We’re adding band events to our Events calendar as we get them confirmed, but this is a good time to remind everyone that the events on the calendar are attached to a time zone. Normally this is Central Time (either CDT or CST), but for the Sun Bowl, events in El Paso are in Mountain Standard Time.
Since the time zone is attached, then if you subscribe on your computer in iCal or Windows Calendar, it should work just fine. For example, my computer shows the game at 1:00 PM CST on December 31, when it’s entered as December 31, 2009, 12:00 PM MST. As long as your computer’s time zone is correct, iCal (or, as far as I know, Windows Calendar) will show you all events in the same time zone as your computer.
The Web version of the calendar, however, does not know what time zone you’re in, and it defaults to Central Time because that’s where OU is. If you’re going to the Sun Bowl with a computer and want to check on events, or if you want to print out a calendar before you go, then first click on this link to set your web calendar preferences and tell it that your time zone is “America/Denver” (or some other city in Mountain Standard Time).
If you don’t do this, you’ll see starting times in Central Time from anywhere in the world, and you’ll be an hour early to everything in El Paso—which is not such a bad thing, but probably not exactly what you want. Again, if you’re using iCal or Windows Calendar, then the times will all shift correctly as long as you tell your computer when you change time zones. If you use only the Web calendar, however, you have to tell it manually and separately when you change time zones or you’ll only see the starting times as they are in Norman.
With bowl games and such in flux, I didn’t post after the excellent Bedlam series game in Norman on November 28, when our Sooners finished the season strongly by shutting out #12-ranked OSU, 27-0. As put it at the time, “Oklahoma beat Oklahoma St 27-0, potentially costing the Big 12 $4.5M. The Cowboys have been knocked out of BCS contention. The only chance the league has now of putting a second team in the BCS is if Nebraska beats Texas next week.”
If you watched the game, you know that this literally came within one step of happening. Colt McCoy revealed this week that he did not know that the clock runs on incomplete passes until it hits something out of bounds. Had he scrambled for just one more step, it’s likely the ball he launched would not have hit the ground until time had run out, flushing Texas’s undefeated season, conference championship, BCS Championship game bid, and McCoy’s Heisman hopes right down the Bevo Basin. The Longhorns are extremely lucky that ball didn’t stay in the air for an extra ½ second.
Had it done so, Nebraska would be in the Fiesta Bowl, Texas would be a BCS at-large team, and Oklahoma probably would have been chosen one earlier in the pecking order and be heading to the Alamo Bowl. Instead, with five losses, our Sooners have been invited to play the 8-4 Stanford Cardinal in the Brut Sun Bowl (December 31, 1:00 PM CST on CBS). Cardinal running back Toby Gerhart is one of the five finalists for the 2009 Heisman Trophy, but Stanford’s starting quarterback is injured and will not play in the bowl game. OU can tell them a few thing about losing starters to injuries.
The Cowboy Marching Band played Carry On Wayward Son and Bohemian Rhapsody for their halftime show. The Pride’s seniors voted on their favorite tune from the past four years for the opener, and they selected the theme from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which they had last performed in 2006. (I know it was done once before that, then once in 1993, and maybe before that but I don’t think so. I could be wrong.) The concert number was New Divide from Transfomers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, and that was followed by the (at least) 32 seniors who will join us as Pride Alumni after the Sun Bowl.
That includes outgoing drum major Jason Marshall, who was presented with a Bob Stoops autographed football on the field after the game by assistant athletics director for marketing Charlie Taylor, who himself served as drum major of the Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band and knows first-hand how difficult the job is. The Norman Transcriptreported on Jason’s final game, in no small part because his mother was there to see it:
Shirley Marshall wasn’t missing her son’s final strut across Owen Field Saturday, even if she had to be wheeled in on a stretcher.
And for the first time this season, she didn’t.
Wheelchair, yes. Stretcher, no.
I say “at least” 32 new alumni because the number is likely to be higher. Most of you remember that Pride auditions involve enrolling in the class, signing up for audition material, and so forth, so the band department has a strong idea by July 1 how many people are going to audition for each year’s band. This year, there was a significant drop-off from the number of people signed up on July 1 and the number who showed up for pre-camp just six weeks later.
There was some burn-out—with three BCS bowl games in the previous three seasons and a 2007 term that included the Oklahoma Centennial and the Macy’s® Thanksgiving Day Parade, I can certainly sympathize with those now-alumni who felt they got five years’ worth of experience in three seasons. When I had this year’s Macy’s parade on TV, I got tired just thinking about that year. And I didn’t even go!
But most of those folks had made up their minds before July 1. The attrition is largely due to the economy. Students used to piling on work hours in the summer to save for the fall and spring terms found that there were fewer hours available in 2009. Others realized that they needed to keep working during the fall to make ends meet, and that just wouldn’t work with a class schedule and the grueling Pride schedule.
Remember, that means a minimum of six hours per week for road games. For home game weeks, it’s ten hours of rehearsal and six hours of game (from rewarm through post-game concert), and that’s not counting downtime before the game when things like work are impossible. And it also doesn’t count road trips (this year twice to Dallas, for the BYU and Texas games), pep bands, individual practice, or the rest. The minimum committment this season averaged to over 12 hours per week, and that’s without full-band trips to Stillwater, Lincoln, or (sadly) the Big 12 Championship, and does not include the upcoming bowl trip. Add in the extras and most Pride members probably spent around 250 hours on Pride and its related activities during the Fall 2009 semester. Each.
That’s why the new programs that Karen Renfroe mentioned both here and on the mailing list this week. The endowed spots are, I think, a particularly great idea—a way to make sure that every position in The Pride has a uniform, an instrument, and a stipend for the student in perpetuity. All those new Yamaha trombones a couple of years ago were great (and still are), but won’t it be even better when we know that each and every one of them gets replaced every ten years? And the same with everything else?
That alone takes a big headache off the hands of students who play the more expensive instruments. Combine it with a stipend and we’ve really got something. Granted, a stipend can’t financially replace 250 hours of work (a version of “The Pride” that paid minimum wage would look a lot different than the tradition we know—there’d probably be five people auditioning for each spot), but even a few hundred dollars per semester can be incredibly helpful.
I think all any of us want for future Pride generations is a level playing field, so that anyone who wants to be the band and passes the auditions can be in the band—that the time or cost of doing so will not prohibit talented students from being part of this organization. It’s a difficult challenge, more so in an economic downturn, so I hope everyone who has the means to do so will seriously consider the programs Karen has outlined.
As for the Sun Bowl, we already have the game on our Events calendar and will add any more opportunities to see The Pride in El Paso as we learn about them. Maybe later this week I'll post about why a college football playoff is still a horrible idea, but I'll leave you with this hint:
Finals start at OU on Saturday. If the football team were in the BCS top sixteen for a "playoff" system, then the best case scenario is a home game. On Finals Saturday, and again after Finals are over, and again the day after Christmas, and so on. Or worse, a road game on the same timeframe. Or at a "neutral" site with one week's notice. As a Pride member, do you think you could have managed that kind of December schedule? Would you consider it an OU football game with no college trappings except the team itself? Do you think anyone at any of the schools wants this?
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Five interceptions one week. Five touchdowns the next. Such is life as a freshman quarterback for Oklahoma’s Landry Jones.
It’s no secret that Sooner fans have gotten more accustomed to the latter extreme than the former, but despite having lost an estimated 256,782 starting players due to injury this season, our Sooners made it look like most Texas A&M games of the past decade, extending the streak to seven consecutive wins over the Aggies and making the injury-plagued team bowl-eligible.
We know the administration is already getting mail disputing this, and of course, we have documented evidence that even Texas newspapers thought The Pride won halftime the last time the Aggies came to Norman.
That, of course, was Thriller night. It's a little bit rough on the Aggie Band that their past two visits have come during such special shows—first the 2007 Halloween show, and this weekend, a Veterans Day tribute that included the Carmen Dragon arrangement of America, The Beautiful, complete with a vocal performance from the 200-member strong University of Oklahoma Singing Sooners, and a nice nighttime fireworks show from the press box and south of the stadium.
The Noble Men (and Women) of Kyle—The Pulse of the Spirit of Aggieland Nationally Famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Marching Band has a long and distinguished tradition, and they are always appreciated at Owen Field. I personally believe it's kind of silly to suggest that The Pride could do something in a Halloween or Veterans Day show that would make them look like anything other than the disciplined and focused organization that they are. They're just about the only band in the country who does what they do, and our crowd always respects their show (especially the fans in the end zones, who hear them louder because of how their drill is written). They were recognized for this excellence when they were awarded the Sudler Trophy in 2001, just as The Pride was in 1987. Both bands do what they do very well and are nationally recognized for it.
