Just maybe the Big 12 football coaches thought they had seen the South Division at its most competitive in 2008 when they voted this spring not to change the league's three-way tie-breaker guidelines.
They might want to re-think that one.
The ultra-competitive Big 12 South could again have as many as three teams in a logjam for first place if the best teams take turns beating up on each other as they did last season. Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech all swapped wins and finished tied for first in the South with 7-1 league records at the end of 2008. They Big 12 had to sift through four tie-breaker stipulations before coming up on the fifth that named the Sooners the South champs by virtue of their BCS poll standing. .
Christmas decorations begin in late August, and now the ClayNation Hypesman Watch (CHW) is here in the first week of May. It's part of a new term, I just coined: Heisman Creep. (And it has nothing to do with Maurice Clarett). We're going to try something radical here, every other week or so we'll drop in and give you a top 10 list for Heisman candidates. Even though most of them are finishing their spring finals right about now. The goal is to ridicule the Heisman obsession, keep us entertained, and write about the Heisman in a way no one else is.
And, plainly, it's never too early to start debating the most over-hyped award this side of a kindergarten valedictorian.
In the above video, taken from the official YouTube channel of EA Sports, a quarterback for Oklahoma who wears No. 14 is referred to as a "Heisman winner." EA Sports and the NCAA would try to tell you -- with a straight face -- that they're not cashing in on the name and likeness of Sam Bradford, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who wears No. 14 for Oklahoma. Sam Keller is calling their bluff.
The 2010 NFL draft is still 51 weeks away, and yes, a whole lot will change during the 2009 college football season. But millions of us are obsessed with the NFL draft, so with the 2009 draft now behind us, let's take a very early look ahead at potential No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, as well as the other top players in the Class of 2010.
When quarterback Jon Kitna landed on injured reserve six weeks into the 2008 season, many people figured his Lions career was over. It wasn't an especially earth-shattering notion at the time; the team would use the opportunity to see if Dan Orlovsky was a long-term option, or, worst case, get Drew Stanton some work in the hopes that he might emerge as something more than an embarrassment in 2009.
But these are the Lions we're talking about. Orlovsky was injured a month after taking over for Kitna and Daunte Culpepper was summoned off his couch to take over. Predictably, things didn't go so well.
Before the BCS championship game, the football Web site National Football Post declared -- via sources close to NFP -- that Sam Bradford was as good as gone to the NFL, barring injury, after the Sooners' game against Florida.
At the time, I also made somewhat of a snarky analogy to Stephen Curry starting against Duke, because the likelihood of Bradford leaving seemed to obvious to ignore. But then he stayed. And suddenly, NFP's post about Bradford bouncing completely disappeared, leaving only what looks to be a 404 type of page error.
Mark Sanchez had a pretty good run at USC this year. The team went to the Rose Bowl, pummeled Penn State and has a legit argument to be the national champion.
And he enjoyed his run so much that he's leaving sunny Southern California and heading to the NFL. It seems like an odd thing to do, I suppose, because, well, USC would be a fun place to live and he would be the most popular guy on campus. On the other hand, it makes a whole hell of a lot of sense from a business perspective.
USC is losing a large number of its defensive core to the NFL. But aside from that, think about the various competitors for draft slots he'll be going up against this year versus the potential competition next season.
It was rumored before the BCS championship game that Sam Bradford would bolt for the NFL, provided he didn't get injured. The rumor, however unsubstantiated, made a lot of sense considering Bradford's success this season and the likelihood that he would be a top-10 pick, to say the least.
But contrary to those reports and the millions of dollars that were waiting for Bradford, he has decided to stay at Oklahoma and sling rocks for at least one more year under big-game coach Bob Stoops.
Last offseason, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones paid offensive coordinator Jason Garrett roughly $3 million to hang around Dallas instead of taking a head coaching gig. Presumably, the plan was to have Garrett replace Wade Phillips at some point in the near future. This is what happens when a team wins 13 games and the offense leads the conference in scoring.
Unfortunately, the 2008 season was marred by injuries, alleged Valley Ranch dissension and, of course, Ed Werder. The Cowboys stumbled to nine wins, missed the playoffs, the Garrett's star, along with the offense, faded down the stretch.
And now the organization might be willing to let Garrett, the guy Jones worked so hard to keep last spring, leave to take the head job elsewhere. Which says as much about Garrett as it does about Phillips and various "guess who'll be running the team in '10?" rumors.
Entering the BCS National Championship Game, both Florida's and Oklahoma's defenses gave off the impression that they felt overlooked. Now we know why.
What was expected to be a scoring explosion between two of the top offenses in the nation has settled into a defensive slugfest. Florida and Oklahoma sit knotted at seven at halftime, with three combined turnovers the main culprit.
The Sooners have picked off Florida's (and greatest human being in history, to paraphrase FOX's broadcast) Tim Tebow twice -- both throws showing off the reasons why Tebow's NFL future is likely not as quarterback. On the Gators' first possession, Tebow tried to throw a mid-range pass from the left hash out to the right sideline and Oklahoma's Nic Harris jumped it for an interception. Then in the second quarter, Tebow attempted a short pass over the middle, but dumped it right into the arms of OU's Gerald McCoy, who had dropped into coverage.
Oklahoma's Sam Bradford turned it over once himself -- the victim of a wacky carom in the final seconds of the first half.
Each QB also has a touchdown pass, accounting for the game's only points. Tebow hit Louis Murphy for a 20-yard score early in the second to make it 7-0 Florida. OU answered back immediately, with Bradford connecting with Jermaine Gresham for a 6-yard TD.
It's been the defenses dominating other than that -- Oklahoma doing a nice job keeping Tebow near the pocket and slowing Florida's ground attack, while the Gators' defensive speed has limited what Oklahoma can try.
Just maybe the Big 12 football coaches thought they had seen the South Division at its most competitive in 2008 when they voted this spring not to change the league's three-way tie-breaker guidelines.
When quarterback 
Before the BCS championship game, the football Web site National Football Post declared -- via sources close to NFP -- that 
Mark Sanchez
Entering the BCS National Championship Game, both Florida's and Oklahoma's defenses gave off the impression that they felt overlooked. Now we know why.
