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Do you want another nightmare scenario for the BcS mess?  Well it could happen.  It looks like the winner of the SEC is on a collision course with Texas, but stranger things have happened.

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Editor’s Note:  The following is an article written by guest blogger Adam Jones from Jones Top Ten.  Although I think Adam is a great blogger and author, we are not related.  I urger visitors to check out a copy of his book, Rose Bowl Dreams: A Memoir of Faith, Family and Football which I reviewed here.  You can buy a copy of the book at the CFTT Book Store here.

Texas/Oklahoma Preview 2009

By Adam Jones, special to collegefootballtopten.com

Almost everything that could go wrong for the Oklahoma Sooners offense has during the first stretch of the season. Meanwhile, Texas rolls along mostly intact. So why are Longhorn fans nervous?

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Editors Note:  This article is written by guest blogger Daniel Durany.  Daniel is a graduate of TCU in Communications Studies.

If you asked most people, what major city in Texas is located in Taylor County? The majority of people would probably say Lubbock, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, or Wichita Falls as the main city for Taylor County. Actually, Abilene is the major city for Taylor County. If you knew Abilene was the major city for Taylor County, then you most likely didn’t know how Taylor County became originated.

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Arkansas State at Nebraska

In the middle of the 1980’s, I was growing up in Batesville, AR.  We all, of course, were Razorback fans.  Ken Hatfield had shown up, and he was in the middle of rebuilding a great tradition at Arkansas, but over in Jonesboro, AR, a guy by the name of Larry Lacewell was building his own tradition.

The Arkansas State Indians (ehem) Red Wolves were emerging as one of the best teams in Division I AA football, uh, I mean the Fooball Chamipionship (played on the field) Subdivision.  Lacewell, was running the wishbone at st-A-te (we called them ASU, but everyone else didn’t know that, so they referred to Arizona State as ASU), excecuting the triple option with precision behind the quarterback Dwane Brown.

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I love to read other bloggers as we all get ready for the BCS Title Game.  I have to give kudos to The Wiz for his post which lists the predictions of different writers in the sports world.  Check out his prediction post.

The Wiz also has an article written by Wendell Barnhouse who used to be a writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and now writes for Big12sports.com.  Barnhouse addresses all of the numbers and motivations and other interesting tidbits for the big game.

You can also check out the Fanblogs post.  Also, Adam at Inthebleachers.net posted his thoughts following the ITB Podcast.  I think we all want to see a good game not another SEC blowout.  Of course, some Oklahoma fans have already claimed a national championship.  I think “Superman” will have something to say about that.

With the FedEx BcS National Title Game being played Thursday night in Miami between Oklahoma and Florida, I thought that I would offer the obligatory word or two about the upcoming game.  Since I am a college football blogger, I am supposed to talk about these things.  So, I thought I would title the post, “Passing the Crystal Ball.”  You know that piece of “hardware” they give to the winner of the so-called national championship game.  Of course, the crystal trophy may be in short supply.

Oklahoma and Florida passed whatever test that voters use these days to choose numbers 1 and 2 in the BCS and get the rip to Miami to see who should be ranked number 1.  I seems that voters don’t really know who they are voting for or have any real standards.  Consider this from Dan Wetzel

“The BCS has no set rationale for how or why a school should be ranked – is it record, strength of schedule, whom it beat, whom it lost to, how it won, how it lost? The decision is up to each voter.”

Huh?  No real standards.  Surely that is how they do it in Division I basketball.  Well, the committee who selects the 64 team tournament has a lot of work to do, and they don’t rely on the voters.  Here is more from Wetzel.

“In contrast, the 10-member NCAA men’s basketball selection committee meets throughout the season to compare notes and stay on top of hot teams. It demands comprehensive scouting, sets common criteria and even asks committee members to get out and see teams in person. Then they all meet and hash it out.”

There you have it, it is simply a beauty pageant (check out my comments).  Sure, the computers have something to do with it, but when voters don’t have standards and a full time job, they simply don’t watch teams such as Utah play games until the bowl season.  They are relying on Sportscenter, Sports Illustrated, ABC or CBS for all of their input.  These great media outlets are going to “hype” the teams they cover.

Now that I have gotten beyond my rant, let’s move on to the game.  This game will feature two of the most explosive in modern history.  Florida runs a spread offense, but it is an Urban Meyer specific.  Now, Chris at Smart Football says it is not innovative because he employs concepts and elements that existed before Meyer started using them.  That is true, but the

meshing together of the concepts and the extreme flexibility of Meyer’s offense makes it explosive.  He has merged a myriad of spread concepts making his offense difficult to defend, particularly when you consider the speed and talent on the field.

Oklahoma has set a record for points scored this year.  Much of that can be attributed to the move to a hurry-up, no-huddle offense.  The Sooners seem to score 21 points on every opponent in the first quarter.  They get teams in a hole, and they “pin their ears back” defensively the rest of the game.  The Sooner offense really took off later in the season when running back DeMarco Murray began to feel more comfortable with his knee after an injury last year.

In general, teams win when they can run the football and stop the run with only a rare exception (see Sugar Bowl, Utah).  That should play in Florida’s favor.  They have all of their rushing weapons available, but Oklahoma will

have to without DeMarco Murray.   On the flip side, Florida will have speedy receiver Percy Harvin for the national title game.   What’s more, OU will have to stop Tebow and Company without 315 pound DT  DeMarcus Granger who had back surgery.

