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Oregon defeats Texas twice Saturday to advance to the Women's College World Series.

Keilani Ricketts made a strong case to be named USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year on Saturday. The Oklahoma pitcher was outstanding for the second straight game leading the Sooners to a 7-1 win over Arizona to sweep the Norman Super Regional at Marita Hynes Field.

Oklahoma advanced to the Women's College World Series with the victory and recorded its second straight Super Regional win over the Wildcats to make its seventh appearance in the WCWS.

Read more about Oklahoma's win at SoonerNation.

Baylor's Perry Jones III, a Duncanville product, talks with Chad Ford about his workouts and preparations for the NBA draft.

The next in our series looking at 20 teams who could win it all in 2012 examines TCU.

Colleague Ryan McGee tackled the Frogs (always a treacherous task) and tried to determine their chances.

The biggest reason TCU could win it all? An elite passing game and running game.

[Casey] Pachall returns along with his three top receivers from one year ago -- Josh Boyce, Skye Dawson and Brandon Carter. They are battle-scarred from a season that included more than a few offensive track meets. In other words, this passing game has a chance to be scary good. And they won't get gassed during Big 12 shootouts. ...

If for some reason throwing the ball gets bogged down, then the Frogs' running attack should be more than capable of shouldering the load. TCU is the only team in the nation to return three backs who rushed for 700 yards in 2011.

The biggest reason TCU won't win it all? The defensive backfield and a welcome to the Big 12.

Five of the nation's seven most prolific passing attacks from 2011 are on the Horned Frogs' schedule in 2012, including four in consecutive weeks from October 13 through November 3 (at Baylor, versus Texas Tech, at Oklahoma State, at West Virginia). TCU's pass D better be much improved, or have an offense capable of winning every shootout, if it hopes to survive that stretch.

Want more on the Frogs? Check out the piece. You'll also see a stat projection from Football Outsiders' Brian Fremeau, including the most likely result and the projection window for the best- and worst-case scenario.

Cole Wright and Stacey Nuveman-Deiz preview Texas' game against Oregon in the NCAA softball super regionals.

DALLAS -- The University of Texas at Arlington will begin competing in the Sun Belt Conference, effective in July 2013.

The conference schools voted Wednesday in Sandestin, Fla., to accept Texas-Arlington as a non-football member. Subject to approval by the University of Texas System Board of Regents, the Mavericks would depart their longtime home in the Southland Conference to join the Florida-based league.

UTA doesn't have a football program.

The Sun Belt Conference is slated to have 12 members for the 2013-14 academic year, including 10 in football.

Denver is leaving this summer for the Western Athletic Conference, while North Texas and FIU will leave in the summer of 2013 for Conference USA. They'll be replaced by Texas State, Georgia State and UTA.

Coaches we love to hate week is rolling on at ESPN.com, and today, it's familiar territory for the Big 12.

Some coaches are hated because they simply win too much. For the Big 12, it seems like that's the only reason why any coaches earn the hatred from fans.

For the most part, the coaches in the Big 12 are a civil bunch, with hardly a heated rivalry between them that inspires hate from the fans.

Nobody catches more flack for winning than Bob Stoops and Mack Brown. That's what happens when you win and do it for a long, long time.

Stoops has been accused more than once of running up the score in some of those wins, and when you look back on the 2008 season, it's easy to see why some might feel that way. The Sooners memorably scored 60 points in five consecutive games leading up to the national title, and scored at least 52 points in four more games.

The "leaving starters in" debate is a timeless one, and I tend to fall on the side of, "If you don't like it, stop them." Others don't, and Stoops catches the flack for it.

Simply put, Big 12 teams love beating OU and Texas more than any other school, and those winning traditions are the biggest reason why.

Stoops and Brown also have to deal with the incessant chorus from fans who argue that coaching at Oklahoma and Texas is simple: You get the best players, and you get the best record, regardless of your coaching acumen.

That couldn't be further from the truth. Brown and Stoops both inherited losing teams, and turned them into perennial winners who do recruit well and sign the best players in the Big 12 every season. To think that happens automatically is silly. You need good coaches to make it happen, and Brown and Stoops have personified that, even if Brown hasn't won as big as some expect with the type of talent Texas reels in.

In this debate, though, I'd argue Stoops and Brown aren't alone. In recent seasons, they've been joined by none other than Art Briles at Baylor.

