Kevin B. Blackistone of AOL Fanhouse writes that Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops badly needs a BCS victory before he begins “experiencing some belittlement in the Sooner state.�

The fact is that all these other influential voices on Oklahoma football will point out, should Stoops’ Sooners not beat Florida, that the national title Stoops brought back to Norman is nearly antique, having been captured in the first season of the new millennium. They’ll remind everyone that Stoops’ Sooners lost four of their last five season-ending bowl games coming into this Orange Bowl. They’ll point out that they lost three of their last four games against their hated rivals in Austin, Texas, and watched Mack Brown’s herd gallop away with one national championship during that stretch and attempt to lay claim to another one the other night by shocking Ohio State at the gun.
And the last time the Stoops’ Sooners played for the all the glory, they’ll say, it didn’t go very well at all. It was right here at the Orange Bowl, too, back on Jan. 4, 2005. The opponent was USC and when it was all over the Sooners were on the short end of an embarrassing 55-19 shellacking.

Urban Meyer can see it all too clearly from his side of the field, in part because he and Stoops are so much alike. Both are from Ohio. Both are fortysomethings. Both won their first national championships as head coaches in their second seasons running their current ships.

And neither said Wednesday that they could see themselves surviving in their vocation into their 70s like some of college football coaching’s idols. Why not?

“You’re a missed field goal away from being a bum with everybody else,” Meyer said. “That’s just part of the [coaching] deal.”

That is why Stoops needs to beat Florida. He’s unfairly close to having some people call him that bum.

Stoops has no one to blame but himself for why writers and other media members feel he needs to badly beat Florida in order to prove (some) of his worth. Too many times over the past couple years his Sooners have played flat and often looked like they had nothing to play for. Now a title is on the line and Stoops has a track record of blowing these types of games. It’ll be interesting to see if Bobby Boy can get over the hump.

So I’m watching Air Force play Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl on New Year’s Eve and one of the ESPN announcers says (I’m paraphrasing), “Everyone wants to focus on the national championship game, but the best bowl this year is in Pasadena. The Rose Bowl is best matchup on the bowl schedule this year.�

No way. No…way…

The announcer went on to talk about how USC was the top ranked program in the nation at one point this year and how Penn State was ranked in the top five, so the matchup is outstanding. Okay, I get that. The matchup does look outstanding, but it won’t be better than the title game.

I’ll be the first one to eat my words if I’m wrong, but I say USC waxes Penn State in the Rose Bowl this evening. The Trojans have one of the fastest and most talented defenses in the entire nation and while Joe Pa’s spread offense has been explosive, PSU hasn’t faced a defense like USC’s and I fail to see how this game remains close when the Trojans are playing in their own backyard.

The only way I see this game being tight is if USC comes out flat like it has a penchant for doing, or if Mark Sanchez starts turning the ball over – which he has a penchant for doing. In fact, if Penn State hangs with USC, I’ll dedicate an entire post about how underrated the Lions were all season and how wrong I was about the Trojans.

The Florida-Oklahoma title game matchup has everything. How will the Sooners’ dynamic offense fare against the Gators’ stifling defense? Will 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford outperform 2007 winner Tim Tebow? Can Bob Stoops’ team perform better this year than they have in past bowls? Will Urban Meyer win his second national championship in three years?

The Rose Bowl looks great on paper, but it’s a stretch to say that it’ll be more entertaining than the title game. (And the ESPN announcer hasn’t been the only one who suggested that it would be better than the title game because several media members throughout the week have been sharing that sentiment.)

Outside of USC and Penn State fans, does anybody else believe the Rose Bowl should be more exciting than the national title game? Am I missing something here?

At the end of the year, it’s always interesting to look back at all that has happened in the world of sports over the last 12 months. 2008 brought us a host of compelling sports stories, including the culmination of the Patriots’ (unsuccessful) quest for perfection, a Bejing Olympics that featured incredible accomplishments by the likes of Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and the Redeem Team, and, of course, Brett Favre’s unretirement, which managed to hold the sports news cycle hostage for a solid month or more.

As is our tradition, we’ve once again broken our Year End Sports Review into three sections. The first is “What We Learned,� a list that’s packed with a number of impressive feats. And when there are feats, inevitably there are also failures.

Don’t miss the other two parts: “What We Already Knewâ€� and “What We Think Might Happen.â€�

The New England Patriots weren’t so perfect after all.

