Sooners have a lot on the line

John Shinn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The string is impressive any way it’s measured. Since 2000, Oklahoma has represented the Big 12 South in the conference’s championship game six times. No other conference team reached that level more than three times in the Big 12’s 13-year history.

If the fourth-ranked Sooners (11-1) manage to get past No. 20 Missouri (9-3), which they are heavily favored to do, it will be their fifth conference title. No one else has more than two.

Anyone who’s anyone has tried to put a finger on why the Sooners have shown the ability to peak on the first Saturday in December so often. Minus the stunning loss to Kansas State in 2003, it’s hard to argue OU hasn’t been at its best when the conference trophy was up for grabs.

OU coach Bob Stoops gave a simple explanation Friday afternoon. It’s the key to unlocking everything.

“You can come into this game in a lot of different ways,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “It’s like I said other years whether we’ve been undefeated or not, you have nothing without this game. Regardless of what your record may be in the conference, you have to win this game to be presented the trophy. That’s who the Big 12 champion is.

“I think our guys have done a really good job of focusing on that regardless of what you’ve done to this point, this is what matters.”

It matters at 7 tonight at Arrowhead Stadium because a victory likely secures a trip to the BCS title game. This is OU’s last chance to prove the commentators wrong and provide a final argument its inclusion in the this game instead of Texas or Texas Tech was justified.

The debate of which team should represent the Big 12 south was the biggest topic in sports over the last week. It’s been debated from coast-to-coast in almost every form imaginable.

“They picked us, so they’ve given us the opportunity and we have to take advantage,” defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said. “We’re not worried about what everybody is saying and all those different things. We’re just going to go out there to try to get a big win.”

Nothing more, nothing less. Perhaps that’s why the Sooners have been so dominant in the Big 12 title game. It’s put an emphasis on getting to and winning this game every year.

After suffering a fourth straight BCS bowl loss last season, the idea was floated that perhaps OU’s put too much stress on winning the conference title and not enough on finishing the season with a bowl victory.

Coaches talked about it, so did the players.

In the end, the goals stayed the same.

They all started with doing what it took to play in this game and doing what it takes to win it. What follows is icing on the cake. It just so happens that the frosting is as sweet as it gets.

“Last year, a two-loss team got to the national championship game and anything can happen when you go week-in and week-out,” wide receiver Juaquin Iglesias said. “Our goals have never changed. They were always to win a Big 12 championship first and then whatever happened after that, we just wanted to go out there and win games.”

It’s been four years since the Sooners had so much riding on a conference title game. But if every there’s a game where they should be comfortable with all the chips being on the table, it should be the Big 12 championship game.

“In the end, what you do Saturday is all that matters,” Stoops said.

John Shinn

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jshinn@normantranscript.com