ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

Apparently, the mythical Big 12-SEC challenge I'll be playing off the next couple of weeks isn't the only summer determination of which conference is really the best.

The Dallas Morning News' Chuck Carlton had an interesting story over the weekend about how the Big 12 could be poised to overtake the Southeastern Conference this season.

Texas coach Mack Brown and Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne both told Carlton that the Big 12 is comparable and might be even better than the SEC this season.

"The difference is that the entire league is better," Brown said. "Everybody talks about the SEC. You can actually lose to anybody in this league. That wasn't the case 12 years or probably not even four years ago."

And Orsborne agreed that 2009 could be the year when the Big 12 is catapulted into the nation's top slot in terms of football conferences -- mainly because of continued strong offenses.

"We could be there," Osborne said. "The offensive firepower and the quarterback capability in the last three years have been tremendous. It seemed like every team had a great quarterback and really moved the ball."

But the Nebraska State Paper's Sam McKewon said that similar assertions were made last season until struggles in bowl games exposed some of the Big 12's claims of superiority.

I'm sure we can keep debating this topic for the next couple of weeks. Keep checking my posts for the matchups.

Until then, here are a few Big 12 lunch links for your noontime pleasure.

• The Kansas City Star's Bill Reiter writes that the return of Bill Snyder has energized Kansas State's fans -- despite the inclusion of the veteran coach's name in the recent audit of the university's finances.
• Colorado has extended the schools where Josh Smith can transfer, adding UCLA to the list, Kyle Ringo of the Boulder Camera reports.
• The Lincoln Journal-Star's Brian Christopherson has another great story in his "Deep Red" series, this time about the 1910 season when the Cornhuskers outscored Haskell and Kearney State in a two-game period by a combined margin of 236-0.
• The Oklahoman's Scott Wright checks in with quarterback Johnny Deaton of Sand Springs, Okla., Oklahoma State's first commitment of the 2010 recruiting class.
• Tom Keegan of the Lawrence Journal-World lists 10 Kansas players to watch during preseason practice. Not surprisingly, wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe tops his list.
• The Tulsa World's Dave Sittler reports that Bob Stoops, Mark Mangino and Bo Pelini all were in Youngstown, Ohio, over the weekend for the annual Golden Cardinal Bocce Social benefiting Cardinal Mooney High School.
• New Iowa State defensive line coach Shane Burham tells the Ames Tribune's Bobby LaGesse about giving up his life as a pharmaceutical sales career to become a coach.
• The Oklahoman's Berry Tramel ranks Florida's Tim Tebow as his preseason Heisman favorite over defending Heisman winner Sam Bradford or Colt McCoy.