Oklahoma blasts Colorado

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Super offense. Dominating defense. Perfect opponent.

• Photos

It would be almost impossible to deny Oklahoma a chance at the national championship after this performance.

The second-ranked Sooners were nearly flawless Saturday night, getting three touchdowns passing from Jason White and three more running from Adrian Peterson to dismantle overmatched Colorado, 42-3, in the Big 12 title game.

Barring some kind of massive mix-up, a trip to the Orange Bowl is upcoming for Oklahoma (12-0), which would play for its eighth national title.

USC and Auburn - the other national-title wannabe - each took care of business Saturday. But neither contender was anywhere near as impressive as the Sooners.

White finished with 254 yards and threw all his touchdowns over the first 15:07. Two went to Mark Clayton, who made a sweet, reaching, fingertip catch on the second for a 21-0 lead. Clayton finished with eight catches for 108 yards.

Peterson surpassed the century mark in the second quarter for his 11th 100-yard rushing game, an NCAA record for a freshman. He finished with 172 yards and saved the best for last - breaking six tackles for a darting, spinning 32-yard score and a 42-3 lead.

Peterson and White did the Heisman voters no favors; they entered the weekend as two presumed favorites, and left it the same way.

In Colorado (7-5), the Sooners had the perfect foil for a statement game like this.

The Buffaloes turned their year of turmoil - dogged by a sex and recruiting scandal and the spring suspension of coach Gary Barnett - into a feel-good story by capturing the Big 12 North with a stirring, late-season, three-game winning streak.

But their appearance in the title game couldn't mask the fact that they are, at best, only the fourth- or fifth-best team in a conference where all the good teams played in the other division.