Oklahoma vs. Oregon

The AP voters should be ashamed of themselves. While both OU and UO lost conference road games in the last few days (Oregon played at Arizona on Thursday and Oklahoma lost at Texas Tech on Saturday), the prognosis for the rest of the season is quite different.

Oregon has been robbed of a potentially great season by injuries, to WR's, their back-up RB, and, now, QB Dennis Dixon. Oregon isn't the same team that rolled Michigan in the Big House. The Ducks aren't even the same team that beat a reeling USC team at home. With Brady Leaf at QB, the Oregon Ducks aren't a top 10 team and they shouldn't be rated as such. Dixon is gone for the year, so the Ducks need to be re-evaluated based on the current reality, not solely on past performance.

Oklahoma's loss at Tech was aided by an early-game injury to QB Sam Bradford. Unlike Dixon, Bradford will be back controlling the reins of the OU offense in the near future. It's not unreasonable to speculate that if Bradford hadn't suffered a concussion, the OU offense would have been able to put up enough points to eek one out in Lubbock. Bradford should be back for the game against Oklahoma State and would be available, presumably, for the Big 12 title game (if OU beats OSU) and a bowl game. Thus, it goes without saying (although I will say it) that Oklahoma is the better team going forward (better than UO without Dixon, Johnson, Colvin, and Paysinger).

Why did AP voters put Oregon ahead of Oklahoma? I have no idea. It doesn't make sense. But, really, it doesn't matter because neither team is likely to figure into the national title picture at this point ... but it does draw attention to obvious flaws in the current system ... which is just another reason we need to change the current system.