Associated Press
The Top 25 roundup …
LUBBOCK, Texas ó Mike Leach had a novel idea about how to break a possible three-way tie in the Big 12 South following No. 7 Texas Tech’s 35-28 win against Baylor.
Forget the BCS and head-to-head matchups. Go to the report cards, Leach suggested.
They are STUDENT-athletes.
“I think they should break that three-way tie based on a graduation rate. I think the Big 12 conference should have an executive session tonight,” the Texas Tech coach said Saturday. “And I think when they do that they will find that no one’s more deserving than the Red Raiders to win Big 12 South.”
Tech last month announced that an NCAA report showed its football team had a graduation rate of 79 percent to lead the Big 12. The NCAA report showed the football rate for Texas at 50 percent and Oklahoma at 46 percent ó at the bottom of the Big 12.
The Red Raiders are really good on the field, too.
Graham Harrell capped a 21-point rally for Texas Tech with a touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter. Harrell injured two fingers on his left hand in the second quarter and is scheduled for surgery Sunday.
Texas Tech (11-1, 7-1) won 11 games in a season for the third time in the program’s 84 years. Tech looked flat a week after the Sooners beat them 65-21, ending the Red Raiders’ perfect season.
The Bears led 21-14 at halftime, and scored on their opening possession of the second half with Jacoby Jones capping a 78-yard drive on a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 28-14.
Texas Tech took control from there ó without All-American Michael Crabtree, who left with a right foot injury midway through the second quarter and did not return.
Kansas 40, No. 12 Missouri 37KANSAS CITY, Mo. ó Todd Reesing threw a touchdown pass to Kerry Meier with 27 seconds left.
The Tigers will still play for the Big 12 title, but they’ll do so coming off a hard-fought loss to their border rivals.
The Jayhawks (7-5, 4-4 Big 12) led by 16 early in the third quarter, let Missouri (9-3, 5-3) back in it, then traded touchdowns with the Tigers in the fourth quarter before Reesing hit Meier.
Reesing finished 37-for-51 for 375 yards with two interceptions, throwing two touchdown passes to Meier and one each to Dezmon Briscoe and Dexton Fields.
Missouri’s Chase Daniel had 391 total yards and threw for four touchdowns, but also had two interceptions, a fumble and was sacked for a safety in the second quarter. J
No. 16 Cincinnati 30, Syracuse 10CINCINNATI ó With the Big East championship already in hand, No. 16 Cincinnati turned its final home game into a ho-hum win that matched a school record.
Tony Pike threw a pair of touchdown passes, and the Bearcats’ senior-laden defense had its way Saturday in the Orange’s final game under coach Greg Robinson.
The Bearcats (10-2, 6-1) are headed to a BCS bowl ó likely the Orange or Sugar ó for the first time in their history. They clinched the spot when West Virginia lost at Pitt on Friday, taking the drama out of the last home game a day later.
No. 19 Oregon 65, No. 17 Oregon St. 38CORVALLIS, Ore. ó Jeremiah Masoli threw for 274 yards and three touchdowns and Oregon all but crushed Oregon State’s hopes of going to the Rose Bowl.
A win would have sent the No. 17 Beavers (8-4, 7-2 Pacific-10 Conference) to Pasadena on New Year’s Day for the first time since after the 1964 season.
Instead, Oregon State will have to wait to see if UCLA can upset No. 5 USC on Dec. 6. Should the Bruins win, the Beavers would share a three-way tie for the conference title with the Trojans and the Ducks, and Oregon State would have the tiebreaker for the Rose Bowl.
The No. 19 Ducks (9-3, 7-2) foiled the Beavers and their six-game overall winning streak as they avenged a Civil War loss last year at Oregon.
The loss snapped Oregon State’s eight-game winning streak at Reser Stadium.
Jeremiah Johnson ran for 219 yards and a score for the Ducks.
CROOM RESIGNS
JACKSON, Miss. ó When Sylvester Croom was hired at Mississippi State five years ago, CNN carried the announcement that the Southeastern Conference finally had a black head football coach to the world.
Croom slipped out the door while no one was looking Saturday, resigning after an early morning meeting with athletic director Greg Byrne. The man who made history was history, another victim of a win-now-or-else mentality in the nation’s toughest conference.
“It’s sad, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Mississippi coach Houston Nutt said. “It’s the way of the world in college football right now.”
Croom resigned less than 24 hours after the Bulldogs suffered one of their most embarrassing losses in his five-year term. They lost to No. 25 Mississippi 45-0 and appeared inept in a game that was out of hand from the opening moments. Croom finished 21-38 at Mississippi State.
After winning 2007 SEC coach of the year and the Liberty Bowl during an 8-5 breakthrough season, boosters and fans were not willing to sit through another losing season and discontent grew as the Bulldogs stumbled to a 4-8 finish.