ABC, announcer Brent Musburger back for more
Big 12 Announcer has called 7 league games this year

Musburger, 69, has covered all the major sports events in his 35-year network career. Musburger, who attended Northwestern University, joined CBS in 1973 and gained notoriety as the host of "The NFL Today.” After being dropped by CBS in 1990, he was hired by ABC.

In a telephone conversation this week, he discussed the season.

Have you enjoyed covering the Big 12 this season?

"It’s been a great year for the conference, so that part of it has been terrific. They have carried us with great games and great ratings. There is nothing not to like about the Big 12 this year. It’s been special.”

CBS announcers Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist have criticized the Big 12 for a lack of defense. In a conference call this week, Danielson said: "I’ve got to say the stats in the Big 12 are like pesos to me, they’re just not worth much. Everybody has stats there.” Is their criticism fair?

I have a lot of respect for Gary and Verne, and they are certainly entitled to their opinion, but they have an agenda. They have to sell the SEC. I have seen more SEC teams in person than they have seen Big 12 teams in person, and I suspect the only way to answer this is to wait about five years and see how many defensive players from Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and the rest of the Big 12 wind up playing in the NFL as opposed to the defensive players from Florida, LSU, Alabama and so on ... I think people have to be careful before they start comparing apples and oranges. I have an unbelievable admiration for the SEC, and I in no way would state that they are playing bad offense because there are only a couple of quarterbacks in that league who are going to go on and play in the NFL.

I noticed on ABC’s Bedlam telecast you proposed that the Big 12 use point differential in conference play to break three-way ties for the division championship. Why do you prefer that over the BCS rankings?

My biggest criticism of the conference, and I’m going to repeat it to the commissioner, is I don’t think the BCS was ever designed to deal internally with conferences. I think they needed a tiebreaker within the framework of what had been done in the conference. Obviously, with Oklahoma’s case, you can argue (victories over) TCU and Cincinnati, but Cincinnati is way after the fact. We don’t know how much that team improved or didn’t improve. You’re dealing with subjective territory. I’m one who thinks that points still should be considered in the BCS formula. I think that was a horrendous mistake to throw that out of the computer ratings.

How do you rate Missouri’s chances against OU?

It’s going to take Missouri’s best effort of the year to stay with OU in this game. The guys who keep numbers for a living have OU favored by upward of 16 points, which is a lot in a championship game. Oklahoma’s performance down the stretch is certainly special. Missouri cannot make mistakes like they did against Kansas, or they won’t be able to stay in the game. Of course, the unknown in this game is whether or not that injured left thumb is any way going to hamper Sam Bradford. He is arguably the most efficient quarterback in the country over the last month.

Leave a Comment

Sports Photo Galleriesview all

Thunder vs. Jazz: Sunday, March 15, 2010

NBA game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Utah Jazz, Sunday, March 15, 2010, at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. Photos by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

22 photos

OU-Texas A&M women

View photos from the OU-Texas A&M Big 12 Championship game Sunday, March 14, 2010

39 photos

Boys 2A championship

View the photos from the Boys 2A championship basketball game Saturday, March 13, 2010

7 photos

3A girls basketball game

View photos from the Classs 3A girls basketball game Saturday, March 13, 2010

12 photos

Page 1 of 5

Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next