The Oklahoma Sooners softball team made it look easy on Sunday as they blasted Arkansas, 14-1 to secure their advancement to the Super Regional.

The Sooners swept the double-elimination regional bracket, which was being held in Norman.  They beat Marist 17-0, Arkansas 10-5 and then played Arky again for the Finals of the bracket. It is the sixth time in the past seven years the Sooners have made it past the regional round.

The Sooners took the game over with a run-rule (which is an 8-run lead after the fifth). The Razorbacks played in error-filled game (36-20);  only five of the Sooners 14 runs were earned. Yikes.

They will host former conference foe, Texas A&M for a best of three series for the Supers in Norman. The first game is scheduled for Thursday at 6:00 PM CST. As of right now, the game is slated to aired on ESPN.

This year’s All-College Classic basketball game in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma will feature the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas A&M Aggies. This is obviously the first time these two teams have met since the Aggies joined the SEC back during the Summer.

The classic’s first game was in 1935, out-dating even the NCAA when it comes to NCAA tournaments being played, so it makes it the oldest basketball tournament still being played today. This is the first year that the Oklahoma State Cowboys will actually not play in the classic, which the tournament stated that they were changing formats. It looks like that format ended up being just a one game event. So now it just sits as an exhibition game. And not even a tournament. You follow? It took me a minute, too.

The Aggies are 7-1 on the season while the Sooners are sitting at 6-2. The game is scheduled for Saturday, December 15th at 1:00 CST and is being played at Chesapeake Energy Arena, home of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The 10-2 Oklahoma Sooners are headed to Dallas, Texas to play in the Cotton Bowl against Johnny Football and the Texas A&M Aggies. In a turn of events that no one saw coming: the NIU Huskies got their chance for a shot at the big boys and will be playing in a BCS bowl game, the Orange Bowl actually to play against Florida State.

Insert mass chaos by everyone and the end was result which the Cotton. Which is a great bowl for the SEC and Big 12 conferences. Those two usually draw the most attention as it is, so it’s fitting that they get a bowl like that one.

The Sooners haven’t played in the Cotton Bowl since 2002, where they met up with the Arkansas Razorbacks. It was a riveting  10-3 Sooners win. The last time the Ags and the Sooners met up was of course last season in Norman, where the Aggies would face them for the last time as conference mates. The final there was 41-25. Since Bob Stoops has been in Norman, he is 11-2 against the Aggies and normally wins by a 20+ point margin.

With a possible Heisman contender under center on the Aggies offense, this game is sure to be full of excitement. I know a lot of fans had started to make plans to be in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl and the prospect of being there instead of home probably looked pretty good. But if you were impulsive and already bought that plane ticket or booked the hotel room, NO FEAR! The Cotton Bowl is Friday, the 4th of January. You still have time to do both.

So there it is, the Cotton Bowl.

On this hot July 1st, the Big XII would like to officially welcome it’s newest members, West Virginia and Texas Christian University. The Big XII officially added them to their website at midnight.

From Big12Sports.com

Texas A&M and Missouri are also now officially members of the SEC, which they seem to be very excited about entering into a lifetime of being mediocre in football: Not that much is changing for them, though. Texas A&M has even claimed a new cross-division rival in South Carolina, where the Gamecocks just smiled and laughed (probably).

It will take some getting used to seeing the WVU and TCU logo along side the Sooners and the Longhorns, but for me, it is a welcome change.

Bust out the moonshine because it’s time for a Big XII house party! Out with the old, in with the new!

The Day 2 results of the College World Series for the Big XII was slit right down the middle, with Baylor and Missouri both staying alive by winning their second match-up. Oklahoma and Texas A&M both dropped their games, but still have one more shot to stay in.

Charlottesville Regional - No. 3 Appalachian State 5, No. 2 Oklahoma 4. Oklahoma’s last minute attempt at heroics came up short on Saturday as Appalachian State edged the Sooners. The Sooners scored 4 runs in the last two innings. They will take on Army in an elimination game on Sunday at 10:00 AM CST. It’s a win and in situation.

