Oklahoma football: Sooners, Kansas State might end up as Big 12 'co-champions'

“If you're playing each other, it's pretty simple,” Stoops said before the 2011 regular-season finale at Oklahoma State.

Kansas State and Oklahoma sit tied atop this year's Big 12 standings entering the last week of the regular season. The Sooners play at TCU on Saturday at 11 a.m., and the Wildcats host Texas that evening.

If both teams finish with the same conference record, the Wildcats will share the 2012 Big 12 title with “co-champion” Oklahoma, a squad KSU beat head-to-head Sept. 22 in Norman. Kansas State would earn the Big 12's automatic Fiesta Bowl berth, but each school would receive its very own Big 12 championship trophy.

So, with the shoe on the other foot, will Stoops remain adamantly opposed to co-championships? That remains to be seen.

Shared championships aren't uncommon; Oklahoma claims 12 conference titles from the Barry Switzer era, but four of them were shared.

Officially, Stoops' Sooners “shared” Big 12 South division titles in 2008 and 2010, but emerged from tiebreakers to play in both seasons' conference championship games.

In 2008, OU emerged from a three-way tie with Texas and Texas Tech because of the BCS Standings.

When the Longhorns listed “2008” on its training facility wall with their other division titles, Texas was widely mocked.

In 2010, Oklahoma State ordered its players Big 12 South championship rings, despite losing Bedlam and not playing in the conference title game.

A few months later, Stoops quipped, “You see we got another (Big 12) championship banner up?