Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Sorry, UT fans, but loss to UCLA ends national title hopes and program's upper-tier status in SEC

I started my journalism career as a sports editor at a small newspaper north of Oklahoma City.

Why? Like most every other child in Oklahoma, I worshipped in my formative years at the altar of Big Red, University of Oklahoma football. Seven national football championships have been won there. I can quote you stats and highlights like a Bible verse.

OU fell on hard times in the 1990s. But the program rose again with a national championship in 2000 and subsequent unsuccessful appearances in BCS title games. The Sooners are in the top five this year, but the program is in decline as far as ever winning any more national titles. Fans there don't want to acknowledge it. But the truth is in every BCS Bowl Game scoreboard.

UT fans will have a tougher transition. Last night's loss to UCLA signals the program's decline to second-tier status in the SEC besides future national title hopes. UT already spends the most of any university for football recruiting. But the results are not comparable.

Florida and LSU are not even in the top 10 for spending. Yet their fame is enough to get the best players. USC in Los Angeles recruits nationwide. The Crimson Tide is rising again. Never forget those pesky Commodores. And now Georgia is threatening to regain its fame of the Herschel Walker days.

UT's games will still be most enjoyable. I've discovered more exciting and hard-fought SEC games in my 12 years of living here than I saw in my 25 years of following the Sooners and the then-Big 8. There is no weekend off in the SEC schedule. The Big 8 now Big 12 still has Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. And Oklahoma State is very inconsistent. These programs would not survive in the SEC, which remains the best football conference in the nation.

But the heady days of the recent past will not return to Knoxville. Notre Dame fans at South Bend realize that truth with their program. So does poor NBC. Tennessee head coach Phil Fulmer, a great guy, should not have to suffer for this transition and lose his job.

It is just like $100 a barrel oil. Change happens.

How fans here adjust to it will be the toughest contest UT's program faces this season.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I could not agree with you more. The slow downward drift has been evident for a couple of years now.