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Ivan Maisel and Gene Wojciechowski debate whether the bowls or a playoff system is the way to go.

Good to see a handful of Big 12 names called in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday night.

What did I think? Glad you asked.

• No surprises in the top two picks, which have both been essentially in the can for weeks. A nice touch by Robert Griffin III with the Redskins socks, but the slogan seemed a little cheesy. Cheesy or not, it's true. Griffin and 31 other gifted athletes caught their dreams on Thursday night. Congratulations to all. Reaching this point isn't easy, even for the most physically gifted players.

2012 NFL Draft

Rd. 1: April 26, 8 p.m. ET
Rd. 2-3: April 27, 7 p.m. ET
Rd. 4-7: April 28, Noon ET
Radio City Music Hall
New York City
Draft order | Draft home

•  Mel Kiper's latest mock
•  Todd McShay's latest mock
•  Mel Kiper's Big Board
•  Todd McShay's Top 32
•  Blog Network mock draft 2.0
•  Draft Machine

• Well, it looked like Justin Blackmon would catch passes from one former Big 12 rival quarterback (Sam Bradford, St. Louis), but instead, he may do it for another. Former Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert gets a much-needed target, but he'll have to re-earn his job after an awful rookie season. St. Louis seemed like a better fit for Blackmon, rather than the Jaguars, but Blackmon's a true game-changer in my book. I think he'll have an effect wherever he goes.
• Miami got its man in Ryan Tannehill. For as much talk as his inflated draft stock has gotten in the past few weeks, this looked pretty likely. Now, we'll see him in action. Like most others, I love Tannehill's upside. With some experience, he could be great. But he needs time. He wasn't outstanding in college, and he's obviously inexperienced at the quarterback position. There are zero questions from me about his physical skills, but I like the chances for his decision-making -- which had major, major issues in 2011 -- to improve if he gets lots of practice reps rather than being thrown in the fire immediately.
• Sheesh, WVU. Y'all got on me for saying you wouldn't have a first-rounder in this post, but it was mostly a throwaway phrase, not a prediction. Most places I'd read had Bruce Irvin as a second- or third-rounder. I obviously didn't see him play much, and don't really have any thoughts on his play. But it's not like I was knocking it, either. I don't exactly keep track of the draft stock of players I never really saw play. Sorry about that. When it's things I'm truly covering, I pay attention. Well, most of the time, anyway. Or something. Either way, my mistake on that one.
• What a great spot in Tennessee for Kendall Wright. I'm not sure I could ever see him carrying an NFL offense, but Wright's good enough to work underneath and stretch the field. I don't buy him much as a game-breaker against No. 1 corners all season, but in a supporting role? Huge, huge pickup for the Titans. As he matures, he may just prove himself as a true No. 1 receiver. His size is the biggest question for me, but he's got great hands and great speed. I just might draft Wright as a late-round sleeper in my fantasy draft next fall.


Which quarterback will have the better NFL career?

•  
  44%
  Ryan Tannehill (No. 8 to Dolphins)
•  
  56%
  Brandon Weeden (No. 22 to Browns)

(Total votes: 102,279)

• Huge congrats to Brandon Weeden, too. The guy deserved it. There's no question in my mind he's a first-round talent and a guy who could be a star at the next level. Not many people gave him a chance to be a first-round pick, but I think the more teams saw of him on and off the field, the more they fell in love with him. It's not hard to see why. The age issue probably would have made me wait until the second round to take him, but if he succeeds, nobody will care. Props to Weeden for handling the age issue so well the past two years. Dude's been asked about it no less than 50,000 times, and he always seemed to handle it with grace. Not sure I could do that. I don't know what his career holds, and it's going to be difficult in Cleveland without many offensive weapons around him, but he's a smart, good decision maker with a humongous arm. That's plenty enough to make an impact.

The race was close, but not too close to call.

