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Overrated Forever?
Published: 5/29/2007 4:37 PM
Last Modified: 5/29/2007 4:37 PM

Somebody sent us this question: Has an OU team of either sex, or of any major sport description, lived up to its national ranking in recent memory?


No need to race to the phone to dial up your favorite radio homer. This is not a bad question.


The high national rankings most recently are men's football and women's basketball and softball, none of which came close to finishing where they started in the polls.


Actually, being regularly overrated is back-handed praise to a sharp publicity mill and a receptive media.


On the early sports report Memorial day, we put on KOTV in Tulsa. The top stories were, in order: OU doesn't make baseball tournament. OSU does make it. Then ORU was said to have made it. Get this: A LOCAL TEAM, ORU, RANKED IN THE TOP 25 NATIONALLY, WAS NOT THE LEAD STORY!


Unbelievable.


Wait. No it's not.





Reader Comments 43 Total

John (6 years ago)
You don't get it , Mr. Picker. The only sport that matters is OU FOOTBALL. Boise, USC,LSU..all lucky. Year in and year out we are the best.....no matter who beats us!!
ronald (6 years ago)
still the best no matter who beats us? sounds like sooner logic!
Chris (6 years ago)
USC...LSU...lucky?? Consistently rank in the Top 10 and are potential BCS championship players? Lucky??? Okay....
JOHN (6 years ago)
I can't believe chris and ronald feel this way. If I knew how to get to Norman{I think OU is in Norman}, I would go there and get away from all you mindless OU bashers!!
Terry (6 years ago)
Dean Blevins looked pained that John Holcomb had even mentioned ORU....

How (why) Holcomb puts up with that structure and show content is beyond me. It's as though Tulsa (and ORU) is appendage.
Jeff (6 years ago)
Nobody should be surprised that ORU was not the lead story. C'mon, it's ORU we're talking about here! It doesn't matter if they were the overall #1 seed. The top story will always be "What happended to the Sooners this year?" I'm not trying to hate on OU or ORU, just stating the facts. A small, private, mid-major university is not going to make big headlines as long as there are 2 large, public, BCS universities anywhere in the picture.
Eaglebackr (6 years ago)
Hey, tell us ORU fans something we don't already know! Being fourth-fiddle on the local sports beat is a cross we have grown used to bearing (pun intended). I'm not even sure "New/Old Christine" Lincoln has even uttered our name in his first two weeks on the job at Channel 8! But that's OK - we figure "if we win, they must report", even if it IS the last thing they say before going to the "Highlight/Twilight/Schmighlight Zone" to show a squirrel water skiing at the boat show.
John (6 years ago)
A squirrel water skiing behind a boat is FAR more interesting and important than any ORU sport.
Herb (6 years ago)
Careful John...you're among a nest of nattering nabobs whose only interests are 1) getting a little free press time to express their opinions, no matter how obscure the media and no matter how trivial and off the point, and 2) to bash OU along with their .25 cent guru, the picker.
world picker (6 years ago)
Hey Herb, what is it you pick correctly besides tomatoes?



We have two top 25 teams in this city, TU golf is number two, and ORU baseball is 24; yet all that's on TV sports is OU paints the goal posts.



We like OU. We also deal in reality. Was OU football overrated last year?Was the OU women's basketball team overrated? Softball? Is anybody as consistently as overrated as OU? Is any TV media softer than what's in this state?



There are probably more Yankee fans than there are TU golf and ORU baseball fans. But sometimes you should do the right thing and lead with the best team!



The lead story tonight at 10: OU is rated seventh in the country by Idiots Galore College Football Magazine!



John (6 years ago)
Don't worry Herb, I would never bash the Sooners.... Matter of fact I'm fixen to head to Wal-mart right now and get me a brand new OU hat!!!
John (6 years ago)
And an atlas so i can find out once and for all where Norman is located....
Herb (6 years ago)
So now you're denigrating tomato picking? I'll have you know that without tomato pickers, there would be no salads and without salads there would be no roughage and without roughage there would be far more constipation and with more constipation, there'd be fewer Picker followers.
Chris (6 years ago)
I don't recall bashing OU...oh wait...that's because I didn't. I was pointing out that USC and LSU have good programs. I never said OU didn't. Talk about taking something out of context!!!!!
Herb (6 years ago)
What does that have to do with tomato picking, Senor?
world picker (6 years ago)
Has there ever been anything worse, that pre-pre-pre season football magazines?