Oklahoma still has the passing game, and that should keep the game interesting.  Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford has had few problems staying upright this year as he had a fanatastic year.  But, as in the Texas and TCU games, a pass rush can give him enough problems to be almost average.  You can bet that Florida Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong has studied those games closely.  My pick is Florida.  Let’s see how it turns out.

The 2008 edition of the Armed Forces Bowl was pretty good.  Houston led

Anybody need a t-shirt?

the whole game, but Air Force was never far behind.  You can check out my write up at Pegasus News here.

This was the first time that I have gone to a bowl game of any kind either as a fan or media member.  I received press credentials to work the game for Pegasus News, and I have to say that I enjoyed the experience.

Both coaches gave the “thumbs up” to the city of Fort Worth and the Armed Forces Bowl officials for a great bowl experience.  I was very impressed with Air Force coach Troy Calhoun and Houston coach Kevin Sumlin.  The two teams played hard, but you could tell that the long lay off for both teams affected their play.

I was happy for Houston’s Phillip Hunt who became the all time sack leader

Fort Worth's Phillip Hunt had two sacks

for the Cougars during the bowl game as well as seting a few bowl records.  Hunt is a Fort Worth native and a senior.  Air Force kicker Ryan Harrison, who is from Keller, TX, almost broke his own Armed Forces Bowl record for the longest field goal.   He hit a 55 yard field goal, but Houston had called a time out.  On the second attempt, he hooked it just to the left.

I hope that I get that opportunity again.  It seems there is some question about where the game might be played in the future.  Hopefully, Fort Worth can hold on to this bowl for a long time.  At least until we start having a playoff.

By the way, I posted a photo gallery at Flickr.  Check it out.

I posted an All-DFW College Football Team at PegasusNews.com.   TCU had

the most players, naturally, since they won more games.  But, I tried to get a decent representation for North Texas and SMU.  The Media Relations Department in the respective Athletic Departments were helpful in me picking some of the players.  As far as I know, it the first time anyone has done an All-DFW College Football Team.

Check out the article.  It is the lead story today at PegasusNews.com.  Congratulations to all the players who made the team.

He may not win the Heisman Trophy this year, but Tim Tebow has more than impressed me with his leadership.  I get kind of skeptical when a college player has a ton of hype, legends, fan sites, myths and

even a Wikipedia page surrounding him.  But Tebow has shown his worth.  I think he is able to play in the NFL in spite of the Spread Offense he has played in at Florida.  He has the arm strength and the leadership to as well as the intelligence to play in a pro style offense.

Last night in the SEC Championship, Tebow led the Florida Gators to a 31-20 upset victory over previously undefeated and number 1 ranked Alabama.  I say upset because Alabama was ranked higher and was undefeated, and yes I am aware that Florida was a favorite going in to the game by the Vegas odds makers.  Tebow actually had to lead Florida from a small deficit in the final quarter to win the game, something he has never done.  Now Tebow has a national title, a Heisman Trophy, two SEC Championships (one as a starter), and some think, a second Heisman Trophy to come with a shot at a second national championship.  Is Tebow Superman?

Some players are great players.  Some great players are good leaders.  And, some great players are great leaders.  Tim Tebow is a great player and a great leader.  A good quarterback can get his offense to play hard for him, but getting the whole team to play hard for him is another matter.  Tebow is able to get his entire team to elevate their play for their quarterback.  You saw it on full display twice in the SEC Championship game.  First, after a touchdown, Tebow ran, not trotted, down to his kick off team to challenge them to make a play on the coverage.  The result, Alabama was tackled at the 15 yard line immediately putting their offense in a hole.  Second, during the second half, Tebow approached linebacker Brandon Spikes on the sidelines with a challenge to the defensive leader to get a stop.  Spikes and the defense delivered.  Tebow has that kind of leadership.  Rarely is a quarterback able to take command of the entire team, all areas, and challenge all of them to rise to the occasion.  It’s the kind of leadership that was seen in Vince Young when he was a Texas.

Tebow is a one of a kind.  He has the character, the athletic ability and the intelligence to be the nation’s premier player, and, despite how good the Big 12 quarterbacks have played, no other player means more to their team, the entire team, than Tebow does to the University of Florida Gators.  Tebow has a vote in the Heisman Trophy race, and he probably won’t vote for himself.  He is just that kind of person.  I think he will be more interested in a National Championship than a Heisman repeat.  However, if Tebow never makes in the NFL, and I think he will, he will be a great leader for some organization, church, country, etc.

On the first weekend of December last year, a series of improbable events put a two loss LSU team in the

National Championship game.  Is that starting to happen again?  Undefeated Ball State is no more.  They got beat by Buffalo in the MAC Championship Game giving the Bulls the MAC Title 42-24 Friday night.

The game became surreal as improbable play after improbable play led to the double digit lead in the fourth quarter.  Two times the Bulls returned fumbles for a touchdown and the officials failed to rule a touchdown by Ball State running back MiQuale Lewis on a review in the third quarter.  The win is the first championship of any kind for the Buffalo Bull football team.  By the way, all of you BCS schools that are looking for an up and coming coach, Turner Gill may be your man.  Gill has done what no one else has done at Buffalo, win.  The Bulls will play in the International Bowl in Toronto.