The former Texas high school coach is quick with one-liners that earn the media's favor, but he talks about doing big, big things at Baylor. Things like Big 12 titles and telling players they can win Heisman trophies.

To those on the outside, it sounds like crazy talk.

Then, he goes and inches closer to those goals. He achieved the second one last season, and does anyone want to rule out a Big 12 title for the Bears?

The same people who want to do that probably would have done the same for Oklahoma State. Mike Gundy equaled or surpassed his win total in every season at Oklahoma State.

Briles has done the exact same, even while losing Robert Griffin III in a four-win campaign in 2009.

He won seven games the following year, and did the unthinkable by winning 10 games in 2011. Losing RG3 is a big blow, but he's stocked his team with loads of offensive talent, and signed five-star talents like safety Ahmad Dixon and running back Lache Seastrunk.

It's a new day at Baylor, and thanks to Briles, the Bears will soon be playing in a new stadium, too. As much as the rest of the Big 12 wants to pretend BU will go back to the same ol' Baylor without RG3, Briles will soon prove that no such thing's going to happen in Waco.

A word of advice on how to view the trio? Don't hate. Appreciate.

We did it last year, and it's time to rev up the engines one more time.

The Big 12 had five passers top 3,000 yards in 2011. WVU's Geno Smith also topped 3,000 yards, but Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill did, too. The league breaks even in that sense.

College football had 39 passers top 3,000 yards last year, up from 27 in 2010.

Which ones will crack the mark in the Big 12 next year? I'm glad you asked.

Remember: This isn't so much a ranking of the Big 12's best quarterbacks, but the QBs with the best chance to break the benchmark for a great season.

1. Geno Smith, West Virginia: Smith had his first season over 3,000 yards last year, and did it by a long ways, racking up 4,385 yards, which was 1,781 more than any other Big East QB. That's nuts. He may throw for more yards than any Big 12 QB this year, but it won't be that wide of a margin. He's got one of the best receiving corps in the league. Injury would be the only thing that could keep him under 3,000.

2. Landry Jones, Oklahoma: Jones has big question marks at receiver. Three of his top four returning targets are currently suspended. Still, he has Kenny Stills and hyped newcomer Trey Metoyer headlining the best class of incoming receivers in the country. He'll top 4,000 yards for the third consecutive season, and 3,000 for the fourth.

3. Seth Doege, Texas Tech: Doege took his place as the next in a long line of successful Tech QBs, throwing for 4,004 yards despite losing the heart of his running game and his two most talented receivers. Tech will throw it enough as always to make this one a no-doubter.

4. Nick Florence, Baylor: Florence will top 3,000 yards in his first full year as a starter with time to prepare for becoming one. He earned seven sudden starts when Robert Griffin III tore his ACL in 2009, Florence's true freshman season. He's got more experience now and arguably the best receiving corps in the league. That's a heck of a combo.

5. Wes Lunt, Oklahoma State: Lunt is a true freshman who better brace for growing pains, but he'll have plenty of great moments in OSU's loaded, pass-first offense. He'll top 3,000 yards by a narrow margin, but the biggest key for Lunt will be keeping his interception total low. If he does that, OSU could be scary.

6. Casey Pachall, TCU: Pachall will have to balance out TCU's running game, which should take advantage of some Big 12 defenses' weak interiors. He'll need to chuck it a whole lot more this season if TCU gets into shootouts or needs to come from behind. That'll happen a lot more in the Big 12 than in the Mountain West.

Just missed: Dayne Crist, Kansas. (Simply put, not enough offensive weapons to top 3,000 yards.)

If two teams play at Madison Square Garden and no one is there to witness it, did the games actually occur?

That will be the quandary the Big East faces in 2014 if the league listens to the pleas of its basketball coaches and allows everyone into the conference tournament.

The Big East is convening this week in Florida and included in its crowded agenda, the conference is trying to hash out its future hoops tourneys. Next season it will actually shrink -- there will be 15 members of the Big East, but UConn, due to its APR punishment won’t be able to participate, so that’s a manageable 14-team membership.

But in 2014, the conference swells to 18 and the coaches already are pushing to
continue its all-inclusive tournament.

And so on Monday night, the Garden would swing open its doors to … SMU versus Central Florida and DePaul versus Houston for a play-in game.

