Ala Hann Sport picks

The easy part for NCAA football betting professionals? Tabbing the four teams that won’t win the Big 12 South Division title. The hard part for online betting aficionados is picking the team that will win the classic confrontation known as the Red River Rivalry.

First, let’s safely establish who won’t be winning the South crown.

Baylor will get Robert Griffin back at quarterback, but the Bears – bereft of depth and power as you go through their roster – are just not resourced enough to become an upper-division team. Coach Art Briles is immensely creative and has BU headed in the right direction, but that hardly means Baylor is primed for a major upward move in the college football world.

Texas Tech is another team that can be counted out of the South sweepstakes before the season even starts. After a solid decade of Mike Leach, the Red Raiders hired Tommy Tuberville to lead them into the next decade. No coach is exactly like Leach, but there are several people in the football industry who possess at least a piece of Leach’s ultra-aggressive aerial approach to offense. Tuberville isn’t one of those fellows, and that’s an indication Texas Tech is in the midst of a substantial cultural change. It will likely take multiple seasons for the Red Raiders to recruit and coach a different kind of player with abilities tailored to a Tuberville offense. In 2010, Tech will be moving toward a new identity, and that’s no way to win a title… not at a school which is left with the players Texas and Oklahoma refuse to select.

Oklahoma State also won’t be found pushing the heavyweights for the South championship. Coach Mike Gundy loses nine starters on defense, and he’ll also step onto the gridiron this year without some of the offensive studs who have powered his team over the previous few seasons. Offensive tackle Russell Okung is a Seattle Seahawk, and receiver Dez Bryant is now a Dallas Cowboy. Zac Robinson is no longer the quarterback, but Brandon Weeden filled in well at certain points of the 2009 season and should be okay. Nevertheless, it will be hard to expect OSU to be as formidable on offense as it was last season. Given the substantial numbers of players lost on defense, it’s really hard to think this team can remain in the South race long enough to be a true contender.

If an upset winner of the South is to emerge, Texas A&M could be the surprise team in the division. Coach Mike Sherman doesn’t have a defense that’s worth writing about, but if sensational quarterback Jerrod Johnson maxes out in every game he plays, the Aggies will be rolling up 40-plus points against their foes and will not need much defense at all. Johnson is a very fast open-field runner with agility and pocket savvy. He made Texas’s defense look foolish on Thanksgiving Night last season, and if that’s the man who will regularly surface in 2010, the rest of the Big 12 is going to get smoked. A&M can’t be considered a division favorite, but it can certainly make a charge for the South title with Johnson at quarterback.

As always, the battle for bragging rights in the South will come down to Texas and Oklahoma. Last year, the starting quarterbacks for each team were legends Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford. This year, Garrett Gilbert and Landry Jones are the gunslingers for the Horns and Sooners. Gilbert gained valuable experience in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game against Alabama, but Jones acquired even more battle testing when Bradford got hurt on opening night of the 2009 season against BYU. Jones is the more game-conditioned signal caller, and if Oklahoma can avoid the many injuries which proved to be lethal last season, the feeling here is that the Sooners are better positioned to win the annual two-team shootout with Texas. It’s true, though, that many sports betting junkies will disagree and side with the Longhorns.

Time to settle the issue on the field. You’ll just have to wait until October for the big month to arrive.