The Oregon vs. Oklahoma debacle

Wow!

What a mess has been made by the football game last weekend that Ducks won against the Sooners.

Oklahoma fans have been represented by coach Stoops and University president (shouldn't he have more important things to occupy his time?), who have asked that the outcome of the game be stricken from the record books. All because of a bad call by the officials.

This was in no way the first time a bad call was made in a football game, and certainly won't be the last. The week before, the officials in Fresno called bad call after bad call against Oregon, almost costing them the game. On a bigger scale, last season's Super Bowl was won for the Pittsburgh Steelers by at least 5 bad officiating calls. Unfortunately it is part of the game, sometimes it works in your favor, sometimes it doesn't.

What really matters in this particular circumstance is the fact that the game didn't end on the bad call. The Sooners had a chance to win the game with a field goal, and the kick was blocked. They blew it ... end of story, end of game.

There's a good articel on espn.com (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2594247). Here are a few highlights of that article:

"If the president can put down his pompon for a minute, he'll realize a couple of things:

1. Bad calls happen. In every game. A few times a year, they can play a critical role in a game's outcome. Are we going to set a precedent of presidential hissy fits after each critical blown call?

2. The game did not end on this bad call. Oklahoma still had the lead, still had a chance to win. It didn't get the job done.

But instead of absorbing this as an object lesson -- life is not fair, but you have to deal with it -- the school president is setting the sore-loser tone. "

"If the scoreboard says you lost, you lost. That's not going to change. Take an hour to vent postgame, then try to regain your sanity. Do not diminish your quality of life -- and the quality of life of those around you -- by spewing for days about the refs who cheated your team, the flagrant league bias against your team or the complete lack of class displayed by the team that beat your team. Your team l-o-s-t. Try to deal."


Perhaps Oklahoma should just move on, and show a little sportsmanship. And maybe, just maybe, the University's president should try to worry about academics as much as he worries about sports.