With two games left, the Sooners are now all but certain to head to a bowl. The Big 12 has seven bowl tie-ins, and we already know that Colorado cannot win the six games this season necessary for bowl eligibility (the Buffaloes are 3-7 at the moment). Baylor is 4-6 and can't be bowl-eligible with one more loss; Texas A&M is 5-5 and must win one more game to be bowl eligible—but A&M's next two games are against Baylor and Texas, and Baylor's are against A&M and Texas Tech. If Baylor loses either game, they're staying home; if A&M loses both, they're staying home, so at most one of those two schools will play in a bowl game this season. Even if more teams hit the 6-game threshhold, there are already seven Big 12 teams that are bowl-eligible (Nebraska, KSU, Iowa State, Missouri, Texas, OSU, and Oklahoma), and it seems reasonable to guess that bowls would pick these teams first.
Texas's win over Baylor on Saturday morning clinched the Big 12 South division for the Longhorns, so even the most remote "OU could get into the BCS somehow" scenario is now off the table. The Cotton, Holiday, Alamo, Sun, and Insight Bowls are all in play, and Alamo Bowl representatives were spotted on the field Saturday night (on the A&M sideline). But now the Sooners have to travel to Lubbock to face a Texas Tech team, in their house, with an identical 6-4 record. Kickoff is at 11:30 AM CDT on the regional Fox Sports Networks, so keep your red and white at hand.
The regional Fox Sports Network channels (“Fox Sports Southwest” here in central Oklahoma) has picked up all three of the Sooners’ remaining games. We already knew that FSN would broadcast the OU vs. Texas A&M game at 6:00 PM CDT this Saturday, but on Monday, the athletic department’s Twitter feed filled in the remaining details:
OU-OSU set for 11:30 a.m., on FSN. OU-Tech will be at either 11:30 or 2 on FSN. Should know which one in the next day or two.
FSN has set OU at Texas Tech for 11:30 a.m., on Nov. 21.
Our Events calendar has been updated appropriately. The early kickoff time for the OSU game means Bedlam rehearsal for this year’s Pride members will be Marching In The Dark! Didn’t you love those 6:00 AM rehearsal times?
(Don’t answer that.)
Posted by Webmaster on 11/9/09; 12:11:45 PM
from the Gameday dept.
Click here to read my take on the Big 12 races and on the surprising reason why a Sooner team no better than 8-4 may still prove irresistible to the Holiday Bowl due to a perfect storm of circumstances.
Posted by Webmaster on 11/8/09; 7:07:34 PM
from the Gameday dept.
Want to see what both pre-game and halftime looked like from above last Saturday night? Click here.
(Adobe Flash required, so it won't play on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The video starts with the BYU Pre-game, but skip along the bottom row of thumbnails by clicking the "->|" icon and the last two, as of this writing, are the Kansas State Pre-Game Show (starting with the Alumni Band!) and Kansas State Halftime.
This is provided courtesy of CVWmedia, the videographers for The Pride, who are taking orders for the 2009 Pride of Oklahoma DVD—:$30 if purchased before November 15th, and $35 if purchased afterward.
Update: And now, a day later, we know that the next home game on November 14, when the Sooners host the Texas A&M Aggies, will kickoff at 6:00 PM CST with regional coverage on Fox Sports Networks (FSN). That’ll make the schedule very similar to the Homecoming schedule, but without the parade and the OUBAA participation, of course.
The Athletic Department just announced that Nebraska vs. OU will kick-off at 7:00 PM CST on ABC. The network had taken what I think was the last of their “six-day notice” opportunities for the season and not set the kickoff time until today or tomorrow. This is good news, because the game will be more widely available—had ABC not aired the game at either 2:30 PM or 7:00 PM, it would have gone to the Comcast network Versus, who would have aired it at 11:30 AM.
(A huge number of people do not have Versus, including the tens of millions DirecTV subscribers, because DirecTV was already paying Comcast more than the channel was worth given its ratings before September 2009. Then Comcast demanded something like an 80% increase in the cost to carry the channel, even though the ratings hadn’t gone up significantly in the four years that DirecTV had been paying more than it had already been worth. DirecTV stood firm, and Versus left DirecTV on September 1. ABC’s decision to carry the game means millions more people will see the 5-3 Sooners battle the 5-3 Huskers in one of the Big 12’s most traditional grudge matches.)
We’ll have a lot more on the aftermath of Homecoming 2009 in the next few days as everyone recovers, but please allow me to say both “thank you” for your kind words yesterday and for the treats, and to say that I thought that halftime exceeded my wildest expectations. When we start seeing videos of last night (as opposed to from November 1, 2007—you can tell the difference because last time, the Pride was wearing white coats, not red ones), we’ll start linking and embedding them on a special page here. But from me, thank you for an exceptionally memorable and fantastic Homecoming. I’m very proud to have been able to support all of you in ambitious performances like that one, and you all came through magnificiently.
You asked for the schedule, and we have it! It's already on the Events calendar, but here it is as well:
10:45 AM
Marching Rehearsal—Meet at the Everest indoor practice facility southeast of the stadium for Rehearsal with the Pride and Pre-game. Please be ready to take the field at 10:45 AM. We suggest being there by 10:30 AM.
12:45 PM
Registration—for those who didn’t attend Friday’s Rehearsal (Beaird Lounge in Student Union). Refreshments served
1:00 PM
Business Meeting—Beaird Lounge – Second Floor Oklahoma Memorial Union
2:30 PM
Lunch—served in the Beaird Lounge, Oklahoma Memorial Union, for those who purchased lunch tickets. Serving will stop at 3:30 PM.
3:00 PM
Homecoming Parade Begins—for those wanting to watch
5:00 PM
Get instruments—Get into the game (leave plenty of time to get through tickets and security), get your instruments, and head towards the tunnels.
5:45 PM
Step-off—Pre-game Begins
6:00 PM
Kick-off—Time to take the Wildcats!!
Click on the link above for a computer-generated version that you can get in printer-friendly form (and that's combined with The Pride's schedule), or click on the image to download your own version in PDF format.
The only ambivalence in the above schedule is "5:20 PM"—honestly, based on what we know, OUBAA Pre-game step-off is likely to be anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes after that actual time. We'll know more on Friday and will communicate the time and the procedures thoroughly on Saturday morning at rehearsal, but you can't go wrong if you're ready to go at 5:20 PM.
If there are any changes to this schedule, we will alert you through the mailing list so everyone gets it in their inbox, as well as posting it here. So if you haven't signed up for our mailing list yet, this would be a really good time to click this link and do that.
Ask Rita Heath if you have any questions, as this is Homecoming Week! Boomer Sooner!
Most FCS-division football schools would be really proud of a team that had three losses under these circumstances:
All in road games
All to ranked teams (#20, #11, and #2)
The total margin of defeat in all three games was just five points
Your Heisman-winning quarterback knocked out of two of those games in the first half with a shoulder injury
Still in position to win late in the fourth quarter, but just…didn't
I think in a place that didn't have an incredibly strong football tradition and seven national championships, they wouldn't feel bad about that record at all. We're not in such a place, and that means we always expect the best and are disappointed for our team and our band when it just doesn't happen. The Sooners are now 3-3 (1-1 in conference play) with six conference games left in the season.
It's not the season anyone imagined in August, but we don't wear the Crimson and Cream because they're fashionable. We wear those colors rain or shine. Some of you reading this are Pride alumni who marched for four solid years and yet never took a bowl trip. Others marched for five consecutive years and went to five bowl games without repeating a single destination. The bad times show how incredibly difficult it is to win a national championship, and make it all the more amazing that OU has seven of them.
It's now extremely unlikely that the networks will use a six-day option to set the kickoff time for the Kansas State game, so we should know the homecoming kickoff time at some point during the day on Monday. Once that's set, your officers will finish up the Saturday schedule, and we'll post it on here, on the Events calendar, and send it to the mailing list as soon as we have it.
UPDATE: Kickoff time for the homecoming game has been set at 6:00 PM. If you are on our mailing list or read our Events calendar, you probably knew that before you read it here! Schedule to follow when it's available.
By the way, we're starting to get some mailing list subscriptions disabled because too many messages have bounced, or the errors they're returning are fatal errors ("this account doesn't exist" and the like). If you haven't been getting any E-mail lately from our mailing list, please take a moment to sign up again by clicking on this mailing list link. We wouldn't want you to miss any news about Homecoming 2009. The game may not be a stepping stone to a national championship, but it's going to be great fun and a halftime you'll always remember!
It’s time for the second longest-running tradition in Sooner Football, right after The Pride of Oklahoma (106 seasons and counting): the 104th matchup between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas, still in the world-famous Cotton Bowl, this Saturday!
The 3-2 Sooners are ranked #18 in both polls after their 33-7 win over Baylor and the return of Sam Bradford, and, if the BCS were published today (the first release comes Sunday after the game, and right now one of the six required computer rankings is not yet published), would rank #20, the fifth-ranking Big 12 team. The 5-0 Longhorns would be #3 in the BCS behind Florida and Alabama, and are split in the polls: #2 in the Harris poll, #3 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ poll. Despite beating Colorado at home 38-14, the Longhorns trailed the unranked 1-4 Buffs 14-10 at halftime, and it was 14-3 with under two minutes left in the half. That was enough to cause some consternation in the Coaches’ poll, which is kind of flaky to begin with. (UCLA lost 24-10 at home to Oregon and yet still got a new vote on one coach’s ballot. Go figure.)
