Trying to put a method to the madness...

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Texas	3
3	Penn State	3
4	Oklahoma	3
5	Oklahoma State	18
6	Texas Tech	2
7	Brigham Young	2
8	Florida	3
9	Georgia	1
10	Missouri	7
11	Southern Cal	2
12	Utah	2
13	LSU	9
14	Ohio State	2
15	Boise State	3
16	North Carolina	9
17	South Florida	10
18	Kansas	3
19	Vanderbilt	3
20	Virginia Tech	4
21	California	5
22	Oregon	2
23	Michigan State	3
24	Ball State	2
25	Tulsa	1

Dropped Out: Auburn (#12), Wisconsin (#17)
On the radar: Fresno State, UConn, Pitt, Florida State, Minnesota, Wake Forest, TCU

Justifications (or at least the best I can do):

• Before we begin, the delta numbers are off and I'm not sure why. Here's my ballot from last week.
• 'Bama takes number one, although I certainly have no objections to anyone that places Texas there this week. The tiebreaker for me was where the signature win came. Texas did it on a neutral field, 'Bama did it in Athens. But I think these two are fairly interchangeable as 1A and 1B.
• Oklahoma on drops to No. 4. This is a bit of Big 12 homerism, I'll admit, since I've dropped other teams much farther after losses. But OU played very well against a team who has legitimate claims to the No. 1 spot in the country.
• The Mike Gundy Mizzou-killers make a major hop to No. 5. Again, it's a bit of homerism, but they earned at least a Top 10 spot with the road win in Columbia. The perennial "OSU is going to emerge" story is finally playing out as scripted. Now, just please don't lay an egg anytime soon.
• Texas Tech moves to No. 6, and I'm absolutely sick about it. If Joe Ganz hadn't channeled his inner Ryan Leaf in overtime, Nebraska should have walked out of Lubbock with a win. Yes... Nebraska. Someone help me justify a way to get them out of my top ten.
• Florida bumps itself up after manhandling a good LSU team.
• I drop Mizzou seven spots to No. 10, as I justify it by saying the OSU loss was a "better loss" than USC's loss to Oregon State. Now that I look at it, that same philosophy means I should probably bump LSU a bit. Thoughts?
• After that, I'm not too sure how much else I have to say. Any egregious errors?

First of all, a disclaimer: This sucks. Good. Now that that is out of the way, we can focus on the situation at hand.

While Mizzou entered this season with aspirations for an undefeated regular season, it's time that Mizzou fans face reality: it's not easy to do. Ever since Missouri walked off the Sun Bowl field in El Paso in December of 2006, the Tigers may have been, up until last night, the ONLY team in the country to have avoided losing a game they were supposed to win. Last year, almost no one in the country outside of black and gold thought Mizzou should win in Norman, and even though the Tigers entered the Big 12 Championship as the No. 1 team in the nation, Vegas had the Tigers as underdogs, and in hindsight, justifiably so. You can't find a team in the country last year outside of Hawaii who didn't lose a game they were supposed to win.

You could say Mizzou was overdue. Make no mistake, OSU was a game Mizzou was supposed to win. But this isn't to say Mizzou gave the game away.

OSU flat out beat Missouri last night. The gameplan was great. The players were inspired. The Pokes capitalized on turnovers. They pressured Daniel. Last year in Norman, Mizzou brought its A-game through three quarters before it things got away from them. Saturday, Mizzou was in a dogfight all night, and the offense that had been running like a BMW began running like a Pinto.

While we can talk ad nauseum about Chase Daniel not looking like himself in a falllen man's jersey, this one all starts at the offensive line, but perhaps there is a silver lining. Oklahoma State stunted and speed rushed Mizzou with great effectiveness. Like I noted in the podcast, Mizzou's zone blocking/wide splits/pull-heavy scheme is susceptible against a fast team who times the gaps correctly. OSU did that all night, and Barnes and Madison and others were failing to pick up ends on rollout pull blocks that they'd routinely picked up all year. If anything, their difficulties catching up to faster defensive ends will allow Pinkel and Co. to adjust the schemes before seeing Orakpo and friends in Austin next week.

Although the loss was gut wrenching and the task of winning in Austin still daunting, Texas' win over Oklahoma may have been the best thing to happen to the Mizzou program Saturday. If Texas had been blown out by Oklahoma and Mizzou rebounded in Austin to beat Texas, public opinion would have merely viewed Texas as a mediocre football team. After yesterday's Red River Shootout, if Mizzou beats Texas in Austin, the rebound is official and Mizzou shoots right back into relevancy. 

So, yes, no one wanted to see what transpired last night actually come to fruition. But you can make the case that Mizzou was way overdue, having avoided the "true upset" bug last year. In 2007, Mizzou opened Big 12 play by demolishing Nebraska then losing to a team from Oklahoma. They followed that by throttling the team from Texas, regaining the momentum that carried them to a Big 12 North title. No one should expect that to happen in 2008, but before anyone starts getting gloomy and dark on a quiet Sunday morning, tap the brakes and realize that there's a light at the end of the tunnel as long as Mizzou speeds through the pass undeterred.

(Photo by Sarah Becking)

Who: No. 3 Missouri Tigers (5-0, 1-0) vs. No. 17 Oklahoma State Cowboys (5-0, 1-0)
Where: Faurot Field (Capacity 68,349)
When: 7:00 p.m. CDT
Line: Mizzou by 14.0

VS.

Radio: Tiger Radio Network (Mike "To The House" Kelly, John Kadlec, Chris Gervino)
TV: ESPN2 (Mark Jones, Bob Davie, Erin Andrews)
Weather: Hourly Forecast
Online trackers: CSTV, ESPN
OSU Online: Pokes Pride

Make Rock M Nation your base of operations tonight and weigh in with your predictions, questions, worries, bold statements and observations by signing up for a free account. With the Red River Rivalry wrapped up, the Big 12 spotlight falls on another matchup of ranked undefeateds. Do Gundy and Co. make a huge statement about the OSU program, or does Mizzou give the Pokes the ol' "2007 night game against Nebraska" welcome?

Fight Tigers... Rock, Flag and Eagle!

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OSU/Mizzou isn't on until later and there are all kinds of important games on until then. What'll you be following? Consider this your official "Red River Shootout Open Thread." The official OSU/Mizzou thread will launch two-and-a-half hours prior to kickoff.

BIG 12 GAMES

 VS. 

Oklahoma (-7) vs. Texas
11:00 a.m., ABC (HD)

 VS. 

Colorado at Kansas (-14)
11:30 a.m., ESPN2 (HD)

 VS. 

Kansas State (-3.5) at Texas A&M
1:00 p.m., no TV announced

 VS. 

Nebraska at Texas Tech (-21.5)
2:00 p.m., FSN (HD)

 VS.

Iowa State at Baylor (-4.0)
6:00 p.m., FCS Central

While I'm here, I've got to send a MAJOR shoutout to my alma mater, Coppell High School, who upset Southlake Carroll in double overtime last night, snapping Southlake's 38-game district winning streak since moving to Class 5A in 2002. Many, many touchdown handshakes to my hometown Cowboys.

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