Wes Lunt will enter fall camp as Oklahoma State's starting quarterback, coach Mike Gundy announced Thursday. The true freshman enrolled early and outgunned redshirt freshman J.W. Walsh and junior Clint Chelf to earn the gig.

From our news story:

Illinois native Lunt, a 6-foot-4, 211-pound traditional passer, enrolled early this spring and outdueled his more experienced competition to win the job, coach Mike Gundy announced Thursday.

Lunt will be the first true freshman starter for Oklahoma State since Tone Jones in 1993, and no true freshman has ever started a season opener.

"We had to make a decision based on what we thought was best for our offense to score points and then give us the best chance to win football games," Gundy said in a statement. "All three players had good springs, but at some point the decision is made on the field. There's always a comment about who coaches are going to name as the starter at any position, but the coaches usually don't make that decision -- the decision is made by the players. Wes performed better than the other two quarterbacks in the spring."

Said Lunt: "I'm overwhelmed. It's such a humbling experience. Coming in early, I knew I had a chance to compete for the job, and to get it is just overwhelming. I know that we're still going to compete through summer and two-a-days, so it's not over."

It's not a huge surprise. This thing was close. Worth noting: Walsh was recruited by former offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, and Chelf was a hometown kid.

Lunt, though? He's the only Illinois player on Oklahoma State's roster, and second-year coordinator Todd Monken went out and got his man. Once his man got on campus, Lunt delivered. Now, he's being rewarded, and it's time to develop him.

Oklahoma State won't be perfect next season, but oh my, will the Cowboys be fun to watch.

Additionally, the Pokes go from a 28-year-old starter who graduated high school in 2002, to an 18-year-old starter who technically hasn't walked at his own high school graduation yet. That's quite a jump, but Lunt's even temper was similar to Brandon Weeden's, and was a trait that no doubt aided him in winning the job.

This race isn't completely over yet, but Lunt can change that quick by validating his status as a leader over the summer and showing up and practicing strong come fall camp.

STILLWATER, Okla. -- Wednesday morning, Oklahoma State's coaches met, but at no point during the day did smoke of any color drift from above Boone Pickens Stadium, signifying that the torch had been passed from record-setting quarterback Brandon Weeden to his successor.

Nowhere inside the stadium did Pickens tap a fresh-faced quarterback on each shoulder with his orange scepter, designating him as the face of the program Pickens has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into.

Well, not yet, anyway.

The decision might still come later this week. It might not. Either way, the delay says plenty. The target date of naming a starter by the end of spring has passed. Oklahoma State held its spring game Saturday.

"If we don’t know, then we won’t do it. But if we know, then we’ll certainly do it," coach Mike Gundy told ESPN.com in a recent interview. "That’s as important as anything we'll do in the offseason."

Gundy wants his new quarterback to spearhead offseason workouts and entrench himself as the guy his teammates follow. He can place deadlines on the decision all he wants, but ultimately, junior Clint Chelf, redshirt freshman J.W. Walsh and true freshman Wes Lunt will make the decision on the field.

"It’d be nice to have a starter named by the summer, but you’d better be in that position where you know for sure," Cowboys offensive coordinator Todd Monken said. "You wouldn’t want guys to be bummed all summer and not work as hard, and then one week into fall camp be like, did we screw that up?

"You want it to be done if you know, but if you don’t know?"

That's where Oklahoma State finds itself today. Do OSU's coaches know? Lunt, Walsh and Chelf didn't make it easy on them through 15 practices this spring.

Each received an equal share of work with the first team, and Monken says that's all that can truly be evaluated when making the decision. The second-team offense -- namely receivers and offensive line -- aren't good enough yet to provide a reliable measuring stick.

None of the three signal-callers fell behind enough to redistribute reps to the top two and thus allow the coaches a larger sample; giving players too many reps with a lesser supporting cast could be a fatal blow to the trait Monken and Gundy want most: confidence.

