Last week, I tried to [make sense of a mess of unexpected results][1] in the Big 12 Conference. After this weekend, it’s a bit clearer. This much, I know:**1. Texas is the undisputed best team in the country right now.** Earlier in the week, UT coach Mack Brown [said he didn’t think the Longhorns should be ranked No. 1][2] after beating OU. Hmm. What about now, coach? Alabama and Penn State are ranked second and third, respectively. Alabama’s key wins? At then-No. 3 Georgia (now No. 9) and at then-No. 9 Clemson (now unranked). Penn State’s key wins? …(crickets) …. (crickets) … OK, _ maybe_ vs. then-No. 22 Illinois, but the Fighting Illini are presently unranked. Let’s see what Penn State does Saturday at Ohio State.Texas’ key wins? Oklahoma (then-No. 1) at a neutral site in Dallas and Missouri (then-No. 11) at home. It doesn’t take a BCS system computing square roots or whatever the heck it computes to figure out who the clear-cut No. 1 is right now.**2. Texas quarterback Colt McCoy is the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy.** This is rather indisputable as well. There’s not a more efficient quarterback in the country. McCoy is completing 81.2 percent of his passes – and it’s not like Texas runs all the time, either. How does 29-of-32 for 337 yards and two passing TD’s vs. Missouri sound? Second on the Heisman ballot is probably Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford and we all know what happened at Red River.**3. So much for the Big 12 North division catching up to the South this season.** Before the season, I really thought it’d be possible. I have no problem admitting I was off. OK, way off. The South is 7-1 against the North this season. The North’s two best teams just got rocked in Norman and Austin. Colorado and Nebraska are not progressing at the rate I thought. Iowa State and Kansas State are, well…not good. Did anyone put themselves through that Colorado-Kansas State game Saturday night? Painful.**The first week of the BCS rankings** were released Sunday afternoon. Let the numerous cries for a playoff continue. Here’s the Top 10: **1. Texas** 2. Alabama 3. Penn State **4. Oklahoma** 5. USC **6. Oklahoma State** 7. Georgia **8. Texas Tech** 9. Ohio State 10. Florida **15. Missouri** **23. Kansas **Four in the top 10 – not bad for national title hopes, unless everyone beats up on each other.**Now onto regularly-scheduled** blogging: Here are the week 8 awards:**Performer of the week: Sam Bradford, Oklahoma** When in the name of Bob Stoops and Brent Venables did Oklahoma turn into Texas Tech? Kansas went wild for 491 total yards on a weakened Sooners defense. It’s not often you see a line like Dezmon Briscoe’s (12 catches, 269 yards, 2 TD’s) against Oklahoma. Bradford bailed Oklahoma’s defense out with a school-record 468 passing yards and three TD’s. OU’s defense must improve. **Most significant win of the week: Texas 56, Missouri 31** The game wasn’t even as close as the score indicated, as the Longhorns jumped out to a 35-0 lead in the first half. Texas converted 10 of 12 third downs in the game. I think that can be paralleled to McCoy’s precision and accuracy from the pocket. This was important for Texas to prove to the nation that the Oklahoma victory was no one-week fluke.This also goes back to what I said in [last week’s blog][1] about Kansas representing the North in the Big 12 Championship game. It’s still very possible. Forget about the loss to Oklahoma, which improved to 58-2 at home under Stoops. That was relatively expected. The Jayhawks are still 2-1 in conference play, with everyone else in the North at 1-2 and Iowa State at 0-3.**Biggest surprise of the week: Texas A&M leading Texas Tech at the half** Overall, not many surprises last weekend, but this one was scary for a while in College Station, Texas, with the Aggies clinging to a 23-20 halftime lead.**Now onto the Sorrentino Scale for the grand finale**. The number that follows in parenthesis is what place the team was ranked last week.1 (1). Texas (7-0): Showdown city next Saturday: Oklahoma State at Texas. 2 (3). Oklahoma State (7-0): Playing better defense than OU and TTU. 3 (4). Texas Tech (7-0): Any guesses on what the over/under in Lawrence will be this weekend? 4 (2). Oklahoma (6-1): Defense a huge concern if it wants to contend for a national title. 5 (6). Kansas (5-2): See Oklahoma and change “national title” to “Big 12 North title.” 6 (5). Missouri (5-2): What the heck happened in Austin? 7 (7). Nebraska (4-3): Should carry momentum at home vs. Baylor. 8 (8). Colorado (4-3): Freshman QB Tyler Hansen providing spark with red-shirt removed. 9 (9). Baylor (3-4): Have lost three of four. 10 (10). Kansas State (4-3): 3-of-15 on third downs vs. Colorado. 11 (11). Iowa State (2-5): Struggling. 12 (12). Texas A&M (2-5): Struggling mightily.**Random shout-out of the week: Jin Shan Buffet** This may be the most underrated Chinese buffet around. It’s out on East 23rd St. as you’re heading out of town approaching K-10 East. Very affordable and better quality food than any other Chinese buffet, except maybe Jade Mongolian Barbecue.That’s all for now, friends. As always, discuss. [1]: http://www2.kusports.com/blogs/conference_chatter/2008/oct/13/week_7/ [2]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2008/oct/15/new_no_1_texas_maturing_punishable_force/
