I Hate It When He's Right

I'll be frank. I'm not a big fan of the man you see here. Texas football coach Mack Brown slipped onto my Permanent Dislike List four years ago when his unseemly lobbying and whining got his Longhorns into the Rose Bowl. The berth came at the expense of a very good Cal team, which should have made its first Pasadena New Year's Day trip in 45 years.

But this time, Crybaby Mack has a good case. His 11-1 Longhorns somehow got jumped in the BCS rankings by Oklahoma, a team Texas beat 45-35 earlier this season. Oklahoma's #2 BCS slot means the Sooners will get to play Missouri for the Big 12 championship game and (probably) head for the BCS Championship game.

Could it be that the Karma Train finally caught up with Mighty Mack? Well, maybe, except we can't really tell how the heck Oklahoma leapfrogged Texas in the BCS rankings. The polls--the ones where human beings actually rank the teams--favor Texas (#1 in the Harris sportswriter poll, and virtually tied with Oklahoma in the coaches' poll). But the inscrutable computer rankings, which make up 1/3 of the BCS formula, give Oklahoma the clear edge.

Somebody has some 'splainin' to do. Just as they did back when Mack's Brown-out kept Cal out of the Rose Bowl.