texas Tech.  Mizzou lost to no one.  Mizzou gets the opportunity to avenge their own loss of the season.  Oklahoma has to prove that they can beat a good team when they don't have 80,000+ of their own screaming and yelling at their opponent.  

To me, Oklahoma has to prove that they won't choke, AGAIN, on a big stage.  I also thought of the Sooners as Chokers prior to the 2005 Orange Bowl....you know, when they puked on the biggest stage of the year.  To the tune of 55-19....and it wasn't even as close as the scoreboard showed.  And I made a Sooners fan cry.  I still have his Orange Bowl program...let me know if you want to look at it. 

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