SoonerSports.com has extensive game notes you can read, and our Events calendar already has The Pride of Oklahoma‘s public events listed—a Friday morning rehearsal and exhibition at Ada High School, a Friday evening performance exhibition at the Richardson-Lake Highlands football game, a couple of private or invitation-only rallies, and then on to the Cotton Bowl!
I believe most of the country will see the game on “ESPN on ABC” in high definition at 11:00 AM CDT, but if there is regional coverage, then this page will be updated by Thursday at the latest to show which areas get which games. If you’re not getting OU-Texas, a one-day purchase of ESPN GamePlan from your cable or satellite provider, if it’s available, will give you the game.
There’s a lot of “I dunno…” about the Sooners’ chances on Saturday. I remember the 2000 season, when the undefeated Sooners were barely ranked and not considered a threat to the Longhorns, having defeated only UTEP, Arkansas State, Rice, and Kansas. And then Roy Williams made you believe a man could fly. OU won 63-14 and marched on to its seventh national championship.
A BCS Championship may seem unlikely this year, but Oklahoma is a good team, and sɐxǝʇ appears to think it can't lose. I have different opinions. If you're in Dallas, be sure to show up and support The Pride as well as the Sooners in various events. The halftime show concludes with a fantastic number that couldn’t make it into the end of last week’s Parents’ Day show, so look forward to that.
The TV networks with Big 12 contracts exercised one of their rare (once or twice per season) options to set the kickoff time for the OU-Miami game with only six days’ notice. Normally, the networks have to decide no later than 13 days if they’re going to televise a game, and that’s when kickoff time is set.
So we had the rare instance of learning in the past two days both the kickoff time for OU at Miami on October 3 (7:00 PM CDT) and for Baylor at OU on October 10mn (2:30 PM CDT). Both games will be televised regionally by “ESPN on ABC,” with some areas Saturday night seeing USC at Cal rather than OU at Miami. After Wednesday, you should be able to click here and see the map showing which parts of the country will not see OU vs. Miami.
I put that up front because I saw someone came to the site today looking for the info. Of course, it’s been updated on the “events calendar”, and we’ll keep updating that with schedule information as we get it. (Someone else came looking for The Pride’s schedule during OU-Texas week, but that won’t be made public until that week.)
Even more important, however, is that the OU Band Department presents the first band concert of the fall semester on Thursday night. More on that later today—be sure to finish your Homecoming 2009 Registration before heading to the concert so you don’t miss the deadline!
I'm a little late in talking about this week's game, but I think I'm finally dry from last week's.
It wasn't the flash flood that we saw last year, nor the heavy pour I remember from the 1986 King Orange Jamboree Parade, nor was it cold like during the UTEP game. It was just gentle, steady, soaking rain that continued until midway through the 4th quarter—stopping, of course, right after The Pride had finally finished the (paper) boxed dinner in the stands.
But all that's water under the tunnels (ugh) when you can leave with a 64-0 victory! The Sooners needed a bit of a tune-up after losing Sam Bradford for a few weeks (and Jermaine Gresham for the season), and they took advantage of the opportunity with an old-fashioned Owen Field home rout.
The Golden Hurricane of Tulsa blows into Gaylord Family/Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday, and don't let their unranked status fool you. Tulsa got one vote in this week's USA Today poll (and would have tied for 44th place). When combining the computer rankings that are out so far with the polls that are out, Jerry Palm's indispensable CollegeBCS site says Tulsa would rank 60th, tied with South Carolina. That's exactly halfway through the list of 120 Division I-A Football Bowl Series teams—and the Gamecocks barely lost to higher-ranking Georgia.
Georgia, of course, lost to OSU, which itself got dismantled at home last weekend by Houston (whose band is directed by fellow alum David Bertman!), and Houston and Tulsa are both Conference USA teams. C-USA has regularly produced surprisingly good teams, and let us not forget that Tulsa itself has been to four consecutive bowl games, winning three of them. Our Sooners are favored, but after the first game of the season, I don't think any of us are taking anything for granted.
There's emotion on both sides: Mike Bryan, the son of former Sooner great Rick Bryan who died this summer, is a linebacker for the Golden Hurricane.
The Pride of Oklahoma will perform a new show this week with hits from within the past 12 months, a nice balance from the Heisman Trophy medley that stretched back to the 50s. The Sooner Fan Fest, which has moved from north of the stadium to the Jacobs Track Complex (just north of the indoor Everest Training Center), has been cancelled for this week due to the poor grounds condition and the possibility of more rain. But cross your fingers!
The game begins at 2:30 PM with coverage on regional Fox Sports Networks such as FSN Southwest; check your local listings if FSN Southwest is not your regional FSN channel. The gameday schedule is on our Events calendar and we hope to see you there. BOOMER SOONER!
I think it hurts more when you know you could have won the game but did not. I’ve seen the Sooners in off years (like about 12 years ago) in games where it was obvious they were overmatched, and while the losses were still disappointing, anything else would have been a miracle. Against BYU, just like at the BCS National Championship nine months ago, had 2-3 plays gone just slightly the other way, the outcome would have been different. For me, that’s always what really hurts—some for me, but just as much for the team and for our successors in The Pride of Oklahoma. As with last year’s Texas game, a mid-game injury to a key player causes real trouble for the Sooners.
We’ll see how well they bounce back this Saturday night at Owen Field, as the Sooners host the Idaho State Bengals in a game available only on pay-per-view in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets. Kickoff is at 6:07 PM or thereabouts, but if you’re in the stadium, you’ll see something really special.
We are very excited to tell you that thanks to the cooperation of Mr. Joe Castiglione, Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Programs and Director of Athletics, and our Athletics Marketing Department, The Pride of Oklahoma is once again inviting high school band members to join us on the field as part of a special Band Day performance! This exciting event will take place on Saturday, September 12, 2009 in conjunction with the Oklahoma vs. Idaho State game.
I, your humble Webmaster, was fortunate enough to participate in the last such event held in Norman—but as a high school band member, still a few years from auditioning for The Pride. Unlike those events, where only entire high school bands could participate, this year’s event welcomes some entire bands as well as individual musicians from any band in the state.
(If you’re a band parent, you know how ridiculously crazy schedules are for students who participate in extra-curricular activiites have gotten in the past decade or so. A lot of great musicians at larger schools would love to be on the field with The Pride, but the school itself might not be able to arrange for a 200-member band to all show up, all day Saturday, in uniform, for such an event when there might have been an away game requiring the full band’s participation a hundred miles away on Friday night. Allowing individual participants lets students from schools take part in Band Day even if their entire bands can’t make the commitment.)
It’s the home opener as well. “The Pride” will reprise last night’s performance of a salute to all five Sooner Heisman Trophy winners (including the injured-for-a-few-weeks Sam Bradford) and perform a new tune with the high school musicians. The game also features the home debut of feature twirler Megan McGeary, a world-class twirler and a very nice person, much like her predecessor, Meredith Sigler (who helped recruit Megan!). I’m sure you’ll agree that Megan will make an outstanding addition to the Pride’s rich history of champion feature twirlers.
Meanwhile, the countdown on the red box on the home page continues to tick away as registrations for Homecoming 2009 are due by October 1. They’re arriving steadily, so make sure yours is one of them—don’t delay!
It’s quite pretty, but I have to admit, I was unaware that someone had made and retroactively issued BCS-style national championship trophies for 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, and 1985. Who knew?
Clearly, though, some people haven’t stopped thinking about the 2008 football season, as this picture from the University of Texas’s Moncrief-Neuhaus training facility shows:
(Via The Crimson and Cream Machine. ESPN’s Tim Griffin reports that Mack Brown “wasn’t aware” of it and “will have it fixed.” You can’t make this stuff up, though you could get rich if you could.)
Update: ESPN now reports that Texas assistant football coaches (but not Mack Brown) will receive Big 12 Championship bonus pay for 2008, even though the team didn't even make it to the conference championship game.
Posted by Webmaster on 4/7/09; 1:05:46 AM
from the Gameday dept.
Oklahoma and Miami, whose original football date in 2009 was lost to a facility conflict at Dolphin Stadium, have rescheduled the game to Oct. 3 and the Sooner program has completed its schedule for next season.
The Alumni Association had previously said "this spring" to set a date for Homecoming/Reunion, but given the schedule as listed here, it's likely to be either vs. Baylor on October 10 or vs. Kansas State on Halloween. If you're thinking, "Ooh, Baylor, we want a team we can beat," remember the last time we played Baylor for homecoming—four years ago, in the Bomar era—and that it went into double-overtime before the Sooners pulled it out.
As the Athletic Department points out:
The three Football Bowl Subdivision teams on the non-conference slate were a combined 28-12 last season and all three played in bowl games. Including the Big 12 schedule, OU's 2009 slate will include eight bowl teams from the previous season.
Which is a way of saying "Yes, we realize Idaho State is a I-AA team, now called 'Football Championship Subdivision,' but did you read how hard it was just to get the previously scheduled Miami date to work out? And they've kind of gone downhill since we set the home-and-home series, but we're hoping they pull it back out." Four of the eight bowl teams won their bowls after the 2008 season.
