Transcript Staff Writer

The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University football teams today will meet for the 100th time.

That's a century of bedlam on the gridiron, and the rivalry has been one-sided. The Sooners lead the series 76-16-7, and they trounce the Cowboys in all-time wins (752 to 476), conference championships (38 to nine) and national titles (seven-zip).

But bragging rights between the universities extend well beyond the playing field. OU proudly calls itself the flagship university of Oklahoma, whereas OSU proclaims itself "the STATE's university."

Both institutions are eager to have everyone in Oklahoma and beyond know about what they have to offer.

"Our new tag line, 'The STATE's university,' has really caught on," OSU President David Schmidly said last month in fall convocation remarks, "and it has become a key component of the new strategic initiative to capture and convey OSU's leadership as our state's land-grant university."

And in an open letter on OU's Web site, President David Boren writes, "The University of Oklahoma is truly a great university. It is becoming a pacesetter for public higher education in the United States. ... It's time for us to let others know about the strengths of our university and our determination to make it better."

So how do the state's titans of higher education really stack up? What does the tale of the tape say?

Campuses: OSU five, OU has three.

OU campuses are in Norman, Tulsa and the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. OU-Tulsa offers classes from programs based in Norman and the HSC.

OSU has campuses in Stillwater, Oklahoma City, Okmulgee and two in Tulsa -- OSU-Tulsa and the Center for Health Sciences. The Oklahoma City campus is primarily a community college and Okmulgee is a career technology center. OSU also runs agricultural extension offices in all 77 counties in Oklahoma.

Enrollment: Cowboys in a slight edge.

OU's enrollment on all campuses was 31,134 in 2004 and stands at 23,910 this semester on the Norman campus. The entire OSU system currently has 32,721 students, its highest ever.

Big-time freshmen: Slight edge slides back to Norman.

OU ranks first among public universities per capita in National Merit scholars, with a current enrollment of nearly 700 including 147 among this year's freshmen. And with an adjusted ACT (SAT scores factored into ACT results) of 25.8, this year's OU freshmen have the highest college entrance score average of any incoming class in state history. The pure ACT average is 25.5 at OU, 24.6 at OSU.

However, OSU continues to lead Oklahoma universities in high school valedictorians (1,154) and 27 percent of its freshmen graduated among the top 10 percent of their high school class.

Campus improvements: Remains under review.

OSU will make at least $150 million in capital improvements over the next four to five years, headed by the $70 million OSU Science and Technology Research Center that will increase the university's research space by 20 percent.

The south research campus off Jenkins Avenue will produce a similar boon for OU. It's already started with the Stephenson Research and Techonology Center and One Partners Place for private-sector businesses, and will grow with the $67 million National Weather Center set to open early next year and a new chemistry building.

Overall, though, OU is in the midst of $700 million of renovations and new construction over a five-year period. Much of that money has or will come from private giving, which has exceeded $1 billion over the past decade. Meanwhile, more than $500 million in public and private donations and research grants over the past three years have and will upgrade the OSU campus in many areas.

Libraries: Advantage OU, though OSU also has reason to boast.

OU libraries have almost 4 million volumes, including more than 50 books that are more than 500 years old. OU also has more than 1.6 million photographs, 1.5 million maps and has been a government document depository since 1893.

OSU counters with nearly 2.6 million volumes and 1.4 million government documents, along with 4.5 million microforms and a whopping 96,500 print and electronic periodicals.

Miscellaneous: Up for grabs in many, many areas. Here's a sampling:

OU has not one, but two of the better university-based museums in the nation with the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art -- home of the largest French Impressionist painting collection at a university -- and the 195,000-square-foot Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and its thousands of exhibits.

Though OU dominates the rivalry in football, OSU has won 45 team national championships in other sports. The university also claims to be an economic winner for the state by creating more than 9,500 jobs and making a $2.5 billion impact on the state economy.

Thus, today will settle football bragging rights between the schools -- at least over the next 12 months. But the debate over which university is better will rage on, probably for at least the next 100 years.

James S. Tyree 366-3539 jtyree@normantranscript.com