"We’ve got to continue to play well around these guys and allow them to function, because none of them right now are capable of carrying us themselves. We don’t have that guy right now. He’s not here right now," Monken said. "Maybe he will be, but right now, he’s not."

Monken's not exactly sweating. He had a guy who could do it last year in Weeden, but looking around college football, he knows few teams have a quarterback who can truly carry a team.

"It didn’t take long when ol’ (Oklahoma receiver Ryan) Broyles went down and (OU) started running the dozer to think, 'Do we have our guy?' That didn’t take long," Monken said. "Landry Jones went from like, 'I’m the man,' to all of a sudden, 'I haven’t thrown a touchdown pass, I'm fumbling it over my head at Oklahoma State. I gotta go back and see my quarterback guru.'"

There's no doubt Oklahoma State's coaches have pored over hours of tape from all three candidates in the past few weeks and months. Still, there's no resolution.

"They’re all doing really good," Monken said. "They wouldn’t say that, as much as I yell at them, but they’ve all done better than I thought they’d do for where they’re at."

Walsh has improved his mechanics. Chelf has proved his status as the group's elder statesman and embraced a role as a leader. Lunt has done his best to figure out what is going on and showcase his status as the quarterback with the most traditional build and arm strength.

Some of what coaches want, though, can't show up on game tape.

"The biggest thing is that the cats around him believe in him," Monken said.

Weeden is gone. Oklahoma State doesn't have a quarterback who exudes greatness. Yet, anyway. It does have three good ones, though, and even with a decision looming, Monken isn't all that nervous.

"You can go from a guy who makes everybody look a lot better to guys we’ve got to help out a little bit. But they’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Winning and losing this year won’t be a matter of whether we find a quarterback or not," Monken said. "It’ll be, will we stay healthy with the guys we have and the depth that we have. That’ll be the big thing. The guys will play well around whoever we have."

STILLWATER, Okla. -- The similarities? Well, they're almost too uncanny.

A record-setting quarterback? Gone.

The best receiver in school history? Gone.

And that was in the spring of 2010.

Dez Bryant took a trek south after being drafted in the first round by the Dallas Cowboys. Zac Robinson took his ball and left for the NFL, too.

In the fall, Mike Gundy's Oklahoma State squad was picked to finish fifth out of six teams in something called the Big 12 South.

Instead, the Cowboys won 11 games for the first time, coming a defensive stop or two away from knocking off Oklahoma and playing for the Big 12 title, which also would have been unprecedented for the program.

There are more new faces in the spring of 2012. Could Oklahoma State overachieve again?

"I feel like it’s kind of the same. Gundy said that spring we were so good because we were scared," said sixth-year offensive lineman Jonathan Rush. "I wouldn’t exactly agree that we were scared, but I feel that urgency."

How could he not? Two-time All-Big 12 first-team quarterback Brandon Weeden is headed to the NFL. Two-time Biletnikoff Award winner Justin Blackmon is likely to hear his name called in the top 10 of tonight's first round of the NFL draft.

Oklahoma State's 23 victories in the past two years were the highest total of any two-year period in school history, and Weeden and Blackmon were the two biggest pieces of a team that captured the Cowboy's first Big 12 title.

"It’s real similar, except Weeden was an older guy. Weeden was 26 years old or however old he was back then," Gundy said.

Now, Oklahoma State is left to rely on three inexperienced quarterbacks without the minor league baseball experience that helped shape Weeden's even-tempered demeanor.

The similarities don't end at what's gone, either.

"We’ve got good running backs, good receivers and we’ll be as good on the offensive line as we’ve been," Gundy said.

All-American Kendall Hunter helped carry the 2010 team with a 1,500-yard season, the second of his career. In 2012, Joseph Randle is ready to carry the offense after rushing for 1,200 yards and 24 touchdowns in 2011. Jeremy Smith and Herschel Sims fill out the rest of the Pokes' deepest unit, which also features a fourth underrated, powerful runner in Desmond Roland.

