A lasting impression?
How will the voters' opinion of OU's reaction to the Oregon officiating affect the season's ending?

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The Sooners have dispatched Texas, the defending national champion. Ditto for Texas Tech and the rest of the Big 12 South. Even the best the Big 12 North had to offer was not up to the task in the conference championship game.

So, what happens now?

That, after all, is the question at the heart of the Sooner Nation's bellyaching this past week. Losing at Oregon in a game marred by officiating errors is one thing. Losing a chance to play for a national title is quite another for the crimson-clad crowd.

So, what will the sports media machine do, rally behind the Sooners or leave them outside looking in? That depends on not only how voters perceive the Oregon game but also whether the aftermath improved or eroded the Sooners' national reputation.

"If something crazy happens — everybody starts losing and everybody's got one loss and they just continue to win — why would they not be up there the last week of the season?" said Matt Hayes, lead college football writer for The Sporting News. "You're looking at this team with one loss, and the one loss they have is the one loss where they got hosed."

This is a sport where humans factor into the championship formula.

"A computer doesn't fix this," Sooner quarterback Paul Thompson said. "Humans will. Humans know what happened."

The computer rankings used in the BCS formula will look only at the end result — a win for Oregon, a loss for OU — but what the voters in the coaches and Harris polls ultimately do about the outcome remains to be seen.

The controversy could create sympathy.

"If ... you're dealing with a bunch of one-loss teams instead of a bunch of undefeated teams, it could help them if they're playing well and looking dominant at the end of the year," said Rece Davis, host of ESPN's College Gameday Final. "Because the Big 12's struggled against ranked opponents and major-college teams, I think they're going to have to look dominant.

"If they do, that could play in their favor."

Of course, the fallout from Replaygate hasn't been entirely sympathetic toward the Sooners. Several national pundits, including Hayes, took exception to OU president David Boren's letter to the Pac-10 Conference.

"Let's say it does turn somebody off," Davis said. "Then maybe those are the guys who look at it and go, ‘Well, you know, they gave up 500 yards in that game.'

"Other guys who are outraged that you have replay and you still couldn't get it right are probably going to go the other way."

Then, of course, there is the question of how history might factor into this. Big-game setbacks — losing to Kansas State but still playing for a national title in 2003, then losing badly to Southern Cal while Auburn watched in 2004 — created a backlash.

"They had this kind of aura of invincibility. They always won the big games. They were always the best prepared," said Stewart Mandel, college football writer for cnnsi.com. "There was definitely the feeling that they could do no wrong.

"Oklahoma is still a highly respected program, but it's definitely changed."

So, how might the voters look at OU in December if it runs the table in the Big 12, if its only blemish came in Oregon?

"I think that most of the guys who vote in the polls do their best to divorce themselves from personal prejudices," ESPN's Davis said. "But I don't think you're foolish to think ... that the guys aren't influenced a little."