Not everyone has given up on national title
Published: 12/17/2007 3:07 PM
Last Modified: 12/17/2007 3:07 PM
Defensive end Auston English sounded pretty definitive about Oklahoma's dashed national championship dreams recently, saying: "I gave up on that a long time ago. I kind of got over it. We had our share of mistakes this season, so I'm not going to sit around and argue over whether we should be in the national championship. We had our fair chances."
We sportswriter types, desperate for any story angle we can sink our coffee-stained teeth into, haven't given up hope, however. The Sporting News' Matt Hayes, for one, argues that a split national champion could emerge from the upcoming bowl madness. The Ohio State-LSU winner claims the BCS pie and, barring something very peculiar, the AP enchilada as well.
But AP voters, being mostly sportswriter types, are just that, peculiar. And they just might diss the Buckeyes or Tigers to spite the misinformed, mismanaged and just plain miserable BCS.
The Sooners happen to enter the Fiesta Bowl ranked No. 3 in the AP poll. So how does Hayes see them toppling 1 (Ohio State) and 2 (LSU)?
"Step 1: LSU wins ugly. Step 2: The Sooners roll West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl -- or win an all-time classic game. The Mountaineers are much better than they showed in that loss to Pitt -- which wouldn't have happened with a healthy Pat White -- and OU is playing better than anyone in the country.
"This clearly is the best bowl matchup -- one AP voters will watch closely."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
