What We learned for next week, National Title Wise

Norman police have repeated numerous calls about a rape that took place on Saturday evening. According to reports, it was gruesome and lasted roughly 3.5 hours.

The biggest thing we learned has to deal with the national title game picture. It is now virtually guaranteed that there will be at least one loss team in the title game for the third straight year, so the argument shifts to who is number two. The front runners are Oklahoma, Florida, USC and Texas. What I've learned from this weekend is nothing. As of now, none of these teams have done anything to show they deserve to play for it all.

There's an expression in the NBA playoffs that it's not a series until one teams wins on the road. That holds true this year in the college football. Alabama has beaten Georgia and LSU on the road, so they have proven that they can win away from home. Texas beat Oklahoma at a neutral site, beat Missouri and Oklahoma State at home, and then lost to Texas Tech on the road. Their best road win: beating 6-5 Kansas. Florida beat Georgia at a neutral site, Miami, LSU and and South Carolina, and lost to Ole Miss in the impenetrable Swamp. Their best road win of the year: defeating 6-5 Vanderbilt in always hostile Nashville. Oklahoma has beaten Texas Tech at home, but lost to Texas at neutral site. Their best win on the road: over 5-7 Kansas State. USC beat Ohio State at home, but lost to Oregon State on the road. Their best road win: over 6-5 Arizona.

So, these teams have beaten nobody on the road. It's great that you control your home field, which they have all done, but you are not a great team until you win a big game on the road. Neutral sites also do not count. When you split the stadium 50-50 between the fans, it's no longer a road game. A great team must show that it can walk into the most hostile of environments, stare directly into the belly of the beast, and walk away a winner. Champions win on the road.

So what to watch next week? Two teams actually have a chance to win big road games. Sorry Texas and USC, you are both not on this list. Texas has A&M at home, while USC has a de facto game whenever they play at the Rose Bowl since it's just on the other side of the city.

What we do have, however, is Florida who travels to Tallahassee to play the Seminoles. While Florida State is by no means a good team, in fact they are incredibly inconsistent and average team in an average conference, it will at least be a win against a team who sells out there games. Realistically, this is not an impressive road win because you are not beating an impressive team. I'm sure Urban Meyer will put up huge points and voters will cream themselves, but it's not a good road win.

Oklahoma, on the other hand, does have the chance to score an impressive road win. They travel to Stillwater to play Oklahoma State, a team that's #11 in the country and 9-2. They will sell out, and you have a cross-state hatred that will motivate the fans and Ok State to really crush Oklahoma. If OU can win in that environment, then they will be the first team other than Alabama to show me something. If they win that game, then we'll have our clear #2 team in the country.