After rolling through the 2007 regular season unscathed, the Patriots entered the 2008 Super Bowl as overwhelming favorites to roll over the pesky, but seemingly inferior New York Giants. The Pats were just one win away from staking their claim as the best football team in NFL history. But thanks to a dominating Giants’ defensive line, an improbable catch by David Tyree, and a virtually mistake-free performance by Eli Manning, the unbeatable New England Patriots were beat. It’ll go down as one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, and considering Tom Brady’s season-ending injury in 2008 cost the Pats a chance for redemption, it seems that many have forgotten how New England stood just one win away from perfection. – Anthony Stalter

Michael Phelps is part fish.

Eight gold medals in one Olympiad? No problem. Michael Phelps made the seemingly impossible look (relatively) easy en route to one of the most – if not the most – impressive Olympic performances ever. Phelps had to swim all four strokes, compete in both sprint and endurance races, and deal with the constant media attention and pressure that came along with his quest. Sure, NBC turned up the hype, but what Phelps accomplished is simply incredible. – John Paulsen

Usain Bolt is part cheetah.

First, Usain Bolt made Jamaica proud by setting a new world record (9.69) in the 100-meter sprint. Then, he broke the 12 year-old 200-meter world record with a time of 19.30 seconds. He showboated during the first race but cleaned up his act to win the second race in a professional manner. Some even say that Usain Bolt – not Michael Phelps – was the biggest story to come out of the Bejing Olympics. – JP

The Big 12 has the best quarterbacks in the nation.

The Big 12 housed some of the best quarterbacks in all of college football in 2008. Texas’s Colt McCoy, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Missouri’s Chase Daniel and Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell were all considered Heisman candidates at least at one point during the season, while McCoy and Bradford are still in the running. Amazingly, Bradford and McCoy aren’t done; both will return in 2008. And although they don’t receive as much attention as the top signal callers in the conference, Kansas’s Todd Reesing and Baylor’s Robert Griffin certainly turned heads this year as well. In fact, the highly versatile Griffin is only a freshman and could make the Bears a very dangerous team for years to come. – AS

While every year has its own host of surprises, there are always those stories that simply fit the trend. Sure, it can get repetitive, but if we don’t look back at history aren’t we only doomed to repeat it? Every year has its fair share of stories that fell into this category, and 2008 was no different.

Our list of things we already knew this year includes the BCS’ continued suckiness (Texas-Oklahoma), how teamwork wins championships (KG, Pierce and Ray-Ray), and the #1 rule for carrying a handgun into a nightclub – don’t use your sweatpants as a holster. (Come on, Plax. Really? Sweatpants?)

Don’t miss the other two parts of our 2008 Year-End Sports Review: “What We Learnedâ€� and “What We Think Might Happen.â€�

Brett Favre can’t make up his mind.

The biggest story of the summer was all the drama surrounding Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. This saga has been covered to death, but there’s one detail that never seemed to get that much play. At the start, it looked like the Packers were making a bad decision by moving on so quickly even when Favre decided he wanted to return. But when the news broke about Favre’s near-unretirement in March, the Packers stance became much more clear. They were ready to take him back after the owners’ meetings, but he called it off at the last minute. At that point, the Packer brass was understandably finished with Brett Favre, much to the chagrin of a good portion of the Packer faithful. – John Paulsen

The Chicago Cubs’ title drought is not a fans-only phenomenon.

The 2008 Cubs were easily the best team the franchise has assembled in decades, but they still couldn’t win a single game in the playoffs, and the reason is simple: the pressure finally got to them. Sure, they said the right things to the press about how they didn’t care about what had happened in the past, but don’t believe a word of it; there wasn’t a single person in that dugout that wasn’t fantasizing about being part of the team that finally, mercifully, ended the longest title drought in sports history. Once ESPN picked them to win it all, however, they were doomed. Ryan Dempster walked seven batters in Game 1, which matched his total for the month of September. The entire infield, including the sure-handed Derrek Lee, committed errors in Game 2. Alfonso Soriano went 1-14 with four strikeouts in the leadoff spot, while the team as a whole drew six walks and struck out 24 times. The team with so much balance in the regular season suddenly became the most one-dimensional team in baseball; take Game 1 from them, then sit back and watch them choke. And now that this group has lost six straight playoff games (the team has lost nine straight dating back to 2003), it isn’t about to get any easier. Get a helmet, Cubs fans. – David Medsker

If you’re going to wear sweatpants to a nightclub, leave the gun at home.