Waco Regional - No. 1 Baylor 11, No. 3 UT-Arlington 6. After being down 5-4, the Baylor Bears scored seven runs over 7 innings to make a comeback against UTA and win their elimination game. Baylor advances to play Oral Roberts on Sunday at 2:00 PM CST. If they win, they will play Dallas Baptist Sunday night at 7:00. If both games are won, they will play in a winner-take-all on Monday.

Tuscon Regional - No. 4 Missouri 6, No. 2 New Mexico State 2. The current Big XII Champions kept their dream alive Saturday after beating New Mexico State. Missouri will play either Louisville or Arizona Sunday night after another elimination game between the two earlier on in the day.

College Station Regional - No. 3 Mississippi 6, No. 1 Texas A&M 3. The Aggies lost on their home turf on Saturday to Mississippi to put them in the path of elimination on Sunday. They will face future Big XII winner, TCU on Sunday at 12:35 CST. TCU pounded Dayton yesterday 28-12. Yes, 28-12. The winner of that game will face Mississippi Sunday night.

The Big XII Mens basketball tournament starts Wednesday, March 7th at 6:00 PM. As always, the tournament is taking place at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

Here is a look at the bracket:

The Sooners will be playing first, and hopefully, will get past that game. It is against the Aggies, so they have a good chance. Unfortunately for either the Sooners or the Aggies, whoever wins the first game will face Kansas the next day…. Welp, good thing it’s baseball season.

Saturday is the final mens basketball game in Norman for the 2012 season for the Sooners. It also marks the last time the Sooners will take on Texas A&M in-season conference play in basketball.

Unfortunately, this is the battle of bad basketball. The Sooners and the Aggies are tied for 8th place in the Big XII. Oklahoma (14-15, 4-13) and Texas A&M (13-16, 4-13) will play again on Wednesday to open the Big XII Championship tournament.

Since it is the last home game of the season, it is also Senior Day for the basketball boys. T.J. Franklin, Barry Honore and C.J. Washington will be honored with with an on-court ceremony pre-game.

Quick hits on the Aggies from SoonerSports.com:

The preseason co-Big 12 favorite (with Kansas) according to the league’s head coaches, Texas A&M enters Saturday’s game with a 13-16 overall record and a 4-13 conference mark (tied with OU).  The Aggies have lost four in a row and eight of their last nine.  They are 1-7 in Big 12 road games, with the lone victory coming at Texas Tech on Feb. 14 (47-38).

In league play, A&M ranks ninth in scoring offense (58.1 ppg), ninth in field goal percentage (.412), sixth in in 3-point field goal percentage (.338) and ninth in free throw percentage (.667).  On the other side of the floor, it ranks third and fourth in field goal (.436) and 3-point field goal (.336) percentage defense.

Junior guard Elston Turner leads the team with his 14.1 scoring average (15.0 in conference play).  The transfer from Washington paces A&M with 65 3-pointers (next highest team total is 18) and is shooting .399 from behind the arc.  He scored 23 points against OU on Jan. 21 and is coming off a 22-point outing against Kansas State in which he went 8-for-9 from the field (4-for-4 from deep).

The Sooners own the series against the Aggies 28-9 (23-9 since the formation of the Big XII) and have a home record of 14-3 against them.

The game is scheduled with a 3:01 PM tip-off and can be heard on the Sooner Radio Network and seen on TV from ESPN Full Court.

The Sooners gave the Aggies a conference departing gift Saturday afternoon, beating them 41-25. The first half sluggish play continued for Oklahoma until the flood gates opened up early at the start of the second half. Unfortunately, some bad news follows a big win.

Ryan Broyles Will Go Down As A Sooner Legend

Sooners may have won the game Saturday against Texas A&M, but they lost a team leader. Sooners leading receiver, Senior Ryan Broyles, tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the left knee, and will miss the rest of this season.

Broyles left the field last night in tears, knowing before he got to the locker room that this would be his last appearance at Owen Field in front of an always sold out Sooner crowd.

Coach Stoops was very emotional when talking about Broyles with press after the game:

He’s such a special, special player. It’s deflating for him and for all of us. Your heart drops when you first hear it.

It is a huge blow coming off last weeks loss of RB Dom Whaley. The Sooners are now missing two of their biggest offensive weapons for the rest of the year. The silver-lining is that we are lucky to be very deep in both positions and are very heavy on talent outside and on the ground.

After a slow start and a only a three point lead going in to the half, the Sooners turned it on in the third quarter. And in typical second half Aggies fashion, they rolled over and let it happen. Oklahoma scored 28 unanswered points in the third quarter. The Aggies tried to pull together a rally late in the 4th, scoring 2 touchdowns and scoring on a two point conversion to try and make a comeback run. They attempted this though with less then 4 minutes left on the clock. I salute the try, but it was too little, too late. Even Aggie head coach Mike Sherman should have known that.

Game Stats from SoonerSports.com

Oklahoma’s defense was still playing with that same passion they had during the Kansas State game. Another thing we got to see that we saw during the Kansas State game was the edition of the Bell package on the offense. QB Blake Bell is being brought in to convert on third down conversions and running Oklahoma’s version of the wildcat, being dubbed the Bell Dozer by the media.

Bell converted six third downs and a touchdown and was the player of the game according to the speaker system at Owen Field. It was well deserved. When Bell came out on the field, the fans went nuts. The Bell Dozer has quickly caught on has been successful over the last two games. No knock on Landry Jones, but it is a great change of pace to put a QB in on third downs that can move. Landry isn’t the quickest on his feet.

In what started off as a somber post-game presser with Stoops talking about Broyles, had a little light of laughter when Blake Bell came out to answer questions. Bell was asked by media what he thought of his new moniker, the Bell Dozer and was asked how much he weighed now. Bell answered with 255. Stoops immediately jumped in and said, “255? You are about a cheeseburger away from 260.” See, Stoops DOES have a personality. He’s not a robot.

It is one of those wins that we are excited to have, it’s always a good day when someone beats the Aggies. But on the other side of that, we lost a player that has been a role model and a key component on this Sooner team for four years. Ryan Broyles will go in the record books as one of the best wide-receivers that the Sooners and the nation has ever seen.

There is Only One Oklahoma, and there will be Only One Ryan Broyles. Sooner Nation will greatly miss him. Get well Ryan.

Now that the Aggies are leaving to go to the SEC, some of the Big XII schools are trying to put a stop to it.

After a meeting with Big XII officials on Wednesday, Baylor and five other schools are NOT signing a waiver to allow the Aggies to leave the conference. The other schools were said to be Missouri, Texas Tech, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State. (According to sources in Waco) Instead of just letting Texas A&M walk away in peace, they are putting all of the pressure on Oklahoma.

As everyone has heard through the grapevine lately, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are possibly in talks to be heading West, and joining the PAC-12 conference. The 6 schools that are not signing the waiver have apparently said that if Oklahoma reaffirms it’s commitment to the Big XII conference, they will sign the waiver to let the Aggies leave without legal action.

That’s right other schools that don’t have viable options on the table if the Big XII folds; lets put the dagger in OU’s hand and if the conference fails, we can just point fingers at them. I bet the Longhorns are now happy that the finger is only half pointed at them now. When in reality, it still should be firmly pointed down at Austin.

University of Oklahoma President, David Boren, is said to have an announcement on realignment hopefully within the coming weeks.

I will close with a little bit of Grapes of Wrath symbolism, “Only the unbalanced sky showed the approach of dawn, no horizon to the west, and a line to the east” No horizon to be seen in the infinite possibilities if the Sooners move West. It can be The Dust Bowl, revisited.

