One of the most entertaining things about football is the sheer rarity of meteorological postponements; it usually takes a hurricane to move or reschedule a contest. In fact, some of the best games have been played in winter conditions that would derail any other sporting event. Especially golf.

During the home stretch of their sixth championship season, the Oklahoma Sooners had such a contest against their in-state whipping boys "rivals" Oklahoma State, who were #17 in the nation at the time. The 1985 game was the first in the "Bedlam" series to be played at night, which is probably a decision both schools deeply regretted at the time. The wind chill was near 0 at kickoff, and conditions steadily deteriorated throughout the game. Or in other words, this. was. awesome.

Oklahoma would win the game 13-0, then go on to capture the MNC with a 25-10 win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, would do nothing of consequence for the millionth year in a row, a streak that survives to this day.

Poor Oklahoma. They had an unsigned agreement to have Middle Tennessee State come to Norman for a guarantee game, but instead MTSU took a better offer. The Blue Raiders got a home-and-home with Mississippi State -- the first time an SEC team will play MTSU on the road. Mississippi State agreed to this only because Central Michigan reneged on its visit to Starkville.

Since MTSU pulled out late, Oklahoma was forced to scramble and could only find 1-AA Tennessee-Chattanooga to fill the gap. Something that pissed off Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione when people then questioned why Oklahoma would play such a game.

Several factors go into making a schedule work, including corresponding dates, availability and the exorbitant amount of money BCS powers like OU are forced to pay I-A teams to play in Norman.

"Let's face it," Castiglione said. "There are some (I-A) schools that just don't want to play you regardless of the opportunity or the offer."

Yes, the opportunity to travel for a road beating with no reciprocal game. Of course, those same BCS teams helped create the market that they then decry. The BCS schools were happy to support the addition of the 12th game that increased the demand. They seek only guarantee home games whenever possible and only against teams they can handle. They happily poach opponents with the increased bids.

Cost of doing business? Is this normal?

Among Oklahoma's remedies to the Rhett Bomar/ J.D. Quinn money-for-nothing-gate situation, the school is banning employers from hiring more than five Sooner athletes at a time.

And this:

Oklahoma also informed the NCAA that it has expanded its full-time compliance staff from three to eight workers and also has two part-time staff members. As a result, the annual compliance budget has grown to $1.2 million.

Unlike Monopoly, Oklahoma's not getting out of jail for free. This action sort of raises the ante towards any kind of "get off our back" costs that will be associated with USC when/if the Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo situations ever get resolved.

The state of Oklahoma bows its head today as Jack Mildren, he of the first wishbone attack at Oklahoma, died yesterday at the age of 58.

Under Mildren, the Oklahoma offense racked up numbers you can't even reach on NCAA Football 08, even if you put it on, like, Varsity. The 1971 Sooners scored 44.5 points a game and rushed for 472 yards per game; the latter statistic still stands as an NCAA record.

Mildren's life, though unnaturally short, was still prosperous beyond belief. He was a Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma, served as vice chairman of Arvest Bank, and hosted a daily sports talk show even after his diagnosis of stomach cancer two years ago. As Orson puts it in his obit at EDSBS, "you haven't even returned all your emails today, have you?"

This is, of course, a sports site, so we'll leave you with highlights of Oklahoma's other huge game of 1971. Much attention is given, and rightly so, to the Official Game of the Century between the Sooners and Nebraska, in which the Huskers prevailed 35-31. (because of that game, anybody who utters the name "Johnny Rodgers" inside state limits may be murdered without penalty). But six weeks prior, the annual Red River Shootout pitted a #4 Oklahoma against #3 Texas in each team's fourth game of the year. Texas had surrendered only 17 points on the season, a number that would rise quite drastically on that October afternoon.



The final score was 48-27, Sooners, and we like to think that Mildren crossed those pearly gates as he did in the final play of the highlight reel: knees high, untouched, and victorious. Godspeed, #11.

Brian Hoyer is lonely.

Anyone who pays the slightest attention to college football knows about Michigan's uncertain quarterback situation, but recent events have put the state's other Big Ten team in a similarly dodgy spot:

Out: Redshirt freshman Connor Dixon, a Pennsylvania native, decided to transfer a few days ago.

In: Michigan State picked up transfer Keith Nichol, who originally committed to Michigan State but decommitted when John L Smith was fired and Rhett Bomar pulled a Bomar, opening up the job at Oklahoma. Sam Bradford kinda slammed that door shut.

Out: Redshirt freshman Nick Foles, a Texan, announces he's going to transfer somewhere closer to home, specifically citing the crowded(?!?!) Michigan State depth chart as a reason to bolt.

As a result, MSU is left with starter Brian Hoyer, a fifth year senior, and redshirt freshman Kirk Cousins, an unrated recruit with one other BCS offer (Colorado). Past that it's walkons. The Spartans will have Nichol and incoming freshman Andrew Maxwell in 2009; in 2008 they'll be desperately hoping the mediocre Hoyer stays in one piece.

The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is a fifth year of eligibility for football players. He hopes the proposed change will get some attention from the NCAA rules committee.

