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From: dday@gymble.UUCP (Dennis Doubleday)
Newsgroups: net.sport.football
Subject: Re: Barry Switzer, OU and the Kickoff Classic
Message-ID: <489@gymble.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Feb-86 10:21:02 EST
Article-I.D.: gymble.489
Posted: Wed Feb  5 10:21:02 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Feb-86 10:31:20 EST
References: <888@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: dday@gymble.UUCP (Dennis Doubleday)
Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD
Lines: 31

In article <888@decwrl.DEC.COM> pannell@dec-dosadi.UUCP writes:
>I have a question for you Sooner fans.  Why does Barry Switzer turn down 
>invitations to play in the Kickoff Classic?  At the end of the '84 season 
>Barry kept saying that BYU should not be the national champ because of a weak 
>schedule, but then he declined to play BYU in the '85 Kickoff Classic.  In '85 
>they were the "best" team in the country, the national champ and they promise 
>to be good again in '86, but still Barry Switzer turned down an invitation to 
>play Michigan in the '86 Kickoff Classic (Bo also turned down the invite).  My 
>question is why?  I don't think the players would decline the invitation.  
>Does he feel the extra game wouldn't prove anything or is he afraid of what it 
>might prove?

Why is everyone so anxious to malign Barry Switzer?  Why doesn't anyone 
question Bo Schembechler's turning down the offer?  Oh, well, he's used to
it, I guess. To answer your question, I think he's simply being a realist.
He knows that with a non-conference schedule of UCLA, Minnesota, Miami, and
Texas he's already got his work cut out for him.  He knows that if he can
go undefeated against that schedule that he'll probably win another title.
So why take the chance of adding another tough team to his schedule?  
He's got everything to lose and only a marginal amount of prestige to gain.
Apparently some other coaches felt the same way, since the matchup worked
its way down the Top 10 to Ohio State - Alabama.  By the way, I don't think
Oklahoma was actually asked to play in the '85 Kickoff Classic; Switzer had
said before the '85 Orange Bowl that he would turn down an invitation, but
then his team got beat by Washington to make the point moot anyway.
-- 

UUCP:	seismo!umcp-cs!dday                      Dennis Doubleday
CSNet:	dday@umcp-cs				 University of Maryland
ARPA:	dday@gymble.umd.edu			 College Park, MD 20742
Fan of: Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears, OU Sooners	 (301) 454-6154