If winning a Super Bowl is the pinnacle of an NFL player’s career, than shooting yourself with your own gun in a nightclub has to be rock bottom. Case in point: Plaxico Antonio Burress. Just 10 months after helping the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg while at a nightclub. Apparently the (unregistered) gun was slipping down his leg and when he tried to grab it to keep it from falling, the lucky bastard wound up pulling the trigger and shooting himself. And that wasn’t the worst of it because as Plaxico found out, New York has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. He was arrested, but posted bail of $100,000 and is scheduled to return to court on March 31, 2009. If convicted of carrying a weapon without a license, he faces up to three and a half years in jail. He shouldn’t expect special treatment, either. The mayor of New York wants to be sure that Burress is prosecuted just like any other resident of NYC. The Giants, meanwhile, placed him on their reserve/non-football injury list and effectively ended his season. While “Plax� definitely deserves “Boner of the Week� consideration for his stupidity, what’s sad is that in the wake of Washington Redskins’ safety Sean Taylor’s death, most NFL players feel the need to arm themselves when they go out. Maybe players can learn from not only Taylor’s death, but also Burress’s accident so further incidents can be avoided. – Anthony Stalter

It’s time to look ahead to 2009 and play a little Nostradamus.

Last year, we predicted that God would anoint the “Devil-free� Rays World Series Champions (ding!), that Brett Favre would play another year or two (ding! – sort of), that Isiah Thomas would be canned (ding!), and that Kobe would be playing for a new team by the trade deadline…

Granted, that last one didn’t come true, but how were we supposed to know that the Grizzlies would trade Pau Gasol to the Lakers for an unproven rookie and a bag of peanuts? Our occasional inaccuracy isn’t going to keep us from rolling out another set of predictions – some serious and some farcical – for 2009 and beyond, including President Obama’s plan for a college football playoff, Donovan McNabb’s new home and the baseball club most likely to be 2009’s version of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Read on, and in a year, we guarantee* you’ll be amazed.

*This is not an actual guarantee, mind you.

Don’t miss the other two parts of our 2008 Year-End Sports Review: “What We Learnedâ€� and “What We Already Knew.â€�

Michael Vick will play for the Oakland Raiders next season.

Once NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell allows suspended quarterback Michael Vick to re-enter the league, let’s be honest, there’s really only one team that will take a shot on the convict: the Oakland Raiders. Sure, the Raiders would have to possibly give up a draft pick because Vick will still technically be property of the Falcons, but with Matt Ryan on board, Atlanta would probably be willing to give Mikey up for a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos…snack size. With Vick on board, JaMarcus Russell could shift to tight end or full back or offensive tackle or something. Or, Vick could play wide receiver! Or running back! Think of the possibilities! The Oakland Raiders will be the most unstoppable team in the league! That is, of course, until Vick gets the itch for his old hobby. – Anthony Stalter

The Nationals and Pirates become the official AAAA teams of their respective divisions.

After finishing at or near the bottom of the division since the franchise’s move from Montreal, Major League Baseball executives analyze the entire Washington Nationals player system and conclude that they have no chance of fielding a competitive team in the near future. In the boldest decision of his tenure, Commissioner Bud Selig demotes the team’s Major League roster to AAAA status, a phrase long used by baseball personnel to describe players that are too good for the minors but not good enough for the majors. In an added twist, Selig designates that the team’s assets are fair game for all four remaining teams in the National League East, as a means of creating parity. In order to keep the number of teams even in each league, Selig also downgrades the Pittsburgh Pirates, losers of 94 or more games since 2005, to AAAA status as well. It will be six weeks into the regular season before an NL East team claims any of these former Pirates or Nationals. – David Medsker

Barack Obama will have a plan in place for a college football playoff by 2016.

He has already spoken out twice in favor of an eight-team playoff format for college football. Granted, there are more pressing concerns for the President-elect – the economy, the war in Iraq and a forward-thinking energy policy, just to name a few – but there’s no reason that Obama can’t appoint a “Playoff Czar� to get the conference presidents and the bowl organizers together to hash out a system that works for everyone. Are the bowls worried about losing money? Rotate the semifinals and the final amongst the four bowl cities. Are the conferences worried about losing money? They shouldn’t be – the ratings for an eight-team playoff would dwarf the ratings the current system is getting. And better ratings means more money. This is something that 85%-90% of the population can agree on, and that doesn’t happen often. Mark our words – President Obama will make it happen, especially if he gets a second term. – John Paulsen

The 2009 BCS Bowl Season is quickly approaching – not that anyone should care.

I’m not trying to sound bitter, but if the BCS doesn’t care about any of its five bowl games outside of the national championship game, then why should we? All the BCS essentially cares about is figuring out who the top team teams are in college football – and they can’t even do that right.

But I digress. I’m not going to burn another 1,200 words on why college football needs a playoff because it’ll just fall upon deaf ears. Instead, I’ll get into the bowl season spirit and break down the five BCS bowls, as well as hand out predictions for each game.

Predictions are essentially meaningless, but they’re fun so make sure you throw out your picks in the comment section below.

Rose Bowl: Penn State vs. USC
The Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California, January 1, 4:30PM ET ABC
Some college football pundits believe that this one will be over with by halftime, but if Penn State uses Oregon State’s victory over USC as a blueprint for success, the Nittany Lions could make this a tighter game than most expect. PSU tailback Evan Royster has been a playmaker this year and if the Lions can employ him the same way the Beavers’ used Jacquizz Rodgers to beat the Trojans earlier this season, then maybe they can exploit USC’s quick defense. Then again, the Trojans’ D is one of the fastest and most talented units in the country and it won’t be easy for PSU to spread the field on them like they did against Big Ten opponents this season. USC has the most talented linebacker corps in the country and their secondary features two safeties in Taylor Mays and Kevin Ellison that blanket the field in both coverage and run support. In order for the Lions to claim victory, quarterback Daryll Clark will have to play mistake free and not try to force action in the passing game. Offensively for USC, quarterback Mark Sanchez has been outstanding, but he will make mistakes. He threw at least one interception in seven games this year and if PSU’s defense can generate some pressure, they could force Sanchez into some turnovers and capitalize on some prime field position. But outside of getting pressure on Sanchez, Penn State needs to tackle well and limit the yards-after-catch opportunities that USC’s receivers thrive upon. Sounds basic enough, but the Trojans have one of the fastest offenses in the league and Sanchez has excelled at taking what defenses give him and in getting the ball into the hands of his playmakers. The Lions would be wise to get 11 defenders around the ball at all times, especially when USC tailback Stafon Johnson gets the opportunity to make plays.
Rose Bowl Prediction: USC 30, Penn State 17.

Oklahoma Sooners’ running back DeMarco Murray will have surgery to repair a partial rupture of his left hamstring and will miss the BCS title game against Florida.

Murray, the Sooners’ second-leading rusher, was injured on the opening kickoff of the Big 12 Championship Game on Dec. 6. The Sooners initially thought Murray had sustained a bruise, but an MRI revealed the injury to be more serious. Surgery has been scheduled for Dec. 22., the university said.

The school said that according to head trainer Scott Anderson, it will be about five months before Murray is cleared to resume training.

Murray gained 1,002 yards rushing this season, just eight fewer than team rushing leader Chris Brown. He led the Sooners in all-purpose yards with 2,171, with 395 receiving yards and another 774 yards in kickoff returns, scoring 18 touchdowns.

Oklahoma has so many weapons, but Murray was a big part of the Sooners’ offense so he’ll definitely be missed. Hopefully Percy Harvin will be healthy enough to play for Florida. It would suck to have two dynamic play makers miss the game.

Oklahoma Sooners’ quarterback Sam Bradford won the 2008 Heisman Trophy Award, edging out Texas quarterback Colt McCoy and Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.

Bradford, who leads the nation in touchdown passes with 48, received 1,726 points. Texas quarterback Colt McCoy was second with 1,604 and Tebow—who received the most first-place votes—was third with 1,575 points.

“I was definitely surprised and I think it’s everything I imagined,� said Bradford, who raised the 25-pound bronze statue with his left hand still in a cast from a recent surgery. “I think it will take a couple weeks to set in.�

Bradford got 300 first-place votes, McCoy 266 and Tebow 309. Not since 1956 had a player drawn the most first-place votes and finished third; Tommy McDonald of Oklahoma holds that distinction.

Bradford was well-deserving, as was McCoy and Tebow. The only knock I had on Bradford is that he faced some pretty weak defenses in the Big 12 and the one stout defense he did play against (Texas), his team lost. But I guess you could have made the same argument for McCoy, who lost to a much weaker defense in Texas Tech.

Regardless, Bradford was truly deserving of the award. His stats were off the charts and he led his team to the national championship. What else could you ask for out of a player?

