Auburn Coach Gene Chizik is top in my poll.

I love college football.

No secret–my team is the University of Oklahoma Sooners, ranked number 6. Boomer Sooner! (www.ou.edu) Even though we played an unranked team in the Fiesta Bowl (thank you, BCS), I was happy we got to go to a big bowl game, play on national TV and welcome another team to OU’s laundry list of  “thanks for playing” opponents.

Monday I watched the college national championship game between the Oregon Ducks and the Auburn Tigers. I did NOT want Oregon to win because I hold a grudge for the game between that team and the REAL OU team several years ago with bad call after bad call. The ref admitted he threw the game, and he ended up throwing in his whistle. True.

So I wanted Auburn to win by default, not because of any allegiance to that team at all. So they won. So they’re number one in the final football rankings. http://newsok.com/ou-no.-6-osu-no.-13-in-final-ap-college-football-poll/article/3531362.

But I’m not happy about that, either.

Is anyone as shocked as I am at the lack of sportsmanship from Auburn? Number 32, 90 and number 45–whatever their names are–were shown on national TV roughing up Oregon. In fact, 32 was shown kneeing an Oregon player after the play, while the Duck was on the ground. What the heck does it take to get tossed out? Oregon’s socks were obnoxious but no one deserves to be hit while they’re down. NO ONE. Not even a Longhorn.

Then Auburn Coach Gene Chizik accepted the win with very little grace. No acknowledgement of Oregon being a worthy opponent. Just a factual statement that he coaches the “best team in the country.” Wow. What manners. What class.

So Auburn is at the top of my poll. NUMBER ONE this season for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Who gets your vote?

Jeanie Luskey signed on to raise funds for a hospital, not compete with football playoffs.

All the planning in the world still doesn’t mean you can control the world.

Something I know from experience, and I’m sure others have learned this lesson, too.

Last year I served on the steering committee for a celebration marking my sorority’s centennial at the University of Oklahoma (Boomer Sooner, of course). It was a big darn deal. Most of the women had worked on dozens of similar committees, so these volunteers were pros in the field of gala-throwing. Invitations, underwriting, bands, centerpieces, seating charts and ice sculptures were not foreign turf to this crew.

We met for months, going over every detail for this two-day event. Account balances in the black, RSVPs duly noted, speakers lined up. The highlight was to be a black-tie ball on a Saturday night with a fabulous dinner, fun band and even husbands.

So for a bunch of type-A women, we had it under control…or so we fooled ourselves into thinking.

The football gods aligned the planets so that our beloved Sooners played a big game on national TV.  Kick-off? Exactly the same as the time printed on our oh-so-lovely invitations.

So now as the Dallas Cowboys make a rare Saturday night appearance on national TV in a play-off game with that Philadelphia team, I’m not worried about Jerry’s boys. My concerns are for the Jewel Charity Ball in Fort Worth. That party, an annual event for Cook Children’s Medical Center, has been on the books longer than Tony Romo’s been wearing ball caps backwards.

Jeanie Luskey, president of this year’s ball, probably is wondering what the heck happened to Monday night football.

Nail-biting time definitely is underway.

Sorority rush is already moving along at Oklahoma State University, always the first one in this area to finish rush. Now known as “recruitment,” rush will include the final round of parties Friday with bid day Saturday.

Mostly freshman girls attend rounds of parties in what is billed as a “mutual selection process,” which it is. And the game is played with sororities inviting back some girls, the girls indicating which ones they favor, and back and forth and back and forth. Then on the last day, bid day, girls are invited to pledge, which is what will happen Saturday in Stillwater.

The other big state schools will follow–boom, boom, boom. Next bid days on the list:

• University of Oklahoma–Aug. 18
• Louisiana State University–Aug. 22
• Texas Christian University–Aug. 22
• University of Arkansas–Aug. 22
• University of Texas–Aug. 25
• Texas Tech University–Aug. 27
• Texas A&M University–Aug. 28
• University of Tulsa–Aug. 30
• Texas State University–Sept. 9

From the time Baby Princess is dropped off at the dorm to the preceding dates can become somewhat stressful (understatement) for the mothers involved. By the end of the weak, the mother might have pulled her carefully highlighted hair out by the roots or have become just a little bit agitated or both.

What this means is a spike in area liquor sales. Nothing like this kind of ulcer-inducing exercise to inspire a mom to lunge for her corkscrew…sometimes even before 5 o’clock.

Let me go on record as telling you that, in pursuit of my journalism degree, I did receive a passing grade in the upper-level course “Theory of Football.” I promise you this was a class for which I actually did receive credit, and it was not all that easy for those of us who had not played high school football.

Therefore, I can talk about a nickel defense and Sam and Willy linebacker with the best of ‘em. But there is something I simply do not understand. Why, in the name of Barry Switzer, do we throw flags on 21-year-old kids for “excessive celebration” when they score a touchdown in a college football game?

Please, someone, somewhere explain to me why adult fans are allowed to scream like crazy, jump up and down, yet an adrenaline-filled, testosterone-pumped student who just completed a difficult task in front of thousands of screaming, jumping people is to cross a goal line as if he were entering a bank vault? Is there other team such a big bunch of mama’s boys they just can’t take it if the ball carrier gets a little animated?

So, let it be known, that this University of Okahoma, Sooner-Born and Sooner-Bred football fan does not appreciate the University of Texas Longhorn getting a flag thrown on him in the fourth quarter for “unsportsmanlike conduct” when he dove into the end zone at The Fiesta Bowl. Well played, my Big 12 son! I think in the midst of that struggle against The Ohio State University excessive celebration was indeed called for.

And one more thing before Thursday’s national championship football game…BOOMER SOONER!!!!