"We’re further along on defense, because we recruited well the '09, '10, '11 and '12 seasons, so we’re further along athletically," Gundy said. "But offensively, it’s about the same."

Gundy is entering his eighth season in Stillwater this fall. In 2010, he credited a system that had been drilled into players for the surprising success. Knowing what was expected helped to soothe some of the growing pains new players would experience in a new system.

That's been drilled only deeper into this year's squad.

"They realize what they have to do personally. How to practice. They realize those things that are essential to be a good team. You have to work hard, show up on time. It’s not even so much a big thing," Rush said of the team's younger players. "They realize how essential little things are. Working hard, not quitting. Finishing."

Said receiver Isaiah Anderson: "I feel like we have a lot more leaders now than people know. It’s not just up to the seniors to lead. The young guys can step in and lead if they need to."

The biggest talents are gone. This year, OSU won't be picked near the bottom of the Big 12. Instead, it will be near the bottom of the top 25.

With the spotlight on teams above OSU, will 2012 be yet another Stillwater surprise for the Big 12?

"Be on the lookout, but they know we’re coming now," Anderson said. "We all know what it takes to get there and willing to do what it takes to get there again."

West Virginia ran away with our poll on the Big 12's best offense, but what about the other side of the ball?

Who will have the Big 12's best defense? Let's look at the real candidates.

Texas

The Longhorns have led the Big 12 in total defense in each of the past four seasons, and coordinator Manny Diaz has a great unit coming back in 2012. Linebackers Keenan Robinson and Emmanuel Acho are gone, but cornerbacks Carrington Byndom and Quandre Diggs might be the best and second-best in the entire Big 12. Pass-rushers Alex Okafor and Jackson Jeffcoat provide a unit well-equipped to slow the league's best offenses.

Kansas State

Bill Snyder's unit has lots of raw talent and brings back seven starters from a defense that ranked fifth in the Big 12 last season. Linebacker Arthur Brown holds it all together in the middle, but cornerback Nigel Malone could emerge as the Big 12's best by season's end. Fellow defensive back Ty Zimmerman and linebacker Tre Walker are both very underrated.

TCU

TCU had a rough 2011 season, and lost former All-American Tanner Brock before the season when he was arrested in a campus drug sting. The Horned Frogs have a tried and true defensive system, though, and safeties coach Chad Glasgow returns after a season at Texas Tech. Under coach Gary Patterson, the Horned Frogs led the nation in total defense in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Oklahoma State

The Cowboys came under fire last year under the national microscope, but OSU still forced 44 turnovers in 13 games, six more than any team in all of college football. Eight starters return, including an outstanding cornerback duo in Justin Gilbert and Brodrick Brown. Linebacker Shaun Lewis could be due for a breakout season, too. There are some questions on the defensive line, but Alex Elkins and Caleb Lavey fill out a strong set of linebackers.

Oklahoma

The Sooners' back line caught a lot of criticism last season, but Mike Stoops is back, 11 years after helping carry Oklahoma to its seventh national title, pitching a shutout of Florida State in the 2001 Orange Bowl. He'll help revitalize the secondary in Norman, and has plenty of talent at his disposal to do so, highlighted by Tony Jefferson, who looks like he's found a home at the traditional safety spot after spending two seasons as nickelback. Corey Nelson and Tom Wort give the Sooners one of the best sets of linebackers in the league.

So, who are you taking?

Rachel Nichols breaks down the chances that the Dolphins use their first-round pick, No. 8 overall, on Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

By now, TCU's heard it all on the recruiting trail.

You can't win there.

Sure, they win games, but you'll never reach the BCS.

Well, you reached the BCS once, but you can't get there consistently. You're not in a major conference. If you don't win every game, you can't play on the big stage.

By now, it's gotten old. They have won. They have reached the BCS. Now they are preparing for their first season in the Big 12, certainly a major conference.

There's still one big mountain to tackle, says coach Gary Patterson.

