Burnt Orange Nation

It's TWIQ's time to shine! The sad state of of affairs that the BCS forces college football into has created a situation where this is what it's all about: quotes. Quotes and opinions and sound bites and all those things that have nothing to do with the actual playing of the game of football are likely to decide who gets a shot at the Big XII title and the national championship. The only people who can save the Longhorns from this madness wear green and gold and haven't beaten Texas Tech since 1995 (and haven't won in Lubbock since 1990). But, on the bright side, Baylor only trails in the all-time series by one game.

"Advantage: Texas." -- Not only did our own BZ use this line in his defense of Texas' case for being ahead of Tech and OU; so did the MSM's own Mark Schlabach. The more of this kind of very public, very accessible stuff comes from ESPN and the other major media outlets, the better. We also saw ESPN's D Team on "SportsCenter U" declare that, even if Oklahoma were to beat Oklahoma State and Mizzou, it wouldn't prove a thing; after all, Texas has already beaten both of those teams. It was a rare opportunity for "SportsCenter U" to be on ESPN2 instead of ESPNU (it was a time-filler after the Longhorns' basketball game against St. Joe), so here's hoping a lot of Harris voters saw it. Keep it coming!

"The SEC sucks this year. The Big Ten sucks this year. The Pac 10 really sucks. No, it’s not parity; it’s bad football." -- CollegeFootballNews.com's Pete Fiutak. Fiutak's section of this "five thoughts" article is basically in praise of the Big XII South's chaos because, he acknowledges, nothing else this season in college football has been particularly inspiring. While it isn't a good reason to continue screwing over deserving teams year after year, this does remain the only salient argument left for BCS proponents (any more crap about academics and our heads will explode). It certainly does give folks a reason to talk about college football more than any other sport on the landscape.

"All together now...45-35...45-35...45-35." -- Headline for Matthew Zemek's Thought Number Four on the same "five thoughts" article linked above. Zemek, from a neutral perspective, makes he case for Texas beautifully here. While not as high-profile as ESPN.com, it's still a well-known website with some MSM connections. If you know any Harris voters, send them there.

"If you played head to head, to me, you give the advantage to the team that won head to head." -- Kirk Herbstreit on ESPN Radio (follow link and click on the "Herbie" podcast). Herbstreit is one of the most visible pundits in college football, and he says in this sound bite what everyone else seems to be saying: Texas deserves a slight edge over OU, but it looks like the voters are about to get it wrong. Scott Van Pelt is on the Longhorns' side as well. This whole thing is absolutely nuts. 

"Rolle was one of two winners selected from 13 finalists interviewed in Birmingham." From a New York Times article about Florida State safety Myron Rolle being awarded the Rhodes Scholarship. It's rare that a major college football player exhibits the finest ideals of the term "student-athlete" in so spectacular a way; we say a big congratulations to Rolle and his family for such an unbelievable achievement.