As you would expect, our Events calendar is updated with the dates and locations (the home team is listed first, but I don't know who the home team is for the Jerry Jones Invitational on September 5 yet), so if you subscribe to it in iCal or Google Calendar or Vista Calendar, you should already have the dates on your schedule. Yay!
If you didn't get to see The Pride of Oklahoma during Thursday night's bowl game, you can purchase the entire game from FOX on iTunes for $4.99 if you want. An abbreviated version will also replay on most of the regional Fox Sports Network channels for much of the next 3000 years, especially Fox Sports Southeast (and Southwest, which is based in Texas).
If you just want to see the band, we've got you covered! First up is the segment of Oklahoma! that FOX aired during pregame:
And, of course, the segment of halftime that aired, to the delight of Barry Switzer. This features part of Roland Barrett's arrangement of Pinball Wizard from this year's The Who show.
Finally, if you read on the mailing list that FOX's live streaming Web video showed all of halftime from the cable-operated skycam that floats about 15 feet above the field, we have that as well. The good news is that it shows all of both halftime shows, with audio (although choppy at the end of each show). The bad news is that it's only from the overhead camera (although it moves around all the time), and since it was streaming Web video, it wasn't super high-quality to begin with. Nonetheless, it's the only place you'll see all of both halftime shows unless you were in the stadium, and here it is:
Thanks to FOX for the great video, and remember to go buy the game in iTunes if you want to own it.
Any Sooner loss is disappointing to Sooner fans, particularly in a big big game. Speaking only for myself, I'm not as disappointed as I might have thought. After the 2003, 2004, and 2007 seasons, I was really crushed by the bowl losses, because the team I saw playing the bowl game was not the Oklahoma Sooners team I saw play much more strongly throughout the rest of those seasons.
The Sooners who played the Gators tonight were the Sooners I'd seen all season long.
Their only two losses were to top-five teams (and guess which of the two was the lower-ranked team), by ten points, after leading or being tied at halftime. In Dallas, the Sooners lost a key defensive player in the third quarter and couldn't compensate.
In Miami, the Gators just made some tremendous plays. While it is apparently in FOX's BCS contract that they announcers must not go ten seconds without complimenting Tim Tebow, to me, the real play of the game was that final Florida interception, where the defender literally took the ball out of the Sooners' hands. Had that drive completed, the Sooners would have gone ahead, and even Tim Tebow tends to get flustered when he's behind. (Did you see him run for 12 yards in the third quarter and react as if he deserved a trophy? That was…odd.)
(The more disappointing aspect of the evening was the aforementioned FOX booth team. I realize that Tebow's speech after Florida's loss to Ole Miss took the cynical sports media by surprise, but it was not the Sermon on the Mount.)
On the way to tonight's game, however, the Oklahoma Sooners picked up their sixth Big 12 South division title over the screaming objections of the guys who didn't beat Texas Tech, as well as their 42nd conference championship, and played in what is at least their 12th bowl game to decide the national championship. Bob Stoops got his 100th win as head coach, making Oklahoma the first and only program in major college football to have had four head coaches with at least 100 wins each (the other three are Barry Switzer, Bud Wilkinson, and Benny Owen). They set the record for the most number of weeks ranked #1 all-time in the AP poll, and extended their all-time lead for number weeks ranked #1 in the BCS.
And this quiet kid from Putnam City North won the Heisman Trophy, and made Kirk Herbstreit die just a little bit inside.
So you can see why I'm still proud of that team, and of the 2008 edition of the organization we have in common. The Pride of Oklahoma earned their name the entire way—as you could see for yourselves, because FOX had them on streaming webcam live throughout the entire game. Even now, well after the game is over, I'm still watching the drumline live in the stands at Dolphin Stadium during the BCS trophy presentation. (It just cut off at 11:00 PM CST.)
They did the uniform and Sooner Spirit proud, and we're honored to welcome the outgoing seniors into our membership.
You can now view the broadcast video of pregame and halftime, the broadcast video of the Florida band's halftime show ("Big Noise from Winnetka!" No kidding!), and the streaming webcam live footage from the overhead cable cam that showed all of both bands' halftime shows right here on our site. Just click here.
BTW, we sent both the streaming webcam news and the halftime video link to everyone on the OUBAA Mailing List before or during the game, so those of you on the list got the news faster and may have seen more. If you're not a member of our list, click here to join today and stay in touch with your fellow former Pride members.
With the end of the football season, news here slows down until we start planning for Homecoming 2009, sometime after we actually learn when it will be. (So far, we know it will be during a home game in the fall of 2009. Other than that, it's a bit up in the air.) We'd welcome Sooner Showmen or WBB alumni who wanted to keep the home page updated for basketball season, so if you're interested, drop me a line.
Also, very soon we'll have ways to donate securely, online, to the OU Band Alumni's accounts at the OU Foundation, so you can help future members of The Pride in their academic and musical careers. Donations to these accounts are tax-deductible and will be made securely, online, through the Foundation's Web site but directed to our specific scholarship accounts. There will even be a link on the page to click to see if your company will match your gift, doubling the scholarhip potential of your donation. We'll have more about that when it's ready, but I wanted to give a heads-up about how easy it's going to be.
Until we meet again, it has been a privilege bringing you news this year, and —hmm, do I hear a concert A♭?
O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A
Our chant rolls on and on!
Thousands strong
Join heart and song
In alma mater’s praise
Of campus beautiful by day and night
Of colors proudly gleaming Red and White
’Neath a western sky
OU’s chant will never die.
Live on University!
A two-minute video from FOX Sports, taken at Monday morning's rehearsal with The Pride in Miami. Featuring small interviews with Brian Britt, drum major Jason Marshall, and flute section members Lauren Brockman and Heidi Fioretti.
(Probably for copyright reasons, the background music is a repeating recording of Boomer, not sound from the actual rehearsal. Still, worth a watch!)
There have been five major post-season football games at Cardinal University of Phoenix Stadium since it opened. Two Fiesta Bowls, one BCS National Championship, Super Bowl XLII, and yesterday's NFC Wild Card game.
In all five games, one team was heavily favored (and we know which one it was for the two Fiesta Bowls), and that favored team lost all four games. The 2007 Fiesta Bowl (OU vs. Boise State) was close, and the two NFL games were somewhat close, but the other two were blowouts for the underdog team.
The 2009 Fiesta Bowl is to be played in that stadium tomorrow night. The Texas Longhorns are heavily favored over the Ohio State Buckeyes.
I'm just sayin’.
Posted by Webmaster on 1/4/09; 2:22:32 PM
from the Gameday dept.
It's not quite like last year, when KWTV's launch of news9.com (separating from The Oklahoman at the time) led them to send a crew withThe Pride on the Fiesta Bowl trip and publish blogs from no fewer than six Pride members during the trip (as chronicled here), but it's a nice standard short piece about the trip, with quotes from Brian Britt and drum major Jason Marshall, whom many of you met at Homecoming 2008.
We continue to bring you today's news yesterday! We posted details of public performances on Friday. What's more, the "More Info" box with the list of public Pride performances looks (to my eye, but I'm jaded) a bit more like the slightly reworded version on our Events calendar than the itinerary sent to Pride members, so maybe they came here for info! If so, welcome to Oklahoman reporters and staff—click on the name of any member who posted a message to send them E-mail if you want to ask them questions!
There are some interesting comments to the article, including someone wondering if the band members hate Boomer Sooner! Feel free to sign up at http://www.newsok.com/ and post your own comments! And keep wishing our men and women in crimson and cream a fun, productive, relaxing, and trophy-producing trip starting tomorrow! Several dozen of them are about to join our ranks, and we welcome them all!
The Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl were played yesterday; the Cotton Bowl and Fiesta Bowl are played today, and the Sugar Bowl follows on Monday night (so as not to get trampled by first-round NFL playoffs on Saturday and Sunday).
The Sooners, however, play in the BCS National Championship game next Thursday. Since the bowl trip is usually about a week long with the bowl itself 2-3 days before the trip ends, that means The Pride of Oklahoma has not even left for the bowl yet. The team only left today. This is only the third year of the "Plus One" BCS championship, and the first time the Sooners have played in it, so it's the first bowl game I can remember that takes place after the 3rd or 4th of January.
I don't know about you folks, but no matter how much I think about it, this still blows my mind a little bit. The Sooners are playing for their eighth national championshp, and The Pride got to spend both Christmas and New Year's Day at home with their families. Can anyone remember a bowl trip later in the season than this one—or, for that matter, any trip involving the full Pride that took place this long after the fall semester ended? It's wild!
Our Events calendar has been updated with The Pride's public schedule for the trip, including rehearsals and pep events. Keep a few things in mind if you're making the trip to South Beach:
Like most modern computer calendars, our event calendar is aware of time zones. If you subscribe to the calendar in iCal or Windows Vista calendar (or even Google Calendar), then be sure to change the time zone on your computer when you get to Miami. (If it's Google Calendar, you'll also have to tell Google about your new time zone.)
All of the events are correctly listed in Eastern Standard Time, so when your computer is set to EST, they'll show up at the right time. If you're in Oklahoma now and your computer is set to Central Time, then the events show up in Central Time. (For example, kickoff for the game shows up at 7:15 PM CST, which is correct, but it's 8:15 PM EST.) Make sure you set your computer time zone correctly or you'll be an hour early for everything.
If you use the online version of the calendar, then go to this page on your computer and set the time zone to "America/New York" or "EST". That sets the calendar preference for that computer. Until you do that, all the online stuff shows up in the server's time zone, and the server is right here in the OKC Metro area, so it's all in Central Time.
If you rarely use this stuff, I'm sorry if this seems like a pain. If you subscribe to the calendar in Mac OS X or Windows Vista, though, and live outside the Central time zone, then all of the game times and other events have shown up in your correct time all along. It's only a bit annoying when you change time zones, like on a national championship trip! Woohoo!
Practices are at two separate facilities. We've tried to be sure that every event's details have either an address or a link to a page with a map or more details. If you use iCal, the details are in the event. For the online calendar, click on the name of the event in the calendar and you'll get a little pop-up window with more details and any hyperlinks to more information.
Performance times for pep events (and even for pregame) are approximate, because we all know how these things go. The OU Touchdown Club party and the Boomer Bash require tickets, but the links in those events tell you how to get them. The bowl-sponsored events appear to be free, but I can't swear to that, so be aware.
This has certainly been a crazy season. I can't remember a clearer distinction than this year between Sooner fans (at least the ones I hang around) and Longhorn fans (at least the ones I hear from): when OU lost to a high-ranked Texas team in early October, we thought that meant we'd never get to the BCS title game. When Texas lost to a high-ranked Texas Tech team in late October, they saw absolutely no reason why that loss should be held against them. If you'd told me it'd go down this way in August, I would have laughed at you, probably with some pointing and mockery.
And yet the Sooners' workmanlike demolition of the Red Raiders, the Cowboys, and the Tigers in three all-but-playoff games have gotten them to the third attempt for the eighth national championship, in the same city (and same bowl committee) where the Sooners secured or won the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh national championships.
Third time the charm? If you watched lots of college football this holiday season, it was pretty obvious that the pundits think Florida's going to win, but after the Sooners' late-season comeback and Sam Bradford's Heisman Trophy, they keep trying to hedge their bets—a lot moreso than they did in 2000, where their pre-bowl discussion was all about whether Miami should be declared national champions "when" Florida State beat Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. You may remember that game's final score of Oklahoma 13, Florida State 2, with those two points coming on a fourth-quarter bad punt snap that OU knocked out of the end zone. The heavily-favored Seminoles scored no offensive points.
I don't predict these things, but I know that the Sooners can win this game and bring that eighth national championship home to Norman. Whether you're in Dolphin Stadium or just planted in front of a good TV tuned to FOX on Thursday night, put on your reds and whites and get ready to cheer. BOOMER SOONER!
They had these "Sam Bradford, Heisman Trophy Winner" free desktop wallpaper pictures online less than 30 minutes after the award was announced.
Click here to download them, and several others, in a variety of sizes. Don't forget about the free Pride of Oklahoma wallpaper (desktop pictures) you can also get. And congratulations to Oklahoma City's own Sam Bradford, winner of the 2008 Heisman Trophy!
Posted by Webmaster on 12/13/08; 8:42:30 PM
from the Gameday dept.
While The Whines of Texas shall surely continue, the bowls are determined, and Oklahoma is the BCS #1 team! Fresh off last night's victory for the Big 12 Championship, the Sooners will face #2 Florida for the national championship on January 8, 2009, in Miami!
The sports writers continue to pretend that they can't figure out how to explain why OU is here and Texas is not, but in truth, any sports writer or pundit who says this is lying—they know perfectly well why. Here's the short version:
Only Boise State and Utah went undefeated, but they didn't play a difficult schedule, so they're not going to play for the national championship.
That leaves a series of teams with one loss each, and the BCS system's task is to decide which two of those teams should play for the title. The answer is "the two teams whose losses were the least painful." Florida lost by one point to a conference opponent, early in the season, on a blocked extra point. They came back strong and are the darlings of the East Coast media.
Oklahoma's single loss was by ten points, but it was to a very good team. In fact, OU's only loss was to the highest-ranked team that won't play for the national title: #3 Texas. Texas has a history of late-season collapses, and if that had led to more than one loss (as usual), then OU's rankings wouldn't have been as strong. But since Texas had only one loss, and to a top-ten team at that, OU's loss to Texas was seen as far less damaging than, say, losing to #7 Texas Tech, or to #27 Oregon State.
So, thanks Mack! If your team hadn't done so well, the Sooners might not have gotten to go to Miami! (Your team wouldn't either, but you have eight whole months to read the eight sentences of tie-breakers and understand them. That's just one sentence per month! We know you can do it!)
I think my favorite part of the BCS Selection Show on FOX was when they showed current Pride members playing in the Band Room and labeled it the "Barry Switzer Center." That's where Coach Stoops was—the pep band was in the band room we all know and (more or less) love.
The schedule for The Pride in Florida will come together over the next week. When we know more about performances and rehearsals, we'll be sure to post them to our Events calendar. The Gators are for real, and the challenge facing the Sooners is as big as any Sooner team has dealt with. The Gators will be favored, just like Florida State was in 2000, and the crowd will not be on Oklahoma's side.
And there's a full month (plus a day) until the actual game.
Neither the team, nor the spirit organizations, nor the fans get to coast through this game. Finishing strong takes as much work as getting here, so keep your reds and whites clean and ready—and stay tuned for further Pride updates!
Posted by Webmaster on 12/7/08; 8:10:48 PM
from the Gameday dept.
You know, honestly, when I made this argument here on Sunday morning, I had not heard it anywhere else—that's why I posted it. Yet despite a paucity of page views, "Texas knew the rules" seems to have settled in as the explanation that Mack said he couldn't provide. A Texas Tech group even paid for a banner flying over Austin this week reading, "HEY MACK. QUIT WHINING U KNEW THE RULES". Jerry Palm referred to this as "In the two wrongs make it even wronger department."
Nonetheless, the Longhorns are eagerly rooting for Missouri in Saturday night's Big XII Championship, because if Missouri wins, Texas is in prime position to play for the BCS National Championship against the winner of the SEC Championship. The bad news for them is that Oklahoma is in better position: if OU wins vs. a Missouri team the Sooners have not seen this season, the Sooners will play the SEC winner. Jerry Palm at "CollegeBCS.com" says the math makes it all but impossible for USC to jump into the #2 spot even if Missouri wins the conference, so it's the SEC champ vs. either OU or Texas for the national title.
The Pride of Oklahoma has no public rehearsals or off-site events tomorrow—it's all at the stadium, including both pre-game and halftime performances. Since the Sooners are the "home" team for the championship, The Pride marches second in both cases.
Arrowhead Stadium is a fine football facility, currently being made even more fine with ongoing renovations. That means some roads inside the Truman Sports Complex are currently blocked. You'll want to plan to arrive at the sports complex no later than 6:00 PM to be sure you can park and get to your seats before The Pride takes the field for pre-game, scheduled for 6:49 PM. If you can be there earlier and clap for our friends in the Marching Mizzou, all the better.
The Tigers have a lot to prove and little to lose; the Sooners are essentially in their third consecutive week of playoffs. As with Texas Tech just two weeks ago, there will be a game after this, but it doesn't matter nearly as much if the Sooners don't prevail in this one.
As with last week's game, the Sooners are on the road against a team that's capable of surprising everyone at any given moment, led by a quarterback who sat as a Heisman finalist a year ago but will not do so this year and who therefore may have something to prove on the biggest stage he'll get of the year. As you can see from the survey on the left (click for a larger image) taken on ESPN.com, most of the game is paying more attention to the SEC Championship, with two states as notable red exceptions. All the more reason not to let up on the intensity!
Kickoff time is 7:10 PM CST with national coverage in high-definition on ABC. If you're there, don't let up for a moment. If you're not, don't let up either. Boomer Sooner! Game on.
(Update: OK, after a lot of rest and such, I've figured out what Mack seems to have been trying to say, and have updated this post accordingly to give him some benefit of the doubt. Now that OU is the 2008 Big 12 South champion, the argument moves to whether the tie-breaker should be changed or next year. I'll bet it will be, whether it "should" be or not. Updated again to fix an incorrect reference to "Texas Tech" that should have been to "Texas" regarding the SEC tie-breaker.)
I speak all year long, every year, about how valuable Jerry Palm's CollegeBCS.com subscription site is for people who really love NCAA BCS-division football and want to know what's going on. It would be cheating to reveal his analysis of what will probably happen later today (I'll just say you shouldn't be dejected), but this paragraph from last night says volumes:
Oklahoma has made their case. They beat Oklahoma St 61-41 and now it's up to the voters. ESPN did all it could for Texas, giving Mack Brown a forum for a lengthy campaign speech in the second half. Kirk Herbstreit also stumped for them. We'll see how much influence ESPN has.
