Just when the Texas-Missouri game was look­ing like a Top 5 matchup and possible preview of the Big 12 championship game, along came the Oklahoma State Cowboys to shake things up.

Chase Daniel and the No. 11 Ti­gers will still be troublesome in Austin, maybe even moreso now that they’re coming off a loss. And there’s no telling how the pressure of being the nation’s new No. 1 will affect Colt Mc­Coy and the Longhorns — if not against Mizzou, perhaps in their next game, against those very same OSU Cowboys, now ranked eighth.

Week after week, that’s how it’s going to be in the Big 12 in this, the best season the league’s ever seen.

Proclaiming the Big 12 loaded with good teams isn’t exactly breaking news. It’s just that the first two weekends have been such a scoreboard-watcher’s de­light that it makes you wonder how much better can the next seven weeks get.

Prediction? Please. At this point, it’s tough enough pick­ing which game or games will be that week’s standings­buster, much less trying to figure out who will make it to ArrowheadStadiumonDec.6 for the league championship.

Even Longhorns coach Mack Brown sounded wary following Texas’ 45-35 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday. “If we play with less inten­sity, we will lose,” he said.

SEC fans might be snick­ering at all the fuss. They’ve enjoyed this kind of week­in, week-out drama for years. But it’s new to this part of the country, at least at this level.

Saturday? A good example. The fun began early, with then-No. 1 Oklahoma and then-No. 5 Texas meeting in their annual clash at the Cotton Bowl. The Long­horns won a thoroughly en­tertaining game 45-35.

Colorado gave Kansas a mild scare, but the Jayhawks cameawayfeelinggoodabout Jake Sharp turning a career­high 31 carries into 118 yards and three touchdowns, also career-highs. Keep it up and he’ll be the running threat No. 16 Kansas needs to loos­en up defenses for quarter­back Todd Reesing.

About the same time, Texas Tech needed over­time at home to hold off a Nebraska team coming off consecutive losses.

Then came the nightcap from Columbia, Mo.

When Oklahoma State got ahead early, it seemed like a matter of time before Daniel got on a roll, espe­cially with a chance to vault to No. 1. Daniel made a few plays, but the Cowboys made more and won 28-23.

“Every time I tune into something about the game, they said it wasn’t even going to be close, we wouldn’t stand a chance, we didn’t have the right guys,” Oklahoma State linebacker Andre Sexton said. “So we took it as a per­sonal challenge on defense. We just wanted to give the op­portunity to the offense to get on the field and make plays.”

But it wasn’t just those games. Every game offered some insight about the “oth­er” teams that could still play a role in determining the division, conference and possibly even national races. Kansas State’s victory over Texas A&M, and the way Baylor handled Iowa State, makes you wonder if one of them might turn into a spoiler down the road.

“We felt like all along we have a good football team, and maybe we are starting to show it a little bit,” Baylor coach Art Briles said.

Now let’s starting looking down the road.

Missouri-Texas is still Sat­urday’s headliner, getting prime-time treatment from ABC. Yet Kansas at Oklaho­ma could also be considered a title game preview.

The following week, Tex­as Tech goes to Kansas and Oklahoma State goes to Texas. November open with “only” Texas at Texas Tech, but that’s also rivalry week­end: Kansas State at Kansas; Nebraska at Oklahoma.

And then come four more weekends.

“We know there’s a lot of games to be played,” Soon­ers linebacker Travis Lewis said. “There’s a lot of one­loss teams right now, and our goals are not thrown out by any chance, by any means. We have our heads up.”

Oklahoma captain Gerald McCoy recalls losing to Tex­as two years ago and still playing in the title game.

“It’s a long season,” Mc­Coy said. “We’ll be OK.”

Oklahoma State and Texas Tech seem to have the mis­fortune of being good the same time as everyone else. But both will still have their chances of breaking through. The question for the Red Raiders might be whether the Cornhuskers exposed anything.

Nebraska “held” Graham Harrell to 284 yards, while its quarterback Joe Ganz threw for 349 yards. The Cornhuskers benefited by getting 80 snaps to 48 for the Red Raiders. Holding the ball and keeping Har­rell on the sideline isn’t a revolutionary concept, but Nebraska made it work.

“That’s the game plan a lot of people have against us,” Harrell said. “You’ve got give them the credit. They came out and executed. But they made the mistake at the end and it came down to it and we got the win.”

Will the same formula work another, better team that knows how to finish? That probably won’t be Texas A&M this week. But it could be any of the Red Raiders’ final four foes: Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.

Stay tuned.