Blatant Homerism follows the college football world at large, with an emphasis on its most prestigious program, the Oklahoma Sooners. Don't look for any "journalism" here – just some of the finest college football writing around...
I found this blog a most fabulous read, and most enjoyable, and encourage all of my readers to go and take a peek. Even had I set out to despise a blog of OU Homerisim, upon reading the Constitution of Blatant Homerism, particularly the take on the BCS, I pretty much decided Adventures of a Football Girl and Blatant Homerisim were blog soulmates.
Maybe someday, little Football-Girl-Homerisim-Blog-Babies will run freely through the midway at the State Fair of Texas, eating corny dogs and playing football toss to it's little heart's content.
I digress.
I did find issue with one itty-bitty point (okay, two itty-bitty points), which I will now counter for the world (by world, I mean all 12 of my followers) to see.
In the much enjoyable post Red River Shootout: Arguing With a Longhorn 101, Homer makes a list of common trash talk a Longhorn might present during the Red River Shootout, and presents the proper way to address each point. (*Note that since the article was posted, OU has acquired an additional win in the series.)
The post reminds me of my own artcle, Stuff I've Learned From Rival Football Fans.
Go there, enjoy, read. But while reading, keep in mind my two items of note:
*We have more head-to-head wins.
This is the most common argument. It's funny to note that the current difference in wins (18) can be solely attributed to a period when football resembled quidditch more than the game we enjoy today. Leather helmets were no longer used in collegiate football sometime in the 1940s.
OU's head-to-head record through 1947: 11-29-2. Since then: 30-30-3. But, by all means, keep your poster of Bobby Layne on your wall.
Look, I get what the writer is saying here - but... I have to wonder if he would be so quick to take the pre-'48 wins out of the equation if OU, say, had won more of them? Reading this 'answer' immediately makes me think of those poor Aggies, who argue W/L statistics by extracting random timeframes within the series to suit their position. It's always kind of ooged me out. I mean, it's not like the Sooners were wearing leather helmets and the Lonhorns were wearing viking hats and flying shoes...so I'm gonna stick with the head-to-head record as...the actual head-to-head record Texas 59 / OU 41* & 5 ties.
Also, yes, Bobby Layne was rad. As proved by a deck of Texas propoganda playing cards.
*Screw you trailer trash!
Okay, Sooner, I see what you did here. But here's the deal: in a previous portion of the post, he made mention of the fact that while yes, Texas has won more games than OU, Texas has also played more games than OU, then busts out the winning percentages of both schools, thus knocking down the Longhorn's point that Texas has more wins.
And I'm totally good with that....I think it's fair. I'm a big fan of taking it down to the nitty-gritty of the statistics. Since Blatant Homerisim and I both agree that this is the fair way to fight with statistics, I need to comment on the whole trailer trash thing.
First off, this does sound like a crappy thing that a Longhorn might say at OU weekend. I'd prefer we make valid, football related arguments, but....eh - it's a heated rivalry.
Secondly, if we're playing by Blatant Homerisims rules, the Lonhorn's argument, however pathetic, stands:
Yes, BH did find a Census Bereau brief noting 1980 and 1990 data regarding mobile homes. Considering there have been two complete census polls completed since then, I thought I'd go full out on some research.
So, by BH's own rules of statistics by percentage (to be fair...):
Consistently, from 1980-2010, it is indeed true that Texas has more that four times as many mobile homes as Oklahoma. In that time frame, Texas also has six times as many people as Oklahoma. So...there's something. The kicker, according to the censi, as confirmed by the document, linked in Blatant Homerisim's blog and the same tables for 2000 & 2010, Oklahoma during this time frame has a higher percentage of mobile homes than Texas, ranking higher in every poll.
Petty, I know, but important. Considering recent history and OU's recent (I'm talking Stoops/Brown) domination of the series, it's possible as Longhorns, we will have to resort to this remedial argument with Sooners because it's all we've got.
But if we must, then by God, we at least need to be ready with our statistics so we can actually win one.
Probably also, we should point out that Sooners are just jealous that they don't have these awesome monolithic domes like we do in Texas.
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