Gridiron, week eight

Another football season is zooming along, and is now past the midpoint mark. The Aggies and Iowa State faced off in a match featuring the teams predicted to bring up the rear in their respective Big 12 divisions. TAMU finished on top with a solid 35-10 win against a team that edged Nebraska last week. This is the sort of game that has typically given the Aggies fits since the 2000 season, and they've lost more of them in upsets than I want to think about.

Tonight the longhorns take on Oklahoma State, the last team on their schedule remotely capable of derailing their championship express. I told my son that I don't see Texas losing until the national championship game, and maybe not then. Texas is in the fortunate position of being strong at every position in a conference that's made up mostly of so-so teams and sad sacks. The Big 12 hasn't completely crashed and burned, but all the North division teams that were major powers in the early years of the conference (Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas State) have slipped into the so-so category, and Missouri and Iowa State have dropped from so-so to sad sack. Kansas is up-and-down, and nobody's idea of an elite program.

In the South, Texas struts around thumping its chest and bitching because they don't get the respect they deserve as God's gift to football. Without Bradford, Oklahoma is no better than slightly above average. Okie State and Texas Tech have slipped a notch, and TAMU is still trying to find its way out of the swamp. Baylor is still Baylor. Therefore, Texas takes the conference title by default. They're powerful enough to dominate this collection of mediocrities and mangy mutts. Whether they can overcome a power like Florida remains to be seen.

Added 11:02 pm, same day: The longhorns smashed Okie State 41-14, and now they're on cruise control all the way to the BCS national title game. I'm not sure who they'll be playing because the other contenders all have tough schedules, unlike the longhorns, who've spent two months chowing down on a string of candyasses with four to go.

It's the story of my life. I decided that 2009 was the year I would climb aboard the USC Trojan bandwagon after admiring them from a distance for several years. Am I a fucking jinx or what ? Tonight USC lost to Oregon, 47-20. What makes this loss unbearable is that Oregon has the ugliest fucking uniforms in major college football --- a shade of green that will be familiar to anyone who's ever looked into a baby's dirty diaper.