'Big 12 Bob' Stoops owns this conference

He joked about Youngstown days. Ruminated about the Big 12's future. Seemed looser than a saloon girl.

Big 12 Bob was comfortable. And why shouldn't he be?

That's not a derisive nickname, by the way, though Bob Stoops' detractors invented it as such, a spoof of the Big Game Bob we once called the Oklahoma coach.

Big 12 Bob is a noble title. Big 12 Bob is high praise. Big 12 Bob is the reason the Sooners should beat Nebraska tonight at JerryWorld.

Big 12 Bob owns the Big 12 like no other coach owns a conference. Stoops wins league title games like no coach ever in college football history. He's won six in this Big 12 Bob Conference. Win tonight, and it's seven of 15.

Big 12 championships are no big deal until you stop winning them.

But in this whimsical sport in which national championships are won as much with cosmic forces and happenstance as talent and grit, conference championships define excellence and sustained success.

Stoops has had his troubles in road games and BCS bowls. Big 12 Bob has disappointed the Sooner masses with this 10-year drought since that Florida State Orange Bowl.

Bowl wins are nice. A national title once a decade is not too much to ask.

But Stoops wins Big 12 titles, wins them with absolute regularity, and that's got to be the standard. Conference championships reveal quality and set up grander stages.

“The players deserve the credit,” Big 12 Bob said. “They've stepped up in this game. Guys have made plays when they've had the chance.”