DAILY DOMER: ELECTION DAY

As long as it's election day....

Let's talk polls. And let's recall that Oklahoma and Texas are both 8-1 and that the Longhorns beat the Sooners in October, 45-35. The A.P. poll, which is purely eye candy and plays no role in who plays in the BCS title game, has Texas 5th and Oklahoma 6th. The BCS rankings have Texas 4th and Oklahoma 6th. And the USA Today/Coaches Poll, which does play a role in the BCS championship game invitees, has Oklahoma 4th and Texas 7th.

How? Pete Fiutak, whose Tuesday morning "Cavalcade of Whimsy" column is a must-read for college football aficionados (Google a little; you'll find it), pointed out today that he fears too many people who vote in that poll couldn't name you three starters from Alabama other than John Parker Wilson, or who Penn State's two wideouts are (O.J. McDuffie and Gregg Garrity, right?). His point is, Are these voters taking their vote seriously enough? Because if they are, why is Texas behind Oklahoma?
And I completely concur...and agree, as well.

The Play's the Thing 

The landmark play of the 208 season resembles, in many ways, the landmark play of the 2007 season.

The play? A touchdown pass from more than 20 yards out that is scored with 0:01 remaining on the clock. On both plays the pass was well covered by the defensive back.

2007: LSU, with one loss, trails 24-23 at home to Auburn. Though there was more than 35 seconds remaining on the clock when the preceding play ended, the Tigers, who were looking a 40-yard field goal attempt, were fairly cavalier about getting the next play off. Nearly too cavalier.

        However, you know what happened. Matt Flynn launched a perfect strike to Demetrius Byrd, who ran a go route on the left side and caught it in the end zone over the inside shoulder of the Auburn DB. Touchdown, Tigers. If that play takes one more second, or if Byrd fails to make what was a difficult catch, LSU probably does not win the national championship (and, yes, I realize that they would later lose to Arkansas and that we have no idea how this Auburn loss would have affected the remainder of the season...just play along with me here).

2008: Texas Tech trails Texas 33-32, at home, with 0:08 remaining. The Red Raiders have the ball on the Longhorn 28. Instead of going for a safe ten-yard pass that will make a game-winning field goal less onerous, Graham Harrell gambles and tosses a pass to Michael Crabtree, who an a go route on the right sideline. The pass was thrown behind Crabtree, probably purposely so. Crabtree, well-defended, makes the catch, eludes a tackle, and scores the game-winning TD with 0:01 remaining.

A few observations:

1) By now you've probably seen the photos of Chris Fowler's reaction. Nothing wrong with that, and UT fans shouldn't feel as if he were rooting for one team over the other. It was an amazing effort, at a pivotal moment, and you'd have to be on a respirator to not react. Fowler's reaction is just one more piece of evidence for what makes college football so great. When someone whose job it is to follow the sport reacts so viscerally, it shows you how much everyone cares.

2) Just from a "verrrrrrrrry interesting" standpoint. Texas Tech scores to go up 38-33. Sure, there's only one second left and we all pretty much assume the game is over. Still, don't you go for 2 points there? Tech kicked the PAT, which made the final score 39-33, which meant that 72 points were scored. The over-under line was 71.5 points.

        I believe that Tech coach Mike Leach ordered the PAT because he felt the game was pretty much over and saw no reason to do anything more. Still, I wonder how that decision to go for one went over with people who bet the under (we all know how it went over with people who bet the over).

3) One second (and one missed interception the play before) will likely cost Texas not just the national championship, but also a spot in the Big 12 championship game as well as Colt McCoy the Heisman. Here's why. The Longhorns have had their moment in the spotlight. The remainder of their games are against unranked teams. Meanwhile, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma all play one another in the season's last month.

If Texas Tech goes 2-0 in those games, they're headed to the Big 12 South championship game (I'm assuming all three teams will win their other game versus an unranked foe).

Any combination in which two of those three teams wind up 11-1 (e.g., Texas Tech and Oklahoma both beat Oklahoma State, and then OU beats Tech) means a 3-way tie in the Big 12 South. And in that case it comes down to the Coaches' Poll. And in that case, how do you expect Texas to be ranked ahead of the winner of the Nov. 29th Tech-OU game in Norman? Me neither.

It's cruel, it's also why we have so much passion for this sport. At least it's why I do. Texas just went through the most difficult four-game stretch anyone can ever remember one team enduring (No. 1, No. 11, No. 8 and No. 6) and after all that, they came within one second of achieving perfection. It's tantamount to being passed on the last step of a marathon. You have to feel for the Longhorns, but I'm sorry, Senator Obama, this is exactly why we should NOT have a playoff in college football. If we did, you'd never get the Chris Fowler moment.

Turn it up!

Song I'm listening to this week more than any other: "Heart Attack" by the L.A.-based band Low vs. Diamond.

(Watch the video: these are the only two people aging faster than yours truly). 

And Finally...

Happy Birthday to the man who takes sleeping on your hotel room floor to its highest level, intrepid (or, if you happen to work for Notre Dame, annoying) Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette journalist...gazetter(?)....Mike Rothstein.