good riddance, sooners

Texas Christian is my favorite team of the week. Over the past couple of years I've gotten very tired of the constant hype Oklahoma has gotten all season every season only to crash and burn in fantastic fashion when it counted. Nobody likes a choker and I especially don't like one that the talking heads swear by and shove down our throats as the next dynasty. So one could imagine my joy upon reading that the seventh-ranked sooners bowed out early this year to the likes of TCU. Yeah, Southern Cal and Texas are still around to soak up air time, but at least Oklahoma should be sidelined for a while. The Trojans have actually walked the walk recently, but they won't be a problem after the Hogs beat them down on their own field later this month. And Texas always chokes around mid to late season, depending on when Oklahoma shows up on the schedule, so no need to fear them sneaking into the championship game.

In other college football news, what's up with the SEC? What once was the undisputed loaded conference in college football seems to have become the doormat of the other BCS conferences (in case you didn't get the memo the Big East shall no longer be regarded as a legitimate BCS conference), or is at least headed that direction. Tennessee, supposedly this year's team to fear, barely slipped by powerhouse UAB this weekend and Auburn got schooled by...Georgia Tech? And the SEC has sucked mightily in bowl games over the last few years and hasn't produced a national champion in some time. This is the conference that used to have Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia as perennial BCS contenders and LSU, Auburn, and even the Hogs in and out of the ranks regularly. Now one sees a ranked SEC team and immediately wonders if they're really that good.