An undefeated season and the chance to win a second BCS National Championship in the last five seasons gives Texas a lot to play for today.
But that’s the least of it.
The Longhorns have a chance to shut up people like me.
It’s not that I think Texas isn’t a good team. Or even a very good team. Or maybe even a great team.
It’s not that I don’t like Colt McCoy or Jordan Shipley or Earl Thomas.
The problem is: Alabama plays in the Southeastern Conference.
And from what I think I know, that means the Longhorns are in for a long night against Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and the Crimson Tide.
The SEC is the best conference in the country, and every year its teams prove how wide the talent gap can be between them and good teams from other conferences. Just ask Cincinnati.
When I fill out my bowl pick ‘em every year, just being from the SEC is enough for me to give a team a three-point advantage.
People from all around the country can say whatever they want about the league’s quarterback play or lack of creativity on offense, but the SEC wins big games. Period.
Even this year — a down year for the SEC by all accounts — the conference has a chance to go 6-4 in its bowl games, including two BCS bowl wins if Alabama can knock off Texas.
The 6-4 record might not be too impressive, but a Sugar Bowl win and BCS National Championship Game win says everything casual college football fans need to know about the strength of the best teams in the conference.
If the Crimson Tide defeat the Longhorns in Pasadena, they will bring home the fourth-consecutive national championship for the SEC.
That’s domination.
And for the second-straight season, the SEC will have taken down the Big 12 in the national championship and the Cotton Bowl, where Ole Miss has knocked off Texas Tech and Oklahoma State in consecutive seasons.
The Big 12 has been the second-best conference over the last few seasons, and its elite quarterback play and flashy offenses are a bold reminder of exactly what the SEC isn’t.
But the cliché has proven to be true time and again: Defense wins championships.
The SEC plays defense.
And we all damn well know the SEC wins championships.
If Texas is going to beat Alabama, the Longhorns’ No. 1 run defense is going to have to contain Ingram, something Florida’s then-top-rated defense couldn’t do in the SEC Championship Game.
And McCoy is going to have to make enough plays to win against a top-two scoring defense, something he couldn’t do against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game.
At risk of being called an “SEC homer,” I think Nick Saban wins his second crystal ball and the Tide rolls all night long.
But Texas has a chance to prove me, and thousands of people who think like me, wrong.
And that’s a chance not often afforded in college football.
