For the 85th time this Saturday, Oklahoma plays Nebraska in one of the great rivalries in all of college football. The game will be the Sooners first trip to Lincoln, since 2005. It will be my first trip back to Lincoln, since 1980. That was my first time around at KTUL-TV when I was also hosting the Oklahoma Football Replay show with Coach Barry Switzer.

            I've had some great memories of those games between the Big Red of the North and the Big Red of the South. Coach Switzer was 12-and-5 in his games against the Cornhuksers and in those 12 wins, eight of them came in the final two minutes of the game.

            My personal favorite?  1976. This was the game where the term " Sooner Magic " was born.  OU had a young team and was a big underdog at Nebraska. In Coach Switzer's book, "Bootlegger's Boy" he tells the story of having his team captain, defensive back, Scott HIll give the pre-game prayer.  Hill said, "Please, dear Lord, don't let any injury or harm come to any player. And please, please, please dear Lord, please don't let the best team win."

            They didn't.  Even though Nebraska led by as much as 17-7 the young Sooners fought back. With three minutes left ot play on a bitterly cold afternoon OU had the ball back on its own 16-yard line with three minutes to play.  A 50-yard halfback pass by Woodie Shepard to freshman Steve Rhodes got it into Husker territory . A couple plays later came the play that truly was "Sooner Magic".  The "Hook and Lateral Play" -Quarterback Dean Blevins hit Rhodes on a short pass who then pitched the ball to halfback Elvis Peacock who took it down the far sideline before being knocked out at the three.  Oklahoma scored the wining touchdown with thirty seconds left to play to win 20-17. It wrapped up a fifth straight win over Nebraska and a fifth straight Big 8 Championship for the Sooners.

          Sooner Magic !

As the Big 12 football season enters its second half the Big 12 Men’s basketball head coaches and key players met in Kansas City recently to preview the 2009-2010 season.

The Men have seven teams ranked it at least one preseason top 25 poll led by the national consensus number one, Kansas. Texas is also a top five team ranked as high as second. Seven Big 12 players are on preseason All-America teams including three on first teams.

Of the seven players who won major individual awards last season five of them return for this season. Nine of the 12 teams bring back more than 50 percent of their scoring from the 2008-09 season.