"We were really recruiting against these teams for those kinds of players a year ago. The saying out there, ‘Well, they aren’t in the Big 12’ was one thing we dealt with. Now, it’s ‘Can they win in the Big 12?’" he said during this week's Big 12 coaches teleconference. "So I think once we can prove we can win in the Big 12, you’ll see a big change in how we do things."

TCU has won 77 games in the past seven seasons and duplicating that will be difficult in their new conference. But the Horned Frogs now have the draw of being the Big 12's only team in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex -- one of the nation's premiere recruiting hotbeds.

Playing in a major conference and truly staying at home has never been an option for these elite talents. Until now.

While the team will have to weather the transition to start reeling the recruits in from other Big 12 powers, Patterson's the man to help guide the Horned Frogs.

"I’ve been in six conference in the 15 years I’ve been here," he said. "It’s always different because you’ve never played those people. I’ve always said it takes you two years. You’ve got to play everybody there once, then you play everybody back at your place once, and you kind of have a little map of what you need to do."

TCU has a history with Big 12 members Texas, Texas Tech and Baylor. They joined the Horned Frogs in the Southwest Conference that broke up in the mid-1990s.

But even since the breakup, TCU has made trips to several Big 12 sites. The Horned Frogs are one of just three teams to beat Oklahoma in Norman under Bob Stoops (2005), and TCU won its last meeting with Texas Tech in 2006.

In 2010, it romped the bowl-bound Baylor Bears before losing a nailbiter to Heisman winner Robert Griffin III in Waco in 2011.

TCU's also 3-0 against Iowa State, with all three games coming since 1995.

"We’ll find out, but we do have some history. We have played at some of those places, but not consistently," Patterson said. "We’ve got to get ready to go."

Heisman winner and presumptive second overall pick Robert Griffin III sits down with E:60’s Rachel Nichols before the NFL Draft. RG3 comes to New York City on the cusp of the next great step in an already storied list of accomplishments.

Baylor's Robert Griffin III joins Mike and Mike to discuss the upcoming NFL draft and being the likely No. 2 overall pick.

Next Monday, start the countdown.

Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas will have two months left as the boss of a league that's seen plenty of tumultuous times over the past two years.

"We were kind of saved by the bell by Chuck Neinas. He kept it going in terms of getting us on the right track and getting everybody involved, all the teams in the conference," Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said during the Big 12 coaches teleconference this week. "We had lost two teams each of the last two years, which has been devastating to this league, but with Chuck’s leadership, it’s come on pretty good."

TCU and West Virginia replaced Texas A&M and Missouri to bring the Big 12 back to 10 members, but now it's Neinas who must be replaced.

He agreed to stay on in an interim role through June 30, but his replacement could be named before then. What do the league's coaches want to see?

"The answer is very obvious. You’d like to have a good person. You’d like to have a very honest, forthright person, with a balance in how he operates the conference itself, with the idea that everybody is treated equally and what he would do would be in the very, very best interest of the 10-12 teams that would make up the conference itself," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said. "Somebody that’s highly respected across the country and well-known across the country as well, has a reputation that would be very, very prominent as it relates to conference commissioners across the country."

For Tuberville, the new guy needs experience.

"Hopefully we get a strong-personality guy that can work with everybody, put their touch on it, somebody with experience, somebody that has maybe been a commissioner or a deputy commissioner for one of the other leagues," Tuberville said. "I think experience is going to be key for us, somebody that’s been there, done that, seen all the problems. It’s no different than coaching a football team in that experience usually pays off for you."

He added: "We’ve obviously had some setbacks the past few years, if we can get somebody who understands our league, maybe somebody from another conference looking from the outside in, understanding what’s going on and bringing their philosophy in would really help us."

For Texas coach Mack Brown, it's simple: He wants someone who can maintain stability, and unity is the first way to help establish it.