Dan Daly of the Washington Times attempts to do the seemingly impossible: determine which candidate is most deserving of the 2008 Heisman Trophy.

If you went purely by passing statistics, Bradford would be your man. He threw for 1,000 more yards than McCoy and almost 2,000 more than Tebow. He also did it against a schedule that included five teams ranked in the BCS top 25 (Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma State and Missouri) plus the Big East champ (Cincinnati). Here’s something else I found out: Only six of his 48 touchdown passes came in the fourth quarter, so he wasn’t padding his stats in all those blowouts.

Tebow and McCoy are much different quarterbacks, though. Both rushed for more than 500 yards this season (compared with Bradford’s 65), so there’s another dimension to them. Colt actually led the Longhorns in rushing, much of it gained on scrambles. Many of Tim’s runs, on the other hand, are by design. The Gators run a kind of souped-up version of the old single wing, with him as the tailback.
How do I break this tie? By reminding everybody that McCoy’s team beat Bradford’s 45-35, and Colt had a terrific game (28-for-25 for 277 yards and a touchdown). Sam also played well that day (28-for-39 for 387 yards and five touchdowns, with two interceptions), but it was Colt who made more big plays in the second half, when Texas rallied to win. That’s how I separate them, arbitrary as it may seem.

That and the fact that Bradford has a better supporting cast. Not only does Oklahoma have two 1,000-yard rushers (Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray) it also has a tight end who could well be a first-round NFL pick (Jermaine Gresham). And that Sooners line … let’s face it, the OU offense is one of the greatest in college football history. It’s AVERAGING 54 points a game. McCoy is more of a one-man show than Sam is.

Tebow, too, is surrounded by more talent. None of the Longhorns, for instance, does the things Percy Harvin does (8.8 yards a carry, 17 yards a catch, 16 touchdowns). Indeed, the Florida attack is almost perfectly balanced between the run (229.8 yards a game) and the pass (212.6). And let’s not forget: Tim had a better year last year, when he had a hand in 15 more touchdowns and was the Gators’ top rusher with 895 yards (331 more than this year).

It’s an incredibly close call, admittedly, but my ballot read: McCoy, then Tebow, then Bradford. If it were up to me, the trophy would go to Colt - not a bad consolation prize for getting chop-blocked by the BCS computers. Tim and Sam, meanwhile, get to play in the national championship game … and prove me wrong.

In efforts to not sound like a broken record, here’s my opinion on who should take home the prestigious award this season.

Even though he’s in the midst of preparing his Florida Gators to do battle with the Oklahoma Sooners in the national championship game, Urban Meyer isn’t backing down from saying that his ultimate dream job is still to coach at Notre Dame.

Four years after spurning Notre Dame to take over the Florida Gators program, Coach Urban Meyer called the Fighting Irish “still my dream job; that hasn’t changed” on a South Florida radio show on Wednesday.

“Once my kids are done, maybe some day I’ll go coach there,” Meyer told 560 WQAM. “I don’t know that. That’s way down the road. Being a father and being able to recruit the best athletes in America within a 5-hour radius of my home, that’s why I came to Florida. I thought we could have a great chance at success.”

“It’s just that time in my life — to be the head football coach of Notre Dame, you’re on a plane recruiting because you recruit San Diego as hard as you recruit New York as hard as you recruit Florida, Texas, Ohio,” Meyer said on the radio. “It’s a national recruiting base. I recruited there for six years, and I spent every night in a hotel in an airport. I’m going to be a good father first.”

Granted he’s not saying that he wants to coach at Notre Dame next year, or the year after or the year after that. But one would think that he would pass on those questions during a time when all of his attention should be on winning another national title.

He shouldn’t be vilified for being completely honest, but I’m not sure it’s ever the right time to talk about another job that 1) doesn’t have a vacancy and 2) you’re getting ready for the biggest game of the year at your current job. The timing just seems a bit off, but that’s not to say this should be made into a big deal.

The 2008 Heisman Trophy Award will be handed out this Saturday and FOXSports.com ranks their top three candidates after Week 15 of the season:

1. QB Sam Bradford, Soph. Oklahoma
Bradford completed 34 of 49 passes for 384 yards and two touchdowns in the 62-21 win over Missouri in the Big 12 Championship.

2. QB Tim Tebow, Jr. Florida
Tebow completed 14 of 22 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns, and he ran 17 times for 57 yards in the 31-20 win over Alabama in the SEC Championship.