More on this as news breaks.

EDITORS UPDATE: It is now being reported that 8 schools have agreed to NOT sign the waiver giving permission for Texas A&M to leave. Oklahoma being the only school to have given permission….

Another update: apparently Ken Starr, Baylor, spread a bunch of rumors yesterday and not all is what it seems. Hell, I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on. I give up. We will just wait patiently to see what happens. *now twiddling thumbs impatiently*

So we start college football…. tomorrow… But the Big XII soap opera lives on.

But not for one team. Texas A&M announced Wednesday that they are ‘officially’ leaving the Big XII. For real this time y’all. Not just the threats and rumors, its done.

Press Release out of College Station:

NEWS RELEASE – August 31, 2011

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M University today officially notified the Big 12 Conference that the institution will submit an application to join another athletic conference. Should this application be accepted, Texas A&M will end its membership in the Big 12 Conference effective June 30, 2012.

“After much thought and consideration, and pursuant to the action of the (Texas A&M University System) Board of Regents authorizing me to take action related to Texas A&M University’s athletic conference alignment, I have determined it is in the best interest of Texas A&M to make application to join another athletic conference,” President R. Bowen Loftin wrote to Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe in the letter dated August 31, 2011.

“We appreciate the Big 12′s willingness to engage in a dialogue to end our relationship through a mutually agreeable settlement,” Loftin added. “We, too, desire that this process be as amicable and prompt as possible and result in a resolution of all outstanding issues, including mutual waivers by Texas A&M and the conference on behalf of all the remaining members.”

Texas A&M has participated in intercollegiate athletics as a member of the Big 12 since the conference’s founding 16 years ago. Last season, the Aggies claimed nine Big 12 championships and four national team titles, both of which were school-bests. Since joining the Big 12 prior to the 1996-97 athletic season, Texas A&M has won 55 conference championships, including 32 in the last five years.

Texas A&M finished eighth in the prestigious Director’s Cup all-sport rankings a year ago, tallying its most points ever and leading all Big 12 schools. In the inaugural Capital One Cup, which rates teams’ final rankings, the Aggies were the top-ranking university from the Big 12. The Aggie women finished second with five top-10 finishes, while the Aggie men finished tied for third with five top-10 finishes.

“As I have indicated throughout this process, we are seeking to generate greater visibility nationwide for Texas A&M and our championship-caliber student-athletes, as well as secure the necessary and stable financial resources to support our athletic and academic programs,” Loftin said. “This is a 100-year decision that we have addressed carefully and methodically. Texas A&M is an extraordinary institution, and we look forward to what the future may hold for Aggies worldwide.”

While Loftin did not specify an application timeline in his letter to the Big 12, he previously indicated that he does not intend to prolong the application process for an extended period of time.

The Aggies even added a couple of selling points to their press release, you know, in case interested parties were reading.

Texas A&M at a glance

• Located in College Station, Texas.
• Home to more than 49,000 students, ranking as the sixth-largest university in the country, with more than 360,000 former students worldwide.
• Holds membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities, one of only 63 institutions with this distinction.
• Has an endowment valued at more than $5 billion, which ranks fourth among U.S. public universities and 10th overall.
• Conducts research valued at more than $630 million annually, placing it among the top 20 universities nationally and third behind only MIT and the University of California at Berkeley for universities without medical schools.
• Recognized as Home of the 12th Man, where students stand during football games to show support for the team – and for fellow Aggies – a personification of the Aggie Spirit.
• Corps of Cadets is recognized among the nation’s largest uniformed student bodies at more than 2,000 strong. Texas A&M commissions more officers than any other institution outside of the nation’s service academies.
• Named second in the nation by The Wall Street Journal among all universities, public and private, in a survey of top U.S. corporations, non-profits and government agencies, based on graduates that recruiters prefer to hire.

So like I said last week, the ball is in your court SEC, the Aggies are a go.