"We’ve been through so much turmoil over the past two years in the Big 12. I think what I would like to see is stability. I’d like to see someone come with confidence and new ideas and making sure that it sounds like our league is really stable at 10. I know some are looking at the possibility of 12," he said. "I’d like to see somebody who can really lead the group and get everybody on the same page, because it’s a wonderful conference. I love the additions that we’ve made, and I think it can be again, one of the top conferences in the country because the teams are all winning. But you gotta have a boss."

For the second consecutive year, the Big 12 is beginning play with an all-new lineup.

For the second consecutive year, the Big 12 is beginning play with just 10 teams.

Perhaps most importantly, it's beginning with no Big 12 Championship game. The Big 12 lucked out in 2011 on the season's final weekend.

Who said there was no Big 12 Championship? Oklahoma and Oklahoma State played for the Big 12 title and a trip to the Fiesta Bowl on Championship weekend, providing a fitting end while the SEC played its title game and the Big Ten and Pac-12 held their inaugural games.

Oklahoma State romped and stated its case for the national title game, though the Cowboys fell short.

Now, 2012 is a new year, and a new risk befalls the 10-team Big 12: Can it survive in college football's new world without a title game?

Expanding to 12 teams is a possibility, but not a necessity for the league to reinstitute a title game. The Big 12 could petition the NCAA and likely bring back the event on the season's final weekend, the same weekend the league hosted from the time it began in 1996 until 2010.

There's little motivation to do so from those who tend most to on-field matters: Coaches. At least one expressed a desire on Monday, though.

"I would like too see us add a couple more in the future to get us back to 12 and a conference championship game," Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. "But who’s out there?"Everyone is kind of scrambling around trying to fill it up."

The biggest motivator, though, is the same as always: Money.

Former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe convinced ABC/ESPN to honor its contract with the Big 12 in the summer of 2010, despite doing away with the Big 12 title game.

A new first-tier TV deal will likely be signed in 2014, the same year that -- gasp! -- college football could be entering a world with a four-team playoff.

Is there any doubt a new Big 12 television contract would be more valuable with the promise of a titanic clash at season's end?

By 2014, the Big 12 would join the Big East as the only major conference without a national championship game, and even that's no guarantee, with the Big East eyeing wholesale expansion and perhaps doubling the size of its league.

Perception is reality, and perception would claim the Big 12 was behind the times. The Big 12 could earn more cash with a Big 12 title game, but the respect from re-instituting it would come with a hefty price of its own.

A Big 12 team has never been thrust into the national title game, but on three occasions, Big 12 teams have lost the conference's title game when a win would have landed them in the national championship.

The Big 12 played for the title seven times, second only to the SEC's nine, but four more appearances than any other league.

Without a Big 12 title game, the Big 12 could have earned back some of that money with conference revenue from an appearance on college football's biggest stage.

Bring back the title game, though? Especially in a world with a four-team playoff?

Big 12 teams would be asked to win three games in addition to a 12-game schedule, after a Big 12 title game, national semifinal and national championship.

That's not easy.

Without divisions like the other leagues with title games, deciding the two participants for the game wouldn't be easy, either.

For now, the Big 12 will move on with 10 teams and no title game. Want to bring it back?

When the new commissioner arrives and a television contract is pieced together, prepare for plenty of debate.

The BCS brass -- aka conference commissioners -- are set to meet again this week to discuss the future of college football's postseason. On Monday, several Big 12 coaches took a swipe with their input on what, if any, changes should be ushered into the game.

Last year's SEC rematch in the BCS Championship Game -- and Oklahoma State's snubbing -- rubbed plenty of folks the wrong way, and Texas coach Mack Brown was the most adamant about bringing change. He's not sure what he wants, he just wants something else.

"I'm hoping it's something different than what we've got now. I'm not really sure what I think would be best," Brown said on Monday's Big 12 coaches teleconference.

For now, it looks like all eight- and 16-team playoff options are off the table, but the BCS as it currently stands had Brown fired up.

