thr@cbsck.UUCP (Tim Robison) (01/08/86)
I am an extremely loyal Big Ten fan, specializing as a fanatic Ohio State Buckeye fan. For various reasons, I have grown to despise several other college teams such as Notre Dame, USC, Clemson, and Oklahoma. However, I can recognize excellence, and Oklahoma is the best team in the nation and thus deserving of their number 1 ranking. It is my opinion that OU might be the dominant college team for the rest of the decade since they are not only strong, but young. I also congratulate OU for strengthening its previous weak schedule; this year OU's non-conference opponents included Texas, Miami, Minnesota, and SMU, 3 of which were bowl teams. Of course without a playoff system, there can be no true national champion acceptable to everybody which Barry Switzer himself exemplified by voting Fresno State number 1 in the UPI poll. Without playoffs, some people are bound to point out teams who can beat OU, teams with a strong rushing defense and a strong passing attack such as Miami. However, every team has certain opponents which they do not match up well against - Ohio State has lost the last 4 out of 5 to Wisconsin. Overall, there is no doubt that Oklahoma is number 1; the decision is clear cut this year. I would also like to congratulate the Big Ten conference for an outstanding season. They placed 6 teams in bowl games, even though they play 8 conference games (unlike the Southeastern "conference"), and compiled a 24-6 out of conference record. According to a previous posting, the Big Ten appeared to have the toughest bowl schedule, so I guess their 3-3 bowl mark is not too bad, definitely better than last year's dismal 1-5 record. However, our continued embarrassment in the Rose Bowl is still a source of discontent. I guess that it is just one of life's little mysteries like baseball's national league domination of the All-star game. Instead of sending Iowa and Illinois to the Rose Bowl to embarrass the league, the Big Ten should send Ohio State every year - at least we keep the score close (loosing by a total of 6 point in our last 3 appearances). Once again, congrats OU!