The proposal for a fifth year of eligibility would eliminate redshirting, instead giving college football players five years to compete on the field. Under current rules, players have a five-year window in which to complete four years of playing time. This isn't the first time this change has come up, but opponents have argued that eligibility rules need to standard across sports. Big 12 commissioner Beebe, disagrees.

Beebe, however, said he thinks football should be seen as unique because it has a high rate of redshirts and injuries.

"Injuries happen and coaches have players who could contribute, but they don't want to play someone on a limited basis and burn a redshirt year," Beebe said. "And you have kids during their redshirt year who are getting the heck beat out of them in practice every day with no hope of playing."

The rule change would certainly eliminate the need for coaches to agonize about redshirting decisions. In addition, it would seemingly end the need for athletes and schools to file medical hardships in the wake of injuries. Lastly, given that the average college football player takes around 4.7 years to graduate, the five-year eligibility window could help improve graduation rates.

"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.



I have to admit, I'm a sucker for these newsreel type highlights of the best of college football's storied past. This video highlights the best of Oklahoma's 1950 national championship season. The 1950 season began with Notre Dame riding a 38–game unbeaten streak. However, the Irish struggled to beat North Carolina in their opener, and then lost for the first time in five years to visiting Purdue 28–14. Notre Dame would go on to lose three more times before the end of the season, finishing at 4–4–1 and failing to make the final Top 20 for the first time in 10 years.

Oklahoma, on the other hand, swept through the regular season with 10 wins on the way to its own unbeaten string of 31 victories. They were led by Billy Vessels (who would win the Heisman in 1952) and All-Americans Jim Weatherall and Leon Heath. Following their undefeated regular season, Oklahoma met 7th ranked Kentucky (then coached by Bear Bryant) in the Sugar Bowl. The Wildcats took a 13–0 halftime lead and eventually held on for a 13–7 upset. However, because the final polls were released before the bowl games at this point in history, the AP voted Oklahoma as national champions.

The Watch List for the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been released by the Football Writers Association of America. The Nagurski Trophy is presented annually to the best defensive player in college football and is sponsored by the Charlotte Touchdown Club.

According to the press release:

"The Charlotte Touchdown Club will hold the 2008 banquet on Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte. For the eighth straight season, the FWAA will also pick a Bronko Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week beginning with games on Aug. 30 and running through the middle of November. And a Bronko Nagurski Legends Award winner will also be selected from the FWAA's 1967 All-America team.

The Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been presented since 1993 and is awarded in memory of the legendary Nagurski, a former All-America lineman at Minnesota in 1927-29 and a star for professional football's Chicago Bears in the 1930s."

This year's watch list includes eight players from Big 12 schools, led by Oklahoma, which places three Sooners on the list. The Big 12 players on the Nagurski Watch List are:

George Hypolite, Colorado

Joe Mortensen, Kansas

Ian Campbell, Kansas State (pictured at right)

William Moore, Missouri

Sean Weatherspoon, Missouri

Auston English, Oklahoma

DeMarcus Granger, Oklahoma

Nic Harris, Oklahoma

Since its inception in 1993, three Big 12 players have won the Nagurski Trophy. Oklahoma defensive back Roy Williams took home the award in 2001. The Big 12 then had back-to-back winners in 2003 and 2004 in Oklahoma's Derrick Strait and Derrick Johnson from Texas.

Keith Nichol is a highly touted quarterback at Oklahoma. The Michigan native was all but set to enroll at Michigan State last year before throwing a curveball and choosing Oklahoma.

That didn't work out so well.

Third-string quarterback Keith Nichol plans to transfer from Oklahoma after just one season."We had a good conversation with Keith and certainly understand his desire to seek an opportunity in another program," Sooners coach Bob Stoops said in a statement Friday.

Nichol actually enrolled a semester early, and stood a decent chance of becoming the team's starter. The competition included a redshirt junior slotted to be a backup and a little-known redshirt freshman.

Slam-dunk, right? Errrrr. That redshirt freshman won the job and put together one of the best passing seasons in NCAA history for a freshman. Helloooo, Sam Bradford.

Goodbye Keith Nichol.

How does that go? "The best-laid plans are fraught with peril". Yeah.

Yes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this is getting ridiculous. First, Colorado announced its intentions to utilize a no-huddle offense in 2008. Now we get more information about Oklahoma and their desire for a speedier offensive approach. These two teams join Missouri, Texas Tech and Kansas as other Big 12 teams running some version of a no-huddle approach.

The shift to a quicker offensive tempo is based in large part on the success that this sort of attack has had in recent years.

The top eight college football offenses in 2008 ran versions of a no-huddle. Four of those -- Missouri, Houston, Texas Tech and Tulsa -- ran more than 1,000 plays (OU ran 975). Tulsa (1,126) and Missouri (1,112) led the nation in total plays.

This means we can probably expect more in the way of outrageous scoring come Big 12 play. 76-39? 65-51? 59-43? But other than concession vendors who can complain about more plays and more scores per contest?

Back in Oklahoma, the Sooners have been slowly implementing the no-huddle this spring. In the team's most recent scrimmage the up-tempo attack led to "volatile" results.

Keith Nichol and Mossis Madu produced back-to-back gainers of 20 and 12 yards, then Nichol threw an interception to Jonathan Nelson.