It computes for Sooners

Computers prefer Oklahoma over Auburn – and Southern California.

The Sooners held on to second place in the Bowl Championship Series standings Monday, staying ahead of third-place Auburn because of a stronger computer ranking. USC is still first with a grade of .9808. Oklahoma’s grade is .9621, and Auburn’s is .9350.

Last week, the Sooners led the Tigers by .0567. That lead is down to .0271.

The Trojans, Sooners and Tigers are all 10-0. Each has two games left and one loss by any of them would provide a simple solution to what is shaping up to be another BCS mess. The top two teams in the final BCS standings will play in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 4 for the national title.

Since the BCS’ inception in 1998, there’s never been three undefeated teams after the regular season in the six BCS conference – Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Atlantic Coast Conference, Pac-10 and Southeastern Conference.

The Tigers made up ground on the Sooners in the polls Sunday, tying Oklahoma for second in the Associated Press Top 25 and getting within two points of No. 2 in the coaches poll.

With the voters virtually split on the Sooners and Tigers, the computers are breaking the tie.

“We’re in the situation we are – a the tight race here, everybody finishing, and the system the way it is – it’s hard to know where you’re going to be at or what matters to people, voters or computers,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.

The polls each count for a third of a BCS grade. A compilation of six computer rankings make up the other third, and according to them Oklahoma is the best team in the country.

The Sooners are tops in five of the computer rankings and second in the other. A team’s highest and lowest computer score is tossed out.

USC is second by the computers and Auburn is third.

The other big winner in the latest BCS standings is Utah, which moved back into sixth place.

California (.8522) is fourth and Texas (.8140) fifth, but the unbeaten Utes (.8062) could keep one of them out of the BCS, likely the Longhorns.

Utah is trying to become the first team from a mid-major conference to earn a BCS bid. They can lock up a spot by finishing in the top six. Utah is .0568 ahead of seventh-place Michigan with a game to play against Mountain West Conference rival BYU on Saturday.

Kansas coach apologizes

Kansas coach Mark Mangino would like to take it all back. The question he faces, however, is how forgiving the Big 12 Conference will be toward a coach who suggested officials deliberately tried to influence the outcome of a game.

“I regret my remarks,” Mangino said. “I said them after an emotional loss, and I want to make it perfectly clear that I’m not implying that any official or anybody is trying to determine the outcome of a game.”

That was what Mangino suggested Saturday, after an offensive pass interference penalty forced the Jayhawks to punt in the final 2 minutes. As a result, No. 6 Texas rallied for a 27-23 win.

“You know what this is all about, don’t you? BCS. That’s what made a difference today in the game,” Mangino said in his postgame news conference.

Texas, with only one loss, could possibly be headed for a BCS bowl that would bring a financial windfall of around $12 to $14 million into the conference.

“That’s what made the difference in a call in front of their bench. Dollar signs,” Mangino said after the game.