Would they sell tickets for that or just give Larry Brown and Oliver Purnell sandwich boards and bells and let them hand out tickets to unsuspecting tourists strolling down 8^th Avenue?

We’re all crying uncle here, so please stop.

Big East basketball already has watered down its product to an unrecognizable glob of mush. Let’s not roll the tournament into the sewer, too.

We have endured the Tuesday night warm-up games for a few years now and while fans haven’t left putting needles in their eyes, they haven’t exactly been disappointed when the buzzer mercifully sounds.

But now we’re talking about actual play-in games. Chances are, you’ll see teams with abominable records whose only hope at the postseason is a national pandemic that afflicts only the top 100 basketball rosters in the country.

To paraphrase my friend, longtime Associated Press writer Jack Scheuer, it would be guaranteed VVVB hoops (very, very, very bad).

Worse, there is even a worry that the Garden might not be able to extend its commitment to Monday. The current contract does not give the league access until Tuesday and would consequently have to be renegotiated. If it couldn’t be, the games would have to be played somewhere in the New York area.

What in heavens’ name is the point of that?

A play-in game to make your conference tournament, played at some random outpost that looks like New York but isn’t quite New York.

They can call it the Hoboken Opening Round.

Coaches long have argued that teams deserve the right for the "full tournament experience" and that keeping people out of the Big East tournament only gives itchy trigger-fingered administrators cause to fire a coach who can’t get his team to New York.

Because finishing 18^th out of 18 apparently merits a pay raise.

Sorry, this isn’t pee-wee rec ball. Not everyone gets a trophy. Not everyone gets to play.

Besides, if you play a Big East tournament game and no one is there to see it, were you really there in the first place?

Baylor picked up a nationally televised road game with NCAA champion Kentucky, adding again to the Bears' solid schedule for the 2012-13 season. Bears coach Scott Drew said Baylor will also play at Gonzaga in a return game from two years ago in Dallas, and also will host Northwestern and BYU.

The Bears are one of the marquee teams in the Charleston Classic with Murray State, Colorado, St. John’s and Dayton. Auburn, Boston College and the College of Charleston are also in the field.

Baylor will get plenty of power-rating pop for this schedule, especially with the addition of Kentucky. No one should be surprised that the return game is in a neutral setting at Cowboys Stadium as part of a unique doubleheader with the schools' women's programs in December 2013.

Chris Low discusses the defensive playmakers who made their presence felt for Texas A&M this spring as the Aggies prepare for their first season in the SEC.

The Big 12 season is approaching, and there's no league in which the quarterback position is more important. Want success? Experience is a good place to start. How do the QBs rank in experience? Let's take a look.

1. Landry Jones, Oklahoma (37 starts): Jones is the league's elder statesman by a long, long ways. He took over as a redshirt freshman in 2009 when Sam Bradford injured his shoulder, and didn't miss any of his 27 starts in 2010 and 2011.

2. Geno Smith, West Virginia (26 starts): Smith has been the team's unquestioned starter for each of the past two seasons, and should be ready for a big 2012 after topping 4,000 yards in 2011.

3. Collin Klein, Kansas State (15 starts): Klein had two more starts at receiver earlier in his career, but we're not counting those. Klein was a gadget QB in 2010, but took over as the team's offensive workhorse in 2011, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the team's total offense.

4. Casey Pachall, TCU (13 starts): Pachall played well in his first year as a starter, but often relied on his three star running backs in the offense and didn't top 3,000 yards. He's ready for more responsibility if necessary this year.

5. Seth Doege, Texas Tech (13 starts): Doege earned one start all the way back in 2009, but ceded that spot by the end of the game. He did no such thing in a strong 2011 season, though Tech missed a bowl game and had a losing season (5-7) for the first time in almost two decades.

6. Dayne Crist, Kansas (10 starts): Crist's 10 starts all came at Notre Dame, but there doesn't look to be much challenge from any other QBs on the roster this season. Does he have the offensive weapons to be productive?

7. Nick Florence, Baylor (seven starts): Florence started seven games in 2009 when Robert Griffin III suffered a knee injury, and earned a half of playing time last season against Texas Tech that cost him his redshirt season.

8. Steele Jantz, Iowa State (seven starts): Jantz got off to a strong start, but never figured out his very serious turnover issues. That cost him his starting job in midseason, despite three fourth-quarter comebacks to begin the 2011 season 3-0.

