Oklahoma State played like the second-best team in the nation this afternoon. There was one tiny problem, however, with Oklahoma State’s virtuoso performance, and that is that they were facing the best team, Texas. The Cowboys’ feisty resistance kept them in the game all day long, and Texas was only able to escape, 28-24, after a last-second Hail Mary fell harmlessly to the turf, batted down at the 10-yard line. Sure, superman WR Dez Bryant had gotten past the Texas secondary, but that’s mainly because the secondary was playing the ball, which was nowhere near Bryant when it came back down to earth. It was a gritty, gutty fight on both sides, though, certainly a better fight than (ahem) Oklahoma put up, and only the most careless of pollsters will drop Oklahoma State more than a spot or two for this loss.

Elsewhere in college football this afternoon… Okay, now the ACC is just screwing with us. There’s a reason The Good Doctor Saturday has an ACC Championship Roulette feature, and that is because nobody in that conference wants to win it. At all. Our latest hilarity comes courtesy of Georgia Tech, who at 3-1 was in the driver’s seat to take the conference. They responded by promptly dropping a home game to Virginia, 24-17. Oh, then there’s the other division leader, Boston College. Yeah, they just got pounded by UNC, 45-24. How bad is the landscape in the ACC? 9 of the 12 teams already have two conference losses, and the other three each have one. Florida State is going to be the only team ranked next week, and if they’re anywhere above No. 20 it’s a travesty. Virginia (!!!) now controls the ACC Coastal Division (for now). Make it stop. Just end all their seasons now and give the BCS bid to the WAC or something. Nobody would blame you.

Oh, and the Big East is so, so much better. The most highly-regarded team in the Big Easy East was probably No. 14 South Florida. We say “was,” as you can probably guess, because they just got edged by Louisville, who is now somehow 5-2 on the year. The other darlings of the conference, alongside West Virginia, were probably Pitt. Again, past tense, and you know exactly why. The No. 17 Panthers were absolutely wrecked by Rutgers (Rutgers, people!!), 54-34. Mike Teel threw five of his six TD passes in the first half alone, and come Monday, Pitt will have to just get postcards from those teams who are still ranked. “Weather’s still great! Wish you didn’t suck so bad!”

Meanwhile, back to real football. It was perfectly natural to scoff at the notion that four of the top 10–hell, half of the top 8–teams all just so happened to be in the six-member Big XII South (I just said they had six members, LOLOLOL). Believe it or not, all four teams lived up to the hype today. In addition to the aforementioned Longhorns and Cowboys, Oklahoma and Texas Tech also played, each team facing a rival from the North division. They were both bloodbaths.

Barry ably covered the Texas Tech pounding, but then there was the Sooners. Oklahoma poured the points on Kansas State con gusto, running the score to 55-28. Err, that was at the half. Seriously. After losing a bet, Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops sent out 11 field mice on offense for the entirety of the second half, and while the young, terrified rodents mustered only a field goal, it was good enough to outlast KSU, as the final was 58-35.

Hey, I just noticed Bob Stoops’ name is an anagram for “STOP BOOBS.” BOOOOO STOOPS BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO