Week 14: Big 12 Championship Game

It has been 47 years since Missouri found itself in this position. The key for the Tigers is staying put.

It all comes down to this: Beat Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio, and the top-ranked Tigers will be playing for a chance to compete for the program’s first national title.

Missouri, 11-1 overall, is encountering some rare opportunities. The Tigers hadn’t been ranked No. 1 since 1960 in the final week of the Big Eight season. MU also has never played for the Big 12 crown until now.

MU coach Gary Pinkel, who arrived on the scene in 2001, is the toast of Columbia, Mo. He has taken time, briefly, to enjoy the moment. After the Tigers knocked off previously unbeaten Kansas 36-28 on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium, Pinkel reveled in the triumph. Today, though, there are bigger challenges. And it’s the most important challenges in MU football history, if you want to get right down to it.

“There’s a sense of pride, no question about it,” Pinkel said about MU’s rise to the top. “That being said, you really don’t have that much time to think about that stuff because we’re playing a great football team.”

That would be Oklahoma, of course. Talk about role reversals.

The ninth-ranked Sooners, 10-2, often are in the favorite’s role this time of the year. Oklahoma, after all, will compete in the Big 12 championship game for the sixth time in eight seasons. The Sooners were triumphant in four of them, including 2006.

Actually, Oklahoma enters this one still in the favorite spot, even if MU has the higher ranking. The Sooners opened as a 3-point favorite according to the odds makers.

That may have something to do with Oklahoma’s first encounter with the Tigers.

That occurred Oct. 13 in Norman, Okla. The Sooners rallied for a 41-31 victory. MU led 24-23 in the fourth quarter, but the Sooners came back and kept their home dominance of the Tigers intact. Oklahoma hasn’t lost at home to the Tigers since 1966.

MU had more total offense that day (418 to 384), but four turnovers cost the Tigers. The biggest mistake came in the fourth quarter when Heisman hopeful quarterback Chase Daniel was charged with a fumble on a potential handoff to Jeremy Maclin, who never saw it coming. Oklahoma’s Curtis Lofton picked it up and covered 12 yards for the TD.

Although his team lost, Pinkel believes the Tigers gained from the experience.

“I think our team at that time said, ‘Hey, we can be pretty good. If we keep getting better, we might have a chance at this.’ ’’

MU’s chances would be much better in the second and more crucial meeting with the Sooners if tight end Chase Coffman plays. He suffered an ankle injury against KU, and is listed as questionable. Coffman is a key reason why the Tigers rank fifth nationally in total offense at 507.3 yards.

Oklahoma has its own issues. QB Sam Bradford returned from a concussion and guided the Sooners past Oklahoma State last Saturday, but Oklahoma will be without running back DeMarco Murray and defensive end Auston English is questionable with an ankle injury.

The Tigers also have a couple other trends in their favor. Oklahoma is only 2-2 outside of Norman in Big 12 games, and no team has won back-to-back conference title games.

Oklahoma never thought it would be easy the second time around anyway.

“Beating them already this year doesn’t make us feel like we’re better than them,” said Sooners’ cornerback Marcus Walker, whose team was eliminated from the BCS title game picture earlier this month by losing at Texas Tech.

MU has one major piece of its arsenal available that it didn’t in the previous Oklahoma game. Running back Tony Temple sat out the first one with an injury.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops would love to think that beating MU the first time this year will give his team a boost, but he isn’t convinced that is the case.

“I don’t know if that is an advantage for us or an advantage for them,” Stoops said.

Soon enough, we’ll have an answer.

BOTTOM LINE: Missouri is entering uncharted territory. The Tigers are playing for stakes that they never have had at their fingertips. Oklahoma, on the other hand, has been part of more big games and will have a pretty good grasp on the hype that comes with it. The pressure may be too great for MU to overcome. And Oklahoma has the better coach. Ohio State sure will be pulling for Stoops.

Oklahoma by 2