9. David Ash, Texas (six starts): Ash was the fourth-string QB last summer, but when Garrett Gilbert and Connor Wood transferred, it was up to him and Case McCoy to carry the load. By season's end, Ash had established himself as the future at the position, at least immediately, but Texas' coaches haven't given him the official designation yet.

10. Jared Barnett, Iowa State (six starts): Barnett took over for Jantz in the middle of the season and engineered wins over Texas Tech, Kansas and a historic win over No. 2 Oklahoma State, but struggled with inconsistency late and opened up the competition to Jantz in a Pinstripe Bowl loss to Rutgers. There's no assurance for either to be the starter after the spring.

11. Case McCoy, Texas (five starts): McCoy's gutsiest performance came in a comeback win over Texas A&M, but his lack of arm strength limited what the Longhorns could do in 2011. McCoy's got all the heart you could ask for, but his physical attributes bring about plenty of questions about his ability to carry the team over the course of his career.

12. Wes Lunt, Oklahoma State (zero starts): Lunt shocked even his own offensive coordinator by beating out junior Clint Chelf and redshirt freshman J.W. Walsh in the spring to earn the starting job. He still has to validate that spot in the fall, but Lunt is in a class of his own at the bottom of the Big 12 when it comes to experience. He's a big, NFL-sized QB with a big arm, though. Can his mind catch up fast enough to help the Cowboys defend a Big 12 title?

College football guru Phil Steele is previewing his must-read offseason magazine, and with it, he's releasing his all-conference and All-America teams.

Here's who he slated as his first-team All-Big 12 squad:

OFFENSE

QB: Landry Jones, Oklahoma
RB: Joseph Randle, Oklahoma State
RB: Malcolm Brown, Texas
WR: Tavon Austin, West Virginia
WR: Kenny Stills, Oklahoma
WR: Stedman Bailey, West Virginia
TE: Jordan Najvar, Baylor
C: Ben Habern, Oklahoma
OL: Lane Taylor, Oklahoma State
OL: Gabe Ikard, Oklahoma
OL: LaAdrian Waddle, Texas Tech
OL: Cyril Richardson, Baylor

• I'd probably go with Geno Smith ahead of Jones, but it's close. You could definitely make a compelling case for both.
• I'd also lean more toward Terrance Williams at Baylor for that third receiver spot ahead of Stills. Stills' upside is still really high, but again, it's close between those two.
• Good grief, the tight end spot in the Big 12 is a rough. Navjar is a good selection. Travis Tannahill at Kansas State could grab that spot, too. You're almost better off picking a sixth offensive lineman or a fullback like Trey Millard at Oklahoma, who's more valuable than any of the league's tight ends.

DEFENSE

DL: Alex Okafor, Texas
DL: Stansly Maponga, TCU
DL: Jackson Jeffcoat, Texas
DL: Jamarkus McFarland, Oklahoma
LB: Jake Knott, Iowa State
LB: Tom Wort, Oklahoma
LB: A.J. Klein, Iowa State
LB: Arthur Brown, Kansas State
CB: Nigel Malone, Kansas State
CB: Brodrick Brown, Oklahoma State
S: Kenny Vaccaro, Texas
S: Tony Jefferson, Oklahoma

SPECIALISTS

P: Quinn Sharp, Oklahoma State
K: Quinn Sharp, Oklahoma State
PR: Tavon Austin, West Virginia
KR: Tyler Lockett, Kansas State

• No complaints among the specialists, but I'd definitely have kept a more traditional three linebackers. You could afford to leave Tom Wort off that list. Not so with the other three.
• After a sad group of cornerbacks in 2011, the position looks pretty loaded this year. There's no fewer than five guys in my book who deserve strong consideration and probably a spot on the first team. It's too bad there are only two spots. Clearly, Malone and Brown are deserving, but so are Justin Gilbert, Carrington Byndom and Quandre Diggs.
• Safeties are both loaded. Maybe two of the best defenders in the league.

Here's who Steele tabbed as All-Americans, too.

