You Know Who Didn't Lose Saturday? Oklahoma and Texas

All too often when talking about a weekend full of upsets -- and did we ever have some upsets in college football -- the talk revolves around the losers. Thing is, the nature of losing is that voids are created, voids which must be filled by someone. We can argue just how worthy those somebodies are, but if there's a top 10 you gotta put somebody in there at the end of the day.

This week's big winners are Oklahoma and Texas. Not only did they win, but they played great against name opponents. Oklahoma cruised past TCU 35-10 (darty-quick receiver Manuel Johnson blowing by the opposition above) while Texas was the latest school to ritually flog Arkansas, 52-10. Oklahoma's questionable performances in big bowl games after high rankings is well known, but by virtue of their success here they are about to be No. 1 when the rankings come out. Texas may also slide into the top five despite serious questions about their run game and ability to be a national player without Vince Young on the roster.

Conference peers Colorado and Nebraska quietly lost, but by virtue of a bye week Missouri and Texas Tech were winners as well. That means the Big 12's four best teams (and I think we can throw in one-loss Kansas) remain strong brands as we steadily march towards the midpoint of the 2008 college football season.

As we all know, Oklahoma lost to Colorado and Texas Tech in 2007 after looking invincible early last year. But as mentioned earlier, with everyone else losing and the Sooners again destroying whatever's in front of them, there's no place else to go but up. I hunch they'll lose again at some point, as will Texas (Kansas State is a particularly sticky opponent) and the college football free-for-all will remain until the final weeks.

Crazy, but since last year that's been our game. I prefer a bit more order, but everyone seems to be having fun (nevermind my tears over what happened Thursday night) and the conversation is a bit more lively when everyone's so on edge waiting for upset losses. Roll with it, I guess.

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