Sometimes they don't even know who is playing or coaching.



Here's some good news: ESPN has hired a consultant to look over the state of their on-air product, the anchors, most of whom are horrific, Neil Everett being the sorriest in sports history. The consultant's first comment was the reporters and anchors project themselves into what they're covering far too much.


Herb (6 years ago)
I saw that consultant interviewed and the Picker is dead right. ESPN is in sore need of an overhaul.

Anyone have any comments about the NCAA's lack of interest in the USC / Reggie Bush situation? Whether you're an OU fan or not, you've got to be irate over the lack of progress in the investigation for the past year almost, especially when the case appears to be so cut-and-dried.

Thoughts?
world picker (6 years ago)
Herb: Welcome back from the Sooner Schooner.



A couple of years ago ESPN had a reality show that had a rating of about 0.1. It was about hiring some bozo to play the fool as a new anchor. What was terrifying was some fat-head on the panel was the one who actually hired circus clowns to anchor the sports shows! They should have the common courtesy to list the people who will anchor the desks so we won't get all depressed with Stuart Scott or Neil Everett talking nonsense.



Talk about a monopoly.....too bad Fox can't get arrested.



ESPN thinks we watch because we like the anchors. We watch because we love the games.


John (6 years ago)
Herb is so right. USC should get the death penalty for all their cheating!! It does not compare to OU's problems at all. OU was only trying to help their poor players, like Bomar, get a little extra spending money. I am so glad OU radio, The Sports Animal, is good to Big Red Imports and still advertises from there all the time.I'm sure their new owners would give eeerrr loan an OU running back a luxery car if he so desired.
Chris (6 years ago)
Wow, we have wrongdoing and rulebreaking justified and condemned at the same time. Amazing...
Bill (6 years ago)
C'mon, Picker ... you gotta remember we're talking about John "Trying To Be Blevins" Holcomb, here!!>br>
That tool wouldn't give ORU billing over OU & OSU if they had the only team playing in any event that month!

Did you hear Holcomb gush about OSU's performance in the golf regionals? They finished well below TU, which WON the region! Guess which team got top billing?

Of course! OSU ... Johnnie's big ol' meal ticket!!

He is an embarrassment to the world of journalistic ethics.
Herb (6 years ago)
Someone said it earlier in this blog, I think...and it's true; ORU could be the number one seed in Omaha and the local sports would open with commentary on Bob Stoops' gastric ulcer treatment. But folks, this ain't just a local problem - it's endemic in the sports world. Do you think Arkansas State gets press over Arkansas in Little Rock (ooops...lousy analogy...just trying to interject a much-needed note of levity)? But seriously, the major BCS contenders - no matter whether they're worthy of the ranking or not - will get the press, especially in Bud Wilkinson territory. I'm living in Gnome now, but when I lived in Tulsa, it used to annoy me (and other more noteworthy local sports scribes) how much press the Spit-Piggies gleaned in our city paper. But ORU and TU? They'll have to win back-to-back-to-backers in any particular sport in order to earn their bones and any hope for a breath of equality. Heck, even that agricultural college down in Stillwater has failed to keep up with OU in football for, well, forever.
Herb (6 years ago)
Oh, and thanks for the welcome home, P.
Pete (6 years ago)
Hey Herb u gooner fan......don't make fun of the aggie college or u might choke on your next loaf of wheat bread or raw seal or whatever u eat in Alaska
Herb (6 years ago)
Pete, Pete, Pete...you suffer from serious misconceptions about us Alaskans. We don't eat seal anymore...can't beat the inuits to it. And the baby seals...well, they're just too, too, politically incorrect to devour, no matter how tasty they are with bernaise sauce. Lobster and crab are, however, in abundance and salt water taffy is pretty easy to come by. And I'm judging by your unlettered usage of 'u' to represent the pronoun 'you' that you are truly an Oklahoma State fan. What do ya'll eat down there? Armadillo on the half shell?
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Out Pick The Picker

The Picker began entertaining – and infuriating – sports fans in 1993. Each week during football season, he writes about his picks of college and NFL games in his Thursday Sports column. He's never afraid of sharing his opinions about the game and the personalities who play it. Readers have a chance to go against him each season in the Outpick the Picker contest. He welcomes the competition.

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