FIRST TEAM

• Alex Okafor, DE, Texas

SECOND TEAM

• Landry Jones, QB, Oklahoma
• Tavon Austin, WR, West Virginia
• Arthur Brown, LB, Kansas State
• Quinn Sharp, K, Oklahoma State

THIRD TEAM

• Kenny Stills, WR, Oklahoma
• Stedman Bailey, WR, West Virginia
• Lane Taylor, OL, Oklahoma State
• Quinn Sharp, P, Oklahoma State
• Tyler Lockett, KR, Kansas State

FOURTH TEAM

• Geno Smith, QB, West Virginia
• Joseph Randle, RB, Oklahoma State
• Terrance Williams, WR, Baylor
• Gabe Ikard, OL, Oklahoma
• Jackson Jeffcoat, DE, Texas
• A.J. Klein, LB, Iowa State
• Tony Jefferson, S, Oklahoma
• Tavon Austin, KR, West Virginia

Texas will be starting from around the top 20 this season, and is coming off an eight-win season, but are the Longhorns a BCS title contender?

We're breaking down 20 teams' chances this year, and the Longhorns are first on the list.

The knee-jerk reaction to the Longhorns' chances is no, but I recall a team all the way back in 1999 that went 7-5 and all of a sudden, racked up a 13-0 record the following year to win a national title.

Texans, you may have heard of them. Most refer to them as the "Sooners."

But what about Texas? Let's dig in.

The first reason Texas could win it: A defense that could be "truly elite."

Seven of 11 starters are back on what was the No. 11 defense nationally in 2011. In fact, for a five-game stretch of the schedule from Kansas through Texas A&M, only Alabama and LSU proved to be tougher when it came to yielding yards than Texas. The Horns were by many metrics the best defense in the Big 12 over the course of the season, and they ranked second in Football Outsiders' defensive efficiency numbers, behind only Oklahoma State.

Like the Tide and the Tigers, only twice did the Longhorns allow a touchdown pass of 20 or more yards. For Texas, both came against Baylor in the final regular-season game, with defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat playing sparingly due to a shoulder injury that would eventually require surgery.

The other reason? The running game could be one of the nation's best.

There's no escaping the biggest reason why Texas may not win the title: quarterback play.

For Texas to win in 2012, the quarterback play has to provide at least a modicum of production. Game management has become the catch phrase among the coaches, especially given the potential of the team's running game (for more on that, see above). Similar to 2011, they will run the ball on at least 65 percent of their plays in order to showcase this talent and hide the aforementioned deficiency.

Here's the good news: While still not having the confidence to name Ash the starter, the coaching staff has praised the rising sophomore's understanding of the offense as well as his increased maturity in the pocket. Ash no longer throws the ball just for the purpose of throwing it, but instead throws it with purpose. Couple that with an increased awareness of when to throw the ball away and Texas believes it might have a quarterback who can manage the game.

The piece from Carter Strickland and Football Outsiders' Brian Fremeau takes a long look at some advanced statistics, and I'd encourage you all to give it a read.

Do that before you answer the question I pose to you: Is Texas a BCS title contender?

Expansion talk is really heating up for the Big 12 with reports that Florida State is knocking on the door, as is ACC partner Clemson.

PODCAST
Ivan Maisel and Beano Cook discuss big news happening in the Big 12, including possible expansion. Listen

On Wednesday morning in Lubbock, TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte clued in, perhaps rather inadvertently, about 200 Red Raiders fans at a breakfast event called Committee for Champions, that Miami might also be up to some relocation reconnaissance with an eye on the Big 12. Of course, TCU and West Virginia join the league this year to keep it at 10 teams with the departures of Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC.

This bit of news came via Chris Level, a talk radio show host in Lubbock who tweeted Del Conte's comments this morning. The Frogs' AD said that the Big 12 -- which not too long ago was on life support -- now has schools like FSU, Clemson and Miami trying to get in.

A TCU spokesman said the context of Del Conte's comments were in reference to the recent rumor-mill activity and that this time around teams are not wanting to depart the league but rather join it. The spokesman said in no way was Del Conte confirming any such interest from any particular school or schools.

The Big 12 added clout to its name in recent days when it dropped a blockbuster on the college football scene with the announcement of a partnership with the SEC for the two conference's football champs to play in an annual bowl game starting after the 2014 when a four-team playoff is expected to replace the current BCS.

Conference power brokers such as Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds have remained consistent in suggesting the preference is to remain a 10-team conference (all the fewer schools to share the TV money pie). Incoming commissioner Bob Bowlsby has said that he will remain vigilant when it comes to expansion but won't rush it.

It certainly does appear that the Big 12, twice left for dead, is back in a power position and could soon have difficult choices to make as to the size of their league and the members they want.