Mike Gundy: I Would Put Alabama Ahead of Oklahoma State in Rankings

With the way it stands, the BCS National Championship game is destined to be a rematch between LSU and Alabama. Assuming all of the relevant parties win out, it should be. LSU is the consensus No. 1 team in the nation and the only undefeated remaining. Alabama, who lost by three points in overtime to LSU on the road, can obviously make the strongest case of any one-loss team. Even Mike Gundy, whose Oklahoma State Cowboys are ranked third, can’t argue with that.

“If somebody sat me down and said (I) had to make a decision, with where we’re at right now, Alabama lost to what would be the No. 1 team in the country (LSU), and Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State,” Gundy explained Monday according to the Daily Oklahoman. “In our situation, if I was doing it fair, I don’t know how I could put us in front of (Alabama) right now.”

Gundy’s calm demeanor would seem to indicate that nobody in the room wrote something nasty about his quarterback or was wearing an Oklahoma shirt.  As College Football Talk pointed out, Oklahoma State has actually faced four teams in the top-25 of the most recent BCS standings and defeated all four of them.  Alabama, on the other hand, has faced only three teams currently ranked in the top-25 and lost to one of them.

Are we saying OSU is more qualified than Bama?  No.  Oklahoma State’s loss to Iowa State was a bad one whereas Alabama’s loss to LSU was as good a loss as a loss can be.  That being said, it would not be insane to make a case for the Cowboys — especially if you’re their head coach.

I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here, don’t you? Gundy is afraid of the Honey Badger, and I can’t say I blame him.