Red River football: Texas claimed Big 12 championship with an *

Trying to defuse a controversy over claiming a Big 12 championship they didn’t win, the Texas Longhorns removed “2008*” from a wall listing their Big 12 titles, the Austin American-Statesman reported Monday.

Texas spokesman John Bianco told the Statesman that Longhorns coach Mack Brown was unaware 2008 with an asterisk had been posted on a wall inside the Moncrief-Neuhaus training facility.

"Obviously there was a lot of discussion about the two teams playing for the Big 12 title being two teams we'd beaten," Bianco said Monday. "The kidding around became a misunderstanding as an instruction to post it on the wall (of the meeting room). It was clearly not the intent of Mack to post it."

Following Monday’s spring practice, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops was asked what he thought about Texas claiming the 2008 Big 12 championship on its wall with an asterisk.

“It doesn’t much matter to me at all, I don’t much care,” Stoops said. “I know there isn’t (an asterisk) on ours. And I know where the trophy is. I’m not worried about anyone else and what they’ve got.”

Last season, OU edged out Texas and Texas Tech for the South title in a tiebreaker determined by the BCS Standings, despite ardent protests from Brown and the Texas fan base.

The Longhorns claimed that because they defeated OU head-to-head, they deserved to go to the Big 12 title game — despite the fact they also lost to Texas Tech, which created the three-way tie among the one-loss Big 12 teams.

On the last week of the regular season, Texas fans even paid for a flyover in Stillwater before the Bedlam game to remind voters of Texas’ 45-35 win over OU in the Cotton Bowl.

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