Stoops is bullish on Big 12

Bob Stoops had a simple request for the media who had descended on the OU Caravan’s Tulsa stop this week. “Don’t ask me about the SEC,” Stoops said.

So I didn’t ask about the SEC. I asked about the Big Ten.

“Been there, done that,” Stoops said of his Iowa days. “Ten years.”

We were mostly kidding, of course, though Stoops legitimately didn’t want to be asked about the SEC, whether it’s realignment or ESPN hype or the Sooners’ head-to-head success. He’d just as soon not become a topic of conversation on the Paul Finebaum Show, thank you very much.

But here’s what Stoops was willing to talk about: The Big 12. He’s bullish on the Big 12. Becomes a bigger defender of it every time the subject is broached.

You can’t blame him, of course. The Big 12 is Stoops’ kingdom. He’s won nine outright Big 12 football titles and tied for another. That’s 10 championships in 21 years of the conference’s existence. Win another this year, and Stoops will have won half the Big 12 titles, even though he didn’t board the Schooner until Year 4 of the league.

So you can understand why Stoops is protective of his territory. Understand why he’s not so quick to embrace conference realignment, if it means Big 12 abolition. Was East German leader Erich Honecker excited about the Berlin Wall coming down?

Stoops has been good to OU, OU’s been good to the Big 12. The Big 12 has been good to OU, OU’s been good to the Big 12. Connecting dots is not that hard.

“I think if you look at, money-wise, we do really well, don’t we?” Stoops said. “That just came out. Bowl game-wise, we did really well this year. We’re talking this year. We did our share against the SEC (beating Auburn). Kansas State did (beating Texas