TECH FINALLY FEELS THE PAIN

...And I mean that as a compliment.

After the Oklahoma game...actually during the second quarter of the Oklahoma game...as Texas Tech fans realized what was slipping through their fingers, a new type of pain they've never felt crept into their souls.

It's the feeling of complete and utter loss, of everything you've hoped for being swept off the board...the feeling you get only when the college football team you root for, invest in, are passionate about, loses a truly big game.

It's a similar feeling across the sports world in every sport...but it hurts a little more on the college football continent.

Texas Tech has never before felt that pain.

Oklahoma has. Most recently when they lost the national title game...no, got obliterated in the national title game...by USC.

Texas has. Most recently when they lost to Oklahoma in 2004. The Longhorns only loss of the season which cost them a shot at the conference and national title.

USC has. Most recently when they lost to Oregon State on a Thursday night which will probably be their only loss of the year and cost them a shot at the crown.

I could go on and on and on giving examples of big time programs losing big time games which mean everything.

Texas Tech has averaged four losses since 2002. When you lose a game early or late in the season which is part of two or three other losses, it doesn't hurt as bad.

Yeah, it'd be nice to upset OU or OSU or UT, but lately if Tech were to lose to those teams, it's really no big deal.

Tech can say goodbye to the Trivial Loss. The Trivial Loss comes with little or no real pain. Sure, there's disappointment but not the kind of pain that makes you want to throw up. The Trivial Loss is experienced week in and week out by the lower class teams in the FBS. Baylor, Vanderbilt, Duke, Virginia, Washington State, Rutgers, Indiana and Southern Miss go through it many times every year.

Welcome to the big show Texas Tech.

My brother-in-law lives in Austin and bleeds burnt orange. When Texas loses a truly big game, he crawls under his bed and won't eat, drink or talk to anyone for weeks.

He has a friend who went to Tech who would always make fun of him and call him a baby.

That friend texted my brother-in-law on Saturday with these simple words, "Now I know how you feel."

As simple as that.

National title expectations come with horrific costs of losing.

And now Tech is a part of the club.

Now it's not to say that Tech still doesn't have an outside shot of winning the conference and even playing for it all...but at this point they're out of the driver's seat and need some help from OSU and A&M.

That fact cuts deep and will definitely leave a mark...and I mean that as a compliment.