"I don't like our current system. I don't like the fact that last year two teams played twice. I do not feel like the BCS really gives credence to, really, strength of schedule," he said. "We've had some teams play in the BCS that played some poorer teams and still had an opportunity to play. I don't like the fact that we compete between BCS and non-BCS, as far as who plays. I understand that that's the money cycle, but I'd rather see the best teams play at the end."

TCU, who will join the Big 12 in 2012, went undefeated in 2010 and beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl but was denied a chance at playing fellow undefeated Auburn, which took home the national title.

"I'd rather have different means to evaluate the best teams in the end," Brown said. "I think the best teams should play at the end. That's more fair to the coaches, that's more fair to the players and that's more fair to the fans."

One problem for some in the process? Nobody can seem to agree on what to call a new postseason, even if it's four teams playing for the right to be called champion.

"I'm not for a playoff, because it would ruin the bowl system, and I don't believe it would be good for student-athletes," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.

However, later on, he expressed his preference for the plus-one, which could just as easily be referred to as a playoff.

"I'd like to see the plus-one," he said. "If they do so, I'd like to see the four teams that qualify as the per se 'playoff teams' participate in two of the BCS bowls and then rotate it every two years, which bowls are hosting the playoff teams and which ones aren't, and then the plus-one after it."

Stoops often looks back fondly on his bowl week experiences as a defensive back at Iowa and doesn't want to rob future players of a week in the sun during winter with light practices, red-carpet treatment and a week spent solely with teammates.

"Anything that eliminates the bowls would in the long run not be positive for college football," Stoops said.

As for the elder statesman of the Big 12 coaches, Bill Snyder? He's staying out of the argument.

"I don’t have any startling estimations in regards to what will happen and don’t really have any major preference as far as playoff versus the system," Snyder said. "I can’t imagine it’s getting into an eight or 16-team playoff."

SMU introduced Larry Brown as its new basketball coach Monday. Read more here.

I've been inspired by the boys at the Big Ten Blog, and this should be a fun walk-through each week in the new-look Big 12 next season. I'll pick one game a week during the season that I'd attend if it were entirely up to me. I don't make the call, and things change as games are played, of course. But right now, this is how it would look if it were up to me. I'll include road nonconference games, too.

• Week 1: West Virginia vs. Marshall
• Week 2: Kansas State vs. Miami
• Week 3: Texas at Ole Miss
• Week 4: Kansas State at Oklahoma
• Week 5: Texas at Oklahoma State
• Week 6: West Virginia at Texas
• Week 7: Oklahoma vs. Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas
• Week 8: Kansas State at West Virginia

Here's the Week 9 slate in the Big 12:

• Texas Tech at Kansas State
• Texas at Kansas
• TCU at Oklahoma State
• Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma
• Baylor at Iowa State

My pick: Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma

My apologies to TCU at Oklahoma State here, which may have some serious implications to the Big 12 title race. With Brian Kelly and the Irish in town, it seems a fitting week to make my second trip to Norman.

Expectations are low for Notre Dame this year, but the history with this game will be too much fun to ignore. Believe it or not, Oklahoma's never beaten Notre Dame at home, and is 1-8 all time vs. the Irish. Remember that 47-game winning streak from Bud Wilkinson's teams between 1953 and 1957? Well, the Irish ended it with a 7-0 win in 1957.

Before that, who was the last team to knock out the Sooners? Well, the Irish of course, with a 28-21 win over the Sooners in the 1953 season opener.

Crazy stuff. Nothing quite like two of the game's best helmets and best uniforms going head to head for four hours. Notre Dame won't be scary this year, but kudos to Oklahoma for putting together a tough nonconference schedule. Nobody schedules as difficult as the Sooners, and that's to be commended.

The Sooners, though, made their one win against the Irish count. A 40-0 win in 1956 still stands as the most lopsided home defeat in Notre Dame history.

Too much history here to ignore.