Walter Cronkite passed away Friday at the age of 92 (may we all be so lucky to get there).  If there are any of you who are unfamiliar with the man's work as a TV news anchor, I am certain that you know him from his recent ad campaign voice-overs for his alma mater (which give me chills, I'll admit it):

Someone decided these would be awesome at football games.  And you know what?  They are.

Edit: There really is only one way to properly end this post, though, and I overlooked it earlier.  (Image via)

"And that's the way it is."

Texas is a lock for making the tournament field of 64, and widely expected to pull one of the national seeds.  How high?  Working on the (large) assumption that Texas wins the Big Dozen tournament, probably very high.  As pointed out by HornsRiverine and 40AS, ESPN and SEBaseball both have the Horns (currently BoydsWorld's #2 in RPI) as the number 1 national seed, and now Baseball America has jumped on the Horns-as-#1 bandwagon. 

Overall, representation of the Duzz should have a strong tourney presence again.  Baseball America has K-State(!) and the team from directly north hosting, though not as seeds, and Baylor, Kansas, A&M, and Mizzou making the field.  (There are only 10 varsity baseball teams in the Big XII, Iowa State and Colorado don't sponsor it.)

So, how far do the Horns go if they have the benefit of home-field through to Omaha?  How many from the Duzz make it to Omaha?

...why would you expect the head coach to have any?

Let's take a gander at the results for the season, shall we?

[Full disclosure: I am and will always be a Mizzou football fan first, Texas second]

So, we see an obvious pattern emerge.  Which of these are actually running up the score (RUTS)?  Quickly, rule out TCU, KU, and UT, look more closely at the others.

Chattanooga: Up 50 at half, wins by 43.  Bradford removed in first half.  Verdict:  No.

Cincinnati: Up 8 at half, wins by 26.  Bradford comes out when they go up by 32 at one point in the 4th.  Verdict: Probably not.

Washington: Up 34 at half, win by 41.  Led by 48 at one point.  Bradford no passes after 3rd Q to go up 48-7 (after throwing a 64 yd TD).  Verdict:  Possibly RUTS.

Baylor: Up 21 at half, score 14 in 2nd half, win by 32.  Bradford in for all 49 points, last TD scored with 5:00 left up 42-17.  Verdict: Last TD was RUTS.

KSU: Scored 3 pts in 2nd half.  Verdict: No.

Nebraska: Up 35 at half, win by 34.  Bradford throws 2 TDs in 3rd qtr (first when up 56-21) before being removed.  Verdict:  Yes.

And now the stretch run (i.e. from the week after UT lost to TTU and Stoops saw his opening)

aTm: Up 24 at half, win by 38.  Bradford throws TD pass up 52-21 in late 3rd.  Verdict:  Yes.

Tech:  We all saw that.  Verdict:  Yes.

Okie St: Okie St's cookin' the books style timeout allows OU to score last TD.  WTF was that about?  Seriously, WTF was that?  Verdict: Actually, not really.  OSU was complicit.

Missouri:  We all saw that.  Verdict:  Yes.

So we see that once Stoops eyed a chance to slide in on what that bandwagoning whore Brent Musburger insists are "style points," OU took every opportunity to RUTS. 

Of course, the media is very much complicit in this:  overlooking Texas's strong defense, vaulting Florida after OMG SHIRTLESS IN JORTS and crew put up 70 on the Citadel (holy shit!  Citadel, NO WA!), saying USC didn't do enough today just beating UCLA by 21 and allowing only 7 (I mean, they haven't played a really great conference schedule, but the defensive numbers are astonishing).  But today's cheerleading by Musburger, wishing, hoping, eagerly begging aloud that OU would put up 60 to set some non-existent record, and not pointing the blatant RUTS out when Bradford was still throwing TDs late in the 4th was inexcusable.  No, the AP voters shouldn't give UT a split of the title (if they win) just to continue some attempt to blow up the BCS, but if that scenario does come to pass it will be a point in the column for sportsmanship, considering the BCS MNC game will match two of the worst RUTS offenders (who either OH BY THE WAY LOST TO MISSISSIPPI... AND SOME OTHER TEAM I CANNOT RECALL EXACTLY).

For those of you too young to remember, the BCS made the CPU models give up MOV because people like Spurrier would go out and embarrass kids.  And that is who they are:  kids.  99% of them won't play in the NFL.  They've got enough to deal with without multimillionaire middle aged men trying to embarrass them for their own egos and bank accounts.  But the experts* who vote in these polls are wowed by big flashy numbers and not the bulk of a season, while at the same time they scream for a playoff.

If Mack Brown taking out McCoy before hitting 50 vs. aTm means no MNC game for UT, then so be it.  