The "lengthy campaign speech" came with 5:08 left in the third quarter of last night's game, and if you have the game recorded, you can return to that spot and see if my transcript of what Mack Brown said is fair or not. The problem with Brown's "campaigning" is that I cannot characterize his "arguments" as better than confused, and maybe as far as dishonest.
As we all know by now (can you believe that message here has been read more than 1700 times?), the BCS ranking today is the fifth-level tiebreaker for a divisional tie in the Big 12 Conference. It gets to that point because the first four levels of tie-breaker don't resolve the issue at all. ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit (whose man-love for Colt McCoy is starting to creep me out, honestly) asked Brown what he thought of using the BCS rankings as a fifth-level tie-breaker, with no one involved apparently realizing that the old Big 8 tie-breaker was the ranking in one of the plain old polls of the day:
Kirk—number one: it's three really good football teams, with Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech, and somebody's gonna be really disappointed tomorrow. There'll be two teams that probably deserve to play in a championship that won't get there. But it seems to me like, after looking at the SEC rule for a tie-breaker and the ACC rule for a tie-breaker, it's pretty simple that if Oklahoma State wins, Tech would be in head-to-head with us, and since Tech is not in the mix if Oklahoma wins because it's two highly-rated teams, we should be in head-to-head if Oklahoma wins tonight, regardless of the score.
OK. Putting aside the ridiculous notion that any three teams "deserve" a single spot for a championship (does Mack Brown think the NCAA basketball tournament unfair because the "best teams" sometimes lose their early round games?), Brown has pulled a colossal bait-and-switch on Herbstreit, who either doesn't know or doesn't care. Both of those conferences decided, as a matter of conference policy, that head-to-head records among the tied teams would be the first tie-breaker even in cases of three or more tied teams. The Big 12 chose this for two tied teams, but does not consider it at all if there are three or more teams tied. That's because it makes no sense—you can only have a 3-way or greater tie if all the teams involved lost to each other in a round-robin fashion.
Brent Musberger had the same problem during last night's broadcast, repeatedly saying he was "uncomfortable" with using BCS rankings as a tie-breaker. We'll need to go back and check the Big 12 Charter and look for the part where keeping Musberger comfortable is listed as a conference priority. Besides, as you can see in the links we added above, both the SEC and ACC use BCS rankings as a very late tie-breaker as well. Does that make him uncomfortable?
Musberger didn't seem to realize that the Big 12 chose its own tie-breaker rules, and that they weren't imposed by the BCS or something. He even had ESPN's stats people run the numbers to see who would win a tie-breaker if it was point differential against common opponents, and noted that OU would win it. He said he didn't understand why that couldn't be the rule, but if that's true, it's just a spectacular failure of imagination. Such a rule would encourage, if not require, good teams to run up the score against weaker conference opponents in case it was needed in a tie-breaker.
Anyway, back to Mack. There's no evidence that he was ever, ever concerned about this in the 10-12 years this has been the rule, at least until his Longhorns lost to Texas Tech four weeks ago. And if OSU had won last night, such rules would have resolved the tie in favor of Texas Tech anyway. But since OU won last night, and all three tied teams lost to each other in round-robin fashion, it would not come into play at all even if the rule had been adopted!
Mack's quick verbal slight said "Tech is not in the mix if Oklahoma wins because it's two highly-rated teams," but that's the real bait-and-switch, and Herbstreit didn't notice. Mack is apparently referring to the very last SEC three-way tie-breaking rule:
The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the last weekend of regular-season games shall be the divisional representative in the SEC Championship Game, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five-or-fewer places of the highest ranked tied team. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the SEC Championship Game.
Did you catch that? In the penultimate BCS rankings on Sunday, Oklahoma finished #2, Texas #3, and Texas Tech #7. Under SEC rules, since Texas is "ranked within five-or-fewer places of the highest ranking tied team," Tech would get tossed out of the tie and the winner would be the head-to-head winner of the Texas-OU game.
Isn't it amazing how Mack has suddenly found religion for tie-breaking rules that would, in this one case only, decide it in his favor by throwing out the lowest-ranked team—the one that beat his team? That the BCS rankings should be used to throw out the lowest-ranked team but not to reward the highest-ranked team? Quite a tightrope he's walking there!
So, in short, Mack Brown is saying that if the rules were different than what he's always known that they are, Texas would and should win a tie-breaker by throwing out Tech's equally impressive record. But it's trivially easy to argue that you should win if the rules were different. The trick of competition, Mack, is to win with the rules as they are.
Musberger then asked Brown how he felt about Texas still being in the BCS National Championship hunt even if OU plays next week for the Big 12 championship, and here Mack kind of went off the rails again:
There's no doubt. I do think the Big 12 will revisit this rule next spring, because head-to-head—if we talk about playoffs all the time, when you play head-to-head and it doesn't count, it's really hard to act like playoffs would make a difference. Our kids have played great. They are in the mix. You guys saw the Texas-Oklahoma game. It was a classic, but it was on a neutral field and we won the game! That's where I would be coming from. Oklahoma's a great team. And I think it'd be hard to try to explain to our kids next week why Missouri and Oklahoma are playing when we beat both of them.
First, head-to-head does count, or OU wouldn't have a loss and be in the three-way tie. Second, do any of you have this vague memory (as do I) of Mack Brown arguing in 2003 or 2004 that Texas deserved a BCS berth even though his team lost the OU-Texas game?
But more importantly to me is that last sentence. The University of Texas is a major institution of higher learning with distinguished faculty and alumni throughout the world, including in communications. Walter Cronkite is a Texas alum, which is why he narrates the university's PSA during conference games. The tie-breaker rules have been published forever, and are quite easy to understand.
If Mack really thinks it's "hard" to explain why his team's loss to Texas Tech means they might not play for the Big 12 championship (especially when one team in the championship was always going to be a North division team, whether Texas beat them or not), I think the University of Texas really needs to look at its continuing education program for tenured faculty like Professor Brown. It's neither difficult to explain nor understand. If you want a clear path to the championship game, win all your games. Texas didn't (nor did OU), and so we have resolution based on other factors.
See? And I'm not a tenured professor of anything, anywhere.
To wrap it up, Herbstreit asked Brown how it felt not to have any control over the process going forward—an odd question, since ESPN's repeated choices on Thursday through Saturday to give massive ABC airtime to Brown to campaign for his case meant he had a lot more "control" than others involved did. Brown said:
I think the only thing that can come out of this good, Kirk, because, again, there'll be two good teams not go[ing], is that hopefully everybody will revisit this system and not have kids not be able to get someplace when they've accomplished what they needed to on the field.
Well, again, no. "What they needed to [accomplish] on the field" was beating Texas Tech, and they didn't do it. If they did, Brown's statement would make sense. But they didn't, so they're in this situation. The subtext to Mack Brown's argument is that OU shouldn't be allowed to play for the Big 12 championship because Texas beat OU. Let's be nice and presume that he doesn't extend this to its logical conclusion, that a 2-9 Texas team (beating only OU and Missouri) deserves to play for the Big 12 championship because "we beat both of them," and say that he really means that Texas deserves to go because Texas beat OU and has the same record as OU.
But that's not what the rules say, and Brown knew that at the beginning of the season. His team did not "accomplishe what it needed to on the field" or he wouldn't have to make such twisted arguments for the Longhorns.
There's also this entire "neutral field" argument that doesn't withstand scrutiny. He said in earlier interviews that he'd love to have played Texas Tech in Austin, implying that OU couldn't have won that game in Lubbock. But Texas hosted OSU on October 25 and won by just four points, 28-24. OU played OSU in Stillwater and won by 20 points, 61-41. Why should anyone give credence to the "neutral field" argument when Texas won by a smaller margin at home against a ranked opponent than OU did at that same opponent's home field?
I transcribed this to be sure I had it right—my impressions of Brown's arguments from listening to them last night were that they were a lot more dishonest than I've presented them here. I think upon further listening that he probably meant to express the opinion that the Big 12 should use head-to-head tie-breakers even in 3-way or bigger ties, and I think that's valid—but again, it would make absolutely no difference today. It would only have made a difference had Mack gotten his "magic tie-breaker" that dumps Tech from the mix for being lower ranked, but then ignoring that Texas is ranked lower than OU.
That's the kind of argument that we would tend to think reflected poorly on the entire school if they came from someone speaking for the University of Oklahoma. And make no mistake, this disappoints me—I think everyone should make their best case, but I don't think you should have to resort to sophistry to do it.
Brown and ESPN's campaign paid major dividends in the ESPN (Coaches) poll, where OU's lead dropped from 43 points to one point. But as Jerry Palm put it:
Texas won over voters this week and pulled virtually even in the polls. The Longhorns' six point lead in the Harris poll is just slightly better than the Sooners' one-point margin with the coaches'. But the BCS is designed to turn to the computers where there is no clear consensus among the voters, and those came up big for OU.
