You thought there’d be a Gundy joke here, didn’t you?

By Tim Cottrell
Sports Writer/Designer
Published: November 29, 2008

The defender of children and his merry band of surprisingly good Oklahoma State Cowboys will host the best team in the country for my money, the Oklahoma Sooners, tonight.

On paper, even with how good Oklahoma State is (and rest assured, they are pretty good) Oklahoma should win this game by 14-24 points.

But, things could get a bit weird in Stillwater, and I’m not talking about T. Boone Pickens.

Here are a few things we know:

* Earlier this decade Oklahoma twice blew national title chances with embarrassing losses to Oklahoma State (when blog favorite Les Miles was coaching the Cowboys, no less). In 2001 OSU was pretty terrible, but managed a 3-point win in Norman over an Oklahoma team that kind of underachieved all year. In 2002 the Cowboys absolutely smoked the Sooners, jumping out to a 35-6 lead and holding on for a 38-28 win.

* Bob Stoops’ teams are prone to meltdowns such as that one, from last year’s loss to Texas Tech to the season-opening loss to TCU in 2005, it happens occasionally.

* The Sooners just played a super-emotional game and looked horrifyingly good in beating Texas Tech last week, so this could be letdown city, even if it is Bedlam.

* The Cowboys have basically just been licking their chops since getting embarrassed by Texas Tech earlier this month.

So all the ingredients for a classic Stoops meltdown are there.

Will it happen? We’ll see.

I think this Oklahoma team is too good, hence why I picked them to win (also because I don’t have the guts to pick them to lose - something Editorial Page Editor Joe McAdory agreed with me on).

But this should be another fun one. Possibly the best game of the day.