It's Red River Rivalry 2.0 to Decide the Big XII Title

To quote Alex de Large in A Clockwork Orange when his droogies came 'round with a surprise proposal ...

Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well.
To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?

This time around, it's the burnt orange saying it.

 

There the Texas Longhorns were ...

• still wondering how in the name of blue crabs the Maryland Terrapins instantly morphed from chaos to competent, but then
• they strung together four straight victories after that,
• running it up to five in a row -- and filling wallets -- with a 48-45 Red River barnburner in the Cotton Bowl.

After a gimme against Baylor, the 'Horns' CFP hopes promptly went the way of the dodo bird.

 

Consecutive losses to Oklahoma State and West Virginia will do that.

Meanwhile, the Sooner Schooner was cruising along with only one Big XII setback.

So were the Mountaineers, but not anymore. Not when they post 56 points at home and still wind up on the short end:

 

And so it was that the Mountaineers did what they've always done since joining a conference one time zone away.

The NFL woulda called it a classic.

But the Big XII woulda pointed to this authentic 59-56 Wild West shootout and asked if the over covered.

 

Then there's that spunky crew from Kansas, who almost did what they've rarely done since the advent of color TV.

The Jayhawks looked like they were auditioning for Les Miles today -- because they were -- and in the process, damn near overcame a three-TD deficit to Texas before falling short, 24-17:

 

With all the round-robin dust settled, the title game contestants are now definitive. No need for further permutations, annotations, or tarnations:

It's gonna be more than a Red River Rivalry rerun, too.

It's a rootin', tootin', scoreboard shootin' rematch where just winning it is and will be the top priority. Sure, the CFP's out there, but this one's for owning a year's worth of bragging rights in these parts.

 

The only thing wrong with that picture is Marion Mitchell Morrison -- aka John Wayne -- went to USC.

This season, that's a 5-7 USC, but at the time, it was a quality win for Texas in the eyes of big brand apologists.

 

That now seems like it was ages ago. Of course, in insect years, September was ages ago.

The regular-season Red River rivalry, though, still has embers burning. The latest one always does.

And they're about to burst into full-scale flames again. It'll no doubt be must-see fireworks.