College Football Rewind: 5 most important games from 2008 season

4. (5) Oklahoma 63, (2) Texas Tech 21

You might be looking at this and wondering why such a lopsided victory is on this list but it’s here for two major reasons.

One, Texas Tech would go on to play for the national championship with a win here and if they avoided an upset against Missouri in the Big 12 title game the following week. And two, because of the margin of victory that Oklahoma produced in this game, that gave them the edge over Texas in the eventual three way tie in the Big 12 South, where Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech all finished the regular season 11-1 and the final BCS rankings would decide the winner.

This game featured two of the highest-powered offenses in recent memory, but three turnovers and a slow start would doom the Red Raiders and they fell behind 43-7 at the half and that would be the biggest difference in the eventual three way tie.

It’s an endless debate that both Sooner fans and Longhorn fans have to this day and I used to feel that because Texas beat Oklahoma, the the former should get the nod despite their loss to the Red Raiders. But I have a hard time feeling sorry for Texas fans now because Oklahoma utterly destroyed the team that they lost too and that was the huge difference.

If Oklahoma wins a close game, Texas wins the tie-breaker and goes on to face Florida in the national championship game.