In particular, it appears that the fact that Oklahoma beat a quality opponent on the road was a big factor. The two ratings where the Sooners made their biggest move were Sagarin and Wolfe, the two that consider game location. Oklahoma passed Texas in both.
ESPN has responded by launching cowardly on-the-air attacks at Palm, falsely saying he participates in the polls (he does not), or that he runs one of the computer rankings (he does not, and has been quite vocal in opposition to the closed, unverifiable nature of five of the six computer rankings). They're not going to let this go.
Posted by Webmaster on 11/30/08; 11:12:22 AM
from the Gameday dept.
It's a phrase you hear in far too many Sooner seasons: It all comes down to this. It was true Saturday night in Norman, and it's true again Saturday night in Stillwater.
I really haven't experienced anything quite like last Saturday Night at Owen Field. I remember saying this ahead of time:
Texas Tech is favored to win the game, but I can't help but remember what huge favorites the Longhorns were going into the 2000 OU-Texas game. No one seemed to think OU's defense could stand up to the Texas attack. Then something…happened.
I’ve been attending Oklahoma football games since 1985 and I can honestly say that I don’t remember having ever seen a home crowd like the one we had Saturday nigh for the Texas Tech game. Bob Stoops threw down the gauntlet earlier in the week and the fans rose to the challenge.
The crowd of 86,646 (a record at crowd at OU) came early, stayed late and made constant noise. There is no way you’ll ever convince me that the Red Raiders weren’t rattled. Don’t believe me? Check out the looks on Mike Leach’s and Graham Harrell’s faces when the crowd took a moment to “Jump Around."
I was inThe Pride in 1985, and I never saw anything quite like it, either. It wasn't like the OU-Nebraska game eight years ago, where the fans stormed the field afterward—but the crowd energy was tangible. You could feel it. After the game, the players came over to the band and the other student sections, and climbed on the walls, thanked the fans, took laps around the stadium—I've seen that at Big 12 championships, or bowl games, but never at a home game. I can't find anyone else who remembers anything like that at a home game, either.
Something…happened.
And now the regular season ends Saturday night in Stillwater, in Bedlam, but not (if forecasters are right) in Ice Bowl II. The Sooners need to win to stay in the Big 12 South (and, more distantly, the BCS National Championship) race. It would help if Texas A&M wins on Thanksgiving night, but because of the odd ways the tie-breakers work, if Texas wins on Thursday night, we need Texas Tech to bounce back at home and beat Baylor on Saturday afternoon.
If all three teams win (not including OSU, since obviously OSU and OU can't both win, and OSU can't win the division no matter what happens now), the division title goes to the team with the highest BCS ranking on Sunday afternoon. In this scenario, OU significantly narrows its gap behind Texas in the computers by beating #11 OSU, but neither Texas nor Tech does all that well by beating unranked teams.
According to the invaluable Jerry Palm, assuming that the poll vote numbers stay exactly the same, OU needs to jump one rank in three of the four computer rankings that could help (there are six BCS computers, but the formula throws out the high and low scores for each team from the six, so only four of them count), OU would pass Texas in the computers and take the #2 spot in the rankings. Texas needs to expand its lead in the polls, or needs Florida State to beat Florida, because that might give the Longhorns more points in the polls since Florida is between OU and Texas in the Coaches' poll.
So, if you're a Sooner Purist, this weekend, in addition to rooting for OU, you're rooting for Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Florida. I'm not sure if an Alabama loss would give Texas more points than Oklahoma in the polls, but it would complicate the situation even further.
As for The Pride, I take it as a compliment that clips of them in last year's Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade dominate NBC's commercials for this year's parade, but they're all at home resting this year, as we hope you are too. The band's public schedule for Saturday is now on our Events calendar, and they'll be wearing those all-red uniforms—debuted just a year ago in the Macy's Parade—to Stillwater for the very first time.
And it all comes down to this: 7:00 PM CST on ABC in high-definition, broadcast from coast to coast. Put on your red and white and prepare to shout until you lose your voice!
The ESPN Road Trip crew visits Norman in preparation for tomorrow's game, including a trip to Pride rehearsal and a visit to the saxophone sectional (well, you see Drubner getting near the tree, at least…)
They're already touting it as the "Game of the Century" for this Saturday in Norman, but haven't we already had one or two of those in Norman this decade already? I vividly remember when #1 Nebraska came to play #3 Oklahoma in October 2000—"Red October"—and it was the loudest day I've ever experienced in Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. It was easily the loudest thing I've ever heard, and I've been in enclosed rooms with the drumline.
And that game kicked off at 11:00 AM. ESPN College Gameday was in town, and the entire atmosphere was crazy. This time, of course, it'll be completely different. #1 Texas Tech comes to play #5 Oklahoma with the Big 12 South title (and potential national championship game slot) on the line, ESPN College Gameday will be in town, but kickoff is at 7:00 PM. Completely different.
(Did I mention that since that Nebraska game, they've added about 10,000 seats to the stadium? No? Well, maybe it's going to be a little bit crazy too.)
The Pride will perform for College Gameday in the morning, and then it's going to be one wild Senior Day for those members who are on the brink of joining us as OU Band Alumni. The rehearsal and concert schedule are on our Events calendar if you want to come show support for this final home performance of the 2008 season, too. If not, put on your reds and whites and get in front of a good HDTV with ESPN at 7:00 PM, because this may be a game for the current Pride members like that "Red October" game of 2000.
Texas Tech is favored to win the game, but I can't help but remember what huge favorites the Longhorns were going into the 2000 OU-Texas game. No one seemed to think OU's defense could stand up to the Texas attack. Then something…happened.
If there's one rule for Sooner Football, it's "don't rule anything out." We hope to see you there!
Congrats to our Pride of Oklahoma for keeping the energy at Kyle Field high during Saturday afternoon's game—at least for the fans in red (instead of maroon). With the Sooners' road win over Texas A&M, they rise to #5 in the BCS, and take the next week off before meeting two top-ten teams to close out the season.
We know today that the final home game against #2-ranked Texas Tech will start at 7:00 PM on Saturday, November 22. The Pride's full schedule is already updated on our Events calendar if you can come out to see the seniors, who are about to join us as Pride Alumni (always a bittersweet time).
Update: Well, I take it back. ESPN College Gameday is coming to Norman on November 22, and that likely means Pride participation as it has in the past. That means the rehearsal will be moved back to the morning hours, but we don't have the final schedule yet. I've removed the rehearsal stuff from the Events calendar and will update it again when we have final times. ESPN! Things are getting big, folks!
Since Texas Tech defeated OSU in Lubbock on Saturday, they still control their own destiny for both the Big 12 and BCS National Championships. OSU is now out of the conference title picture, at least without a major miracle. If OU wins out and Texas Tech loses only to OU, the three-way conference tie might resolve in favor of the Sooners, because the division title goes to the team with the highest BCS ranking in the November 30 release.
However, Texas is currently two spots ahead of Oklahoma, and there's no promise that two high-quality wins for the Sooners would push them ahead of Texas in the rankings. Jerry Palm of CollegeBCS.com thinks the Sooners would win that tie-breaker "because they have more of a chance to make a favorable impression on voters than Texas does," but there are no guarantees.
If OU wins out and Texas loses one of its last two games, to either Kansas or Texas A&M, then OU wins the Big 12 South and plays for the championship, probably against Missouri. (Missouri clinches the Big 12 North this weekend if they win or if Kansas loses to Texas. Unless both of those things don't happen, Missouri wins the division.)
Penn State's loss drops them out of national title consideration, but it's a bit of a problem for our friend Betty Wiseman and her Michigan State Spartans. As Jerry Palm put it, "If Penn State entered [the Michigan State-Penn State] game with the Nittany Lions undefeated, that game would have been for the Big Ten title. Now, MSU needs someone to beat Ohio State." (He actually said "Spartans undefeated," but he meant Penn State.)
Too much football yet to play! BOOMER SOONER!
Posted by Webmaster on 11/10/08; 9:30:53 PM
from the Gameday dept.
The full Pride of Oklahoma heads to College Station, TX, for the regionally televised matchup of our BCS #6 Sooners and the Texas A&M Aggies. (If the BCS rankings were extended to ranks teams that didn't votes in either of the polls, and going only by the computer rankings, the 4-5 Aggies would come in at #64 out of the 120 "Bowl Championship Division" NCAA teams, according to CollegeBCS.com.)
Although my own DVR lists ABC as carrying Penn State vs. Iowa at 2:30 PM on Saturday (from KOCO in Oklahoma City), ABC and ESPN insist that everyone in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and most of New Mexico, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Montana will see OU vs. Texas A&M. The southeastern seaboard will see Clemson at Florida State in HD, and the rest of the country gets Penn State at Iowa in HD. And yes, that means the OU game is not in high-definition this week. When ABC has three regional games simultaneously, one of them is not in HD. This week, it's OU. Check out the ESPN regional coverage maps for exact details.
The Pride will be at the game, and a pep band heads down early to perform at the rally organized by the OU Club of Houston. Details about that rally (and links to the OU Club of Houston's Web page about it) may be found on our Events calendar. There's a lot of Big 12 football happening in the next four weeks, and no one knows how it's going to end up yet, but we're still in the hunt! BOOMER SOONER!
