Bradford wins wild scramble for Big 12 first team

DALLAS -- Picking the top quarterback on the All-Big 12 team was about as difficult as figuring out the South division champion.

But the result was the same: Oklahoma.

Although Texas' Colt McCoy was chosen offensive player of the year by the 20 voters in balloting conducted by The Associated Press, the same group picked Oklahoma's Sam Bradford over McCoy for the prized first-team spot on the all-conference squad released Thursday.

Bradford's victory was by a single point and the details are a bit mind-numbing, like the BCS formula that vaulted the Sooners over the Longhorns and into the Big 12 title game.

So, take a deep breath and perhaps grab some scratch paper to follow along on how this played out.

• First, the ground rules: The AP uses a panel of writers who regularly cover the Big 12 for newspapers across the conference's seven states; 10 are based in the Big 12 North, 10 in the South. Each gets to pick one first-team quarterback and one second-teamer. The first-team vote is worth two points, the second-team vote is worth one.
• Bradford got nine first-team votes, 10 for second team and was left off one ballot. That's 28.
• McCoy got 10 first-team votes, seven for second teams and was left off three. That's 27.

Like the Big 12 race, Texas Tech was the spoiler.

Red Raiders quarterback Graham Harrell was the only other quarterback to get a vote. He picked up four, one for first team and three for second team. Thus, the race swung on whether the Harrell supporters picked McCoy or Bradford as their other choice. Three went with Bradford and one with McCoy.

To emphasize how big of a difference that was, consider that Bradford and McCoy were both named on 16 ballots. Nine favored McCoy over Bradford, seven went the other way.

McCoy became the front-runner for this award and many others after leading Texas past Bradford and Oklahoma in mid-October. His campaign lost some steam when Harrell and the Red Raiders knocked off the Longhorns. Around that time, Bradford and the Sooners were getting on a big roll of their own.

Bradford guided Oklahoma to 60 points in each of its last four games, including a romp over Texas Tech. Bradford also finished the season with an NCAA-best 46 touchdowns and 300 yards passing in 10 games.

The Sooners, Longhorns and Red Raiders finished in a three-way tie atop the Big 12 South. The first four tiebreakers didn't settle anything, so it went to a fifth option, the BCS rankings. That favored Oklahoma, sending Bradford and his pals into the conference title game Saturday against No. 19 Missouri. If the Sooners win that, they'll be headed to the national championship game, likely against the winner of the SEC championship game.

Oklahoma will go into the game with a league-best six first-team all-conference picks, including linebacker Travis Lewis, the only freshman to make the top squad, and offensive lineman Duke Robinson, who was first-team last year, too.

Missouri has five first-teamers, as did Texas Tech.

Only three players were unanimous choices: Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree, Oklahoma State running back Kendall Hunter and Texas defensive lineman Brian Orakpo, who also was the defensive player of the year. This was Crabtree's second straight season as a unanimous pick.

Missouri's Jeremy Maclin was a first-teamer at two spots, receiver and all-purpose, which accounts for his elusiveness as a returner. He was a unanimous first-teamer at all-purpose last season. His teammates Sean Weatherspoon, a linebacker, and kicker Jeff Wolfert are returning first-teamers. Weatherspoon is the only defensive player back from last year's first team. Senior tight end Chase Coffman also was on the first team.

Iowa State, Kansas State and Colorado didn't have any first-teamers. Just as notable, Oklahoma State and Baylor each had three; that's two more than Texas, which placed only Orakpo on the first team. Kansas had two picks, while Nebraska and Texas A&M each had one.

There was one tweak to this year's balloting: Three first-team receivers and only one running back, instead of two of each. The change was made to better reflect the kind of offenses used in the Big 12.