I won't watch the BCS MNC game this year.  And I will be quite content with that decision.

EDIT: I know RUTS has always been there:  It was the blatant consistency of OU's RUTS this year, coupled with Stoops pretending it wasn't the case, and the fact that this is all of a sudden "style points" and "What a RECORD!"-type responses from people like Brent Musburger that made it disgusting in OU's end of the season stretch run.

...why would you expect the head coach to have any?

Let's take a gander at the results for the season, shall we?

[Full disclosure: I am and will always be a Mizzou football fan first, but I also have a place for Texas]

So, we see an obvious pattern emerge.  Which of these are actually running up the score (RUTS)?  Quickly, rule out TCU, KU, and UT, look more closely at the others.

Chattanooga: Up 50 at half, wins by 43.  Bradford removed in first half.  Verdict:  No.

Cincinnati: Up 8 at half, wins by 26.  Bradford comes out when they go up by 32 at one point in the 4th.  Verdict: Probably not.

Washington: Up 34 at half, win by 41.  Led by 48 at one point.  Bradford no passes after 3rd Q to go up 48-7 (after throwing a 64 yd TD).  Verdict:  Possibly RUTS.

Baylor: Up 21 at half, score 14 in 2nd half, win by 32.  Bradford in for all 49 points, last TD scored with 5:00 left up 42-17.  Verdict: Last TD was RUTS.

KSU: Scored 3 pts in 2nd half.  Verdict: No.

Nebraska: Up 35 at half, win by 34.  Bradford throws 2 TDs in 3rd qtr (first when up 56-21) before being removed.  Verdict:  Yes.

And now the stretch run (i.e. from the week after UT lost to TTU and Stoops saw his opening)

aTm: Up 24 at half, win by 38.  Bradford throws TD pass up 52-21 in late 3rd.  Verdict:  Yes.

Tech:  We all saw that.  Verdict:  Yes.

Okie St: Okie St's cookin' the books style timeout allows OU to score last TD.  WTF was that about?  Seriously, WTF was that?  Verdict: Actually, not really.  OSU was complicit.

Missouri:  We all saw that.  Verdict:  Yes.

So we see that once Stoops eyed a chance to slide in on what that bandwagoning whore Brent Musburger insists are "style points," OU took every opportunity to RUTS. 

Of course, the media is very much complicit in this:  overlooking Texas's strong defense, vaulting Florida after OMG SHIRTLESS IN JORTS and crew put up 70 on the Citadel (holy shit!  Citadel, NO WA!), saying USC didn't do enough today just beating UCLA by 21 and allowing only 7 (I mean, they haven't played a really great conference schedule, but the defensive numbers are astonishing).  But today's cheerleading by Musburger, wishing, hoping, eagerly begging aloud that OU would put up 60 to set some non-existent record, and not pointing the blatant RUTS out when Bradford was still throwing TDs late in the 4th was inexcusable.  No, the AP voters shouldn't give UT a split of the title (if they win) just to continue some attempt to blow up the BCS, but if that scenario does come to pass it will be a point in the column for sportsmanship, considering the BCS MNC game will match two of the worst RUTS offenders (who either OH BY THE WAY LOST TO MISSISSIPPI... AND SOME OTHER TEAM I CANNOT RECALL EXACTLY).

For those of you too young to remember, the BCS made the CPU models give up MOV because people like Spurrier would go out and embarrass kids.  And that is who they are:  kids.  99% of them won't play in the NFL.  They've got enough to deal with without multimillionaire middle aged men trying to embarrass them for their own egos and bank accounts.  But the experts* who vote in these polls are wowed by big flashy numbers and not the bulk of a season, while at the same time they scream for a playoff.

Missouri's year wasn't what we hoped for, but for Stoops to try to embarrass us was an insult.  If Mack Brown taking out McCoy before hitting 50 vs. aTm means no MNC game for UT, then so be it.

I won't watch the BCS MNC game this year.  And I will be quite content with that decision.

*Not actually experts

Sunday's win against St. John's was the 3,000th in Texas Longhorn baseball history, which stretches back to 1894 (or so says Wikipedia).  That is ten wins per Spartan.  Not to shabby actually, even though we lost to Rice later in the day.  Couple that with Russell's record breaking home runs (Jeff Ontiveros we hardly knew ye), and the fact that a couple of weeks ago we didn't know if we were going to make the field, and it was a good showing for a young team, even though we only scored 4 runs against Rice when they gave us 6 errors.

Texas actually ranks second all time in collegiate baseball wins behind... wait for it...

wait for it...

Fordham which has a mind boggling 4,152 wins (by my math) in 148(!) seasons.