Spring is inching its way across the country, but any hopes of a thaw in the chilly relations between Oklahoma and Texas have been dashed for another year.
The latest round of hay-makers between the rivals started innocently enough with a jab. Reporters who entered the Longhorns' training facility after Sunday's spring scrimmage noted a "2008" with an asterisk under Big 12 titles won by Texas. This sent the blogosphere into a tizzy and within 24 hours, Texas' Mack Brown said it was all a big misunderstanding and that the "2008*" would be removed.
Fair enough, but then Texas officials piled on by agreeing to give 12 assistant coaches and support staffers bonuses as if the Longhorns had won the title.
Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, above, answered by saying, "It doesn’t matter to me at all. I know there isn't one [an asterisk] on ours. I know where the trophy is."
Then Sooner basketball coach Jeff Capel entered the fray. He suggested to Tulsa World columnist Dave Sittler that Oklahoma could have played in the NCAA title game had star Blake Griffin not suffered a concussion in a February loss at Texas.
"A concussion at a very inopportune time cost us a chance to be a No. 1 seed," Capel wrote to Sittler in an email.
The Texas-Oklahoma game can't come soon enough. It's scheduled for Oct. 17 at the Cotton Bowl.
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