3 QB Colt McCoy, Jr. Texas
McCoy completed 23 of 28 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns, and he ran 11 times for 49 yards and two scores in the 49-9 win over Texas A&M to end the regular season.

Considering the Heisman is supposed to be awarded to college football’s best player, this might be the closest race ever. With a little help from the broke ass BCS system, Bradford led his team to a Big 12 Championship and a national title. (I said a little help Oklahoma fans – don’t rip my face off.)

Outside of failing to pick up that one yard at the end of the loss to Ole’ Miss, Tebow has been damn near perfect in leading the Gators to a national title appearance, while McCoy’s numbers are off the charts, but he never got the opportunity to lead his team to a title berth.

I would have to go with Tebow at this point. He lead his team to convincing wins over LSU, Georgia and Alabama this year – three SEC programs with tough defenses. Nothing against Bradford because the kid put up unbelievable numbers, but the defenses in the Big 12 just don’t compare to the ones in the SEC. And when he faced the best defense in the Big 12, Texas, he lost. That said, nobody should be up in arms if Bradford, Tebow or McCoy won the award because they’ve all been sensational.

The opening point spreads for the BCS bowl games have officially been released with oddsmakers establishing the Florida Gators as 3-point favorites over the Oklahoma Sooners in the national title matchup.

Rose Bowl: Penn State +10 vs. USC
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech +2 vs. Cincinnati
Sugar Bowl: Utah +10 vs. Alabama
Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State +10 vs. Texas
BCS National Championship Game: Florida –3 vs. Oklahoma

I would say oddsmakers have the opening lines pegged right. And if (“if� – ha!) I were a gambling man, I would definitely lay the wood on USC to beat Penn State and Alabama to beat Utah, although the public will certainly push both of those lines up over the next couple weeks and the Utes might give ‘Bama a game because of their defense and the fact that the Sugar Bowl is a letdown for the Tide after losing to Florida in the SEC Championship.

The other bowls I’m not so sure about. The Bearcats have had a great season, but Frank Beamer’s defense looked stifling in the ACC Championship Game and you have to like what Tyrod Taylor brings to the table, although Cincy’s defense is no joke either. And the Buckeyes beat the Longhorns three years ago in Austin so a pissed off Texas team should still get a game from Terrelle Pryor and OSU.

The title game is a doozy. The public loves the favorite, so that line will likely go up, too. And for as well as the Gators are playing, one has to believe Sam Bradford and the Sooners’ dynamic offense will keep that game close. That might be a game to take the over, although the opening total has been set at 71.5.

Now take all the above information and fade my ass to a nice pay day.

Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports writes that both Texas and USC should stop bitching about not having a chance to play for a national championship.

Didn’t make it into the BCS title game? Boo-fricking-hoo. The system might not have worked in your favor this season, but it will one day. And that’s the thing about being Texas or Southern California, and about being Florida or Oklahoma, for that matter: The even larger system — the college football system — is designed to funnel you into the BCS title game as smoothly as possible.

So Texas and USC didn’t get there this season. So what. You will soon enough, maybe even next season. And if not next season, then the next. That’s almost a sure thing. By the year 2011, both Texas and USC will have played again for the national championship — and if it hasn’t happened for either school by then, Mack Brown or Pete Carroll has screwed up.

You’re supposed to succeed, Texas. You too, USC. That’s why I can’t muster up a speck of sympathy for either of you. It’s not like Iowa State or Ole Miss has been left out of the BCS equation despite a worthy résumé. That would be a heartbreak, because Iowa State and Ole Miss might never pass this way again.

But Texas and USC? You’ll pass this way again, and when you do, you’ll be riding first class. Feeling badly that Texas or USC didn’t make it into the BCS title game with 11-1 records — while Florida and Oklahoma did, at 12-1 — is like feeling badly that Donald Trump didn’t get a Christmas bonus. The man has enough advantages already.

Put it all together. Texas and USC have better access to better talent than anyone. They have better resources to hire better coaches than anyone. They have better facilities to develop that talent.
They have to win, and win big. Every season.

So don’t expect sympathy from anyone outside your fan base because you missed out on the BCS title game, Texas. Or you, USC. Not even if you have the same number of losses as Florida and Oklahoma. And not even if, in Texas’ case, you have beaten the Sooners already this season.

If perfection is what it takes to make it into the BCS title game, well, so be it. There are very few college football programs equippe