NCAA Football oklahoma Sooners

The Big 12 North remains a ways from returning to the prominence it enjoyed when the conference first formed in the late 1990s, but if Saturday's matchup between Kansas State and Nebraska for the division title is any indication then better days are certainly on the horizon.

After years of struggles by the Kansas State Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, which have coincided with a dip in the North's strength, the two meet Saturday in Lincoln for a winner-take-all showdown. Neither team has had quite the season it anticipated but each has won enough for the right to play for the Big 12 championship, likely against No. 2 Texas, Dec. 5.

"Certainly we've been in this position before, probably in different ways," said veteran Wildcats coach Bill Snyder, who broke out of a three-year retirement to return to the sidelines this season. "By the same token, I can't remember other than the very early years that playing against the Nebraska teams was not a great challenge and certainly key ball games were after those initial years after they beat us so soundly."

If you believe rumors, then Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops would be interested in coaching Notre Dame should the Irish send Charlie Weis packing after five seasons.

The initial thought: Yeah right.

"That's ridiculous," Stoops said of the reports on Monday.

The comparisons between the Texas Longhorns 2005 team and this season's team are inevitable.

At this point in the 2005 season, the Vince Young-led Longhorns looked pretty invincible. After a tough early season game against Ohio State , they romped over opponents with relative ease on the way to the BCS national title. These Colt McCoy-led Longhorns are doing the same with only their annual rivalry game against Oklahoma serving as the lone close challenge in putting together a perfect 9-0 record and a No. 2 national ranking.

It's just the second time since 1983 that the Longhorns have been 9-0. The other time, of course, was in 2005 when they put together an undefeated campaign that ended with a dramatic national championship victory over USC.

There is nothing new about Bob Stoops matching coaching wits with old mentor and boss Bill Snyder. They've done plenty of that over the years in Big 12 cross-divisional play.

But that doesn't mean Stoops isn't a little surprised to see Snyder, 70, back on the Wildcats sideline. The longtime Kansas State coach retired four years ago to pursue opportunities outside coaching, but was lured out of retirement last winter.

Stoops, whose 22nd-ranked Sooners host the Wildcats on Saturday, admits it's a little unexpected to be going up against his old boss again, but he was stunned when Snyder was no longer there, too.

Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford said Sunday that he plans to have season-ending shoulder surgery and enter next year's NFL Draft, bringing the college career of the reigning Heisman Trophy winner to a premature end.

Bradford, who might have been the No. 1 overall pick if he had entered this year's draft, suffered a shoulder injury in the season opener against BYU and aggravated the injury against Texas last week. He said he's ready to move on:

So much for Todd Reesing and the whole Heisman Trophy conversation. The same can be said for the 25th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks and their once-promising season.

On an afternoon when the Jayhawks had a chance to make a major statement against a respectable Oklahoma team, they simply showed they aren't ready for the big time in a 35-13 drubbing in front of their home crowd at Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Reesing, third in the country in passing yardage per game coming into the contest, threw three interceptions during the Jayhawks' first three possessions . Oklahoma defensive back Dominique Franks was the recipient of the third, which he promptly returned 85 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter to help the Sooners take a 14-6 lead into halftime.

It's the great mystery in Norman, Okla., right now.

Is quarterback Sam Bradford's career over at Oklahoma? Will the 2008 Heisman Trophy winner opt for surgery to repair the sprained AC joint in his right shoulder? Could he play again this season or next?

Those are all burning questions that Sam Bradford was supposed to address following Wednesday's Oklahoma Sooners practice, but he called off a scheduled press conference. Oklahoma associate athletic director for media relations Kenny Mossman told FanHouse that Bradford wants to gather more information. There is no rescheduled date set and that Bob Stoops will not be taking any questions on Bradford after practice.

It's just three weeks into the full-swing of Big 12 play but the North Division is looking like any of the six teams could win the race.

That doesn't necessarily bode well at all for the weaker half of the two-division league.

Nebraska and Kansas came into the season as the presumed favorites to represent the North, but after two weeks of inconsistent play neither seems as powerful. The same can be said for two-time North champion Missouri, which started the season a surprising 4-0, but has dropped its first two games of the Big 12 season.

Whether or not Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford returns to the Sooners this season, or if he has indeed played his last college game, seems to be anybody's guess.

DALLAS -- Colt McCoy did it all with a sore thumb. Colt McCoy also had lost his voice during the week because of a cold. Colt McCoy saved the game with a tackle. A tackle from a quarterback!

This is why headlines and highlights aren't enough. Texas beat Oklahoma 16-13 Saturday to go 6-0 and keep up its run toward the national championship in its System Stinks Redemption Tour.

But when you watch the recap on ESPN and hear the fairy tale of McCoy, keep this in mind:

He wasn't any good.

And Texas? Worse.

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