Posted by Webmaster on 11/7/08; 12:37:44 AM
from the Gameday dept.
The Big 12 South has four teams in the hunt, all of them ranked in the BCS Top 10! Only Texas Tech is currently undefeated; Texas, OU, and OSU each have one loss. While Tech is in the driver's seat, it's still possible for any of those four teams to win the division and play for the conference championship on December 6.
Here's how I run the numbers for all four teams, starting with OU (because, let's face it, don't we always? )
Oklahoma probably wins the Big 12 South if OU wins out and if Texas Tech beats OSU. If OSU beats Texas Tech, OU is in a bad position: the Sooners have to win out to stay in the hunt, but with Tech out of the picture, the division probably comes down to a two-way tie between Texas and OU. Texas wins that tie-breaker because the Longhorns won the Red River Rivalry.
If OSU beats Texas Tech, the Sooners kind of need Texas to lose one of its last three games. The Longhorns' last three opponents are Baylor, Kansas, and Texas A&M.
If it comes down to a three-way tie as outlined previously (but with Texas Tech replacing OSU in the scenario), the team with the highest BCS ranking wins. In that scenario, OU would have the last victory of the three, but I wouldn't bet money that such would mean OU comes out ahead of Texas in the penultimate BCS rankings. It's a crap-shoot. OU probably wins the division in that case, but it might just as easily go to Texas.
Texas Tech wins the Big 12 South if they win out. The Red Raiders have a BCS handicap because they played against two Football Championship Series (FCS, formerly "Division I-AA") teams this season, and those victories do not count in the BCS formula. As of this writing, despite being 9-0, Texas Tech is not BCS-eligible because they don't have nine Bowl Championship Series (I-A) wins.
The Red Raiders' last three opponents are OSU (at home), OU (in Norman), and Baylor (at home). If they lose two of those games, they need Texas to lose one more game to create another three-way tiebreaker. Going way way out on a limb and imagining that Tech might lose to both OU and OSU (an idea that our friends in Lubbock would strenuously protest), then they're probably out of luck: Texas beat OSU, so if OU beats OSU, Tech falls out of the tie-breaker. Even if OSU defeats OU, that resolves a three-way tie in Texas's favor without dropping to a two-way tie. If Texas Tech can tolerate one loss, it would be to OU. Losing to OSU or Baylor, teams that Texas has either already or is likely to beat, would probably keep the Red Raiders away from the Big 12 championship game.
Texas can win the Big 12 South, but only if the Longhorns win out and Texas Tech loses at least one game. Sometimes the BCS rankings don't reflect the winners of head-to-head matchups, but this time they do, at least for now: Texas with one loss is ranked ahead of OU with one loss, even though Texas's loss is fresher. Of the four teams leading the Big 12 South, only Tech is undefeated. Texas has a decent argument for the tie-breaker by having beaten both OU and OSU, but it's not a given.
But if Texas loses a game, then the Longhorns need the other teams in the hunt to have two losses as well. Any team that has two losses while others have only one is out of the hunt.
Oklahoma State could win the Big 12 South, but only with a lot of help. The Cowboys are the lowest-ranked of the four teams still in the division race, even though three of the four have the same one-loss record (except for undefeated Tech). If OSU wins out, the three-way tie between between OSU, Texas Tech, and Texas would likely toss out the Cowboys unless they somehow leap Texas in the BCS rankings. If OSU loses one more game, they'll need the other three teams to have two conference losses as well, and even then they'd likely fall out of the race.
If Texas Tech defeats OSU on Saturday, the Cowboys best shot is if OU beats Tech on November 22 (handing the Red Raiders a second conference loss), Texas to lose to Texas A&M on the last weekend of the season, and OSU to defeat OU on November 29. But even in that case, with the top four teams having two conference losses each, Texas and Texas Tech would have both beaten OSU, and that likely kicks the Cowboys out of the four-way tiebreaker. The Cowboys' clearest path to the Big 12 title game is to win out and make a strong argument to poll voters that they should be ranked higher than Texas, despite losing to the Longhorns in October.
Posted by Webmaster on 11/3/08; 9:25:22 PM
from the Gameday dept.
At least until the OSU v. Texas game starts today, a few people have asked what happens in the Big 12 South if Texas beats OU, OSU beats Texas, and OU beats OSU. The question is resolved by the Big 12 Conference's tie-breaking rules, available at the link above and repeated here for the 2008 season:
Divisional Champion: The (eligible) team with the best
winning-percentage of all divisional members in its eight conference
games is declared the divisional champion and representative to the Dr Pepper Big 12 Conference Football Championship Game. A team ineligible
under NCAA or Big 12 rules for postseason (bowl) competition shall not
compete in the Championship Game.
Divisional Tiebreakers: The following procedure will determine the representative from each division in the event of a tie:
If two teams are tied, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative
If three or more teams are tied, steps 1 through 7 will be
followed until a determination is made. If only two teams remain tied
after any step, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall
be the representative.
The records of the three teams will be compared against each other
The records of the three teams will be compared within their division
The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division
in order of finish (4, 5 and 6)
The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents;
The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of Big 12 regular season conference play shall be the representative
The team with the best overall winning percentage [excluding exempted games] shall be the representative
The representative will be chosen by draw.
So, hypothetically, if the above round-robin situation comes to pass and none of the teams involved have any other conference losses, the first tie-breaker would be comparing all three teams' overall records to each other. If all three teams had only one loss (to each other in the circular fashion described), that kills the first two tiebreakers.
The third tiebreaker compares all three teams' records to whichever division opponent (in this scenario, that'd be either Texas Tech, Texas A&M, or Baylor) who finished 4th in the division, then 5th, then 6th. In the scenario where all three teams have only one loss, each to a different division opponent among the three, all three of the teams would have identically superior records to the other three: Baylor (for example) would not have a better record against one of the top three than the others since all of the top three would have beaten all of the bottom three.
The fourth tiebreaker compares records against all conference opponents, meaning they now add in the three Big 12 North team each team plays each year. But again, in the hypothetical scenario where OU has only one loss (to Texas), OSU has only one loss (to OU), and Texas has only one loss (to OSU), then by definition, each of the three teams beat all three of their Big 12 North opponents too, so that doesn't help.
Step five is where it gets resolved: whichever of the three teams is ranked the highest in the next to last BCS results of the year (presuming the bad wording does not limit it to just the Harris Poll, one component of the BCS results) gets the division championship. That would be the release just before the final one, the week before the Big 12 championship. In this season, under this hypothetical, that would depend on how the voters and computers rank the three teams. It would be either OU or Texas, though, because OU v. OSU is the last regular season game, and the late loss would certainly move the Cowboys behind the Sooners (and perhaps the Longhorns) in the final BCS rankings.
In the incredibly unlikely event that all three teams have the exact same BCS score (to three decimal places), they drop "exempt" games and compare percentages again. Although this is some weird rules voodoo, some preseason games played before a certain NCAA-specified window are considered exempt games, and wins in them didn't originally count towards BCS at-large eligibility. No Big 12 South teams plays an "exempt" game in 2008, as far as I can tell, so this is irrelevant.
If they meant to exclude games against FCS ("Division I-AA") schools in that step, then Texas wins: both OU and OSU played FCS teams in the first month of the season (Chattanooga and Missouri State, respectively), but Texas did not.
At that point, they'd hold a random draw for the division title. But even in this unlikely hypothetical, it would get resolved at the BCS rankings stage: the possibility of three teams having exactly the same BCS ranking is infinitesimally small. Even if two of them did have the same ranking, the third team would fall out and the division championship then goes to whichever of those two teams won their head-to-head matchup.
So, yeah, it's incredibly unlikely it gets this far in the first place, but if it does reach the above scenario, the likely division champion is the team with the highest BCS ranking the week before the Big 12 Championship game. Fun with math!
Posted by Webmaster on 10/25/08; 12:28:40 PM
from the Gameday dept.
The networks of Disney have picked up the OU vs. Nebraska game on November 1 for nationwide television coverage at 7:00 PM CDT. I phrase it that way because they will not decide until next weekend whether they show it on ABC or ESPN, but either way, the kickoff time is the same and the game will be televised to the entire country—no regional coverage maps, no members who don't get it in their area! Hooray!
We've posted The Pride's full schedule for the day on the Events calendar, and you can see the online Web version for gameday on this page.
The following week, on November 8, the full band travels to College Station when the Aggies of Texas A&M host our Sooners. I heard at least one alumnus on Saturday wondering about how to see the band in Texas during the year, and outside of a Texas-based bowl invitation, the A&M game will be the 2008 Pride's last performances in the Lone Star State. When we have that kickoff time and schedule of performances, we'll be sure to post it as well so anyone who wants to support both The Pride and the Sooners can show up in crimson and cream (as opposed to maroon and white)!
Of course, it was fantastic to see our Sooners beat the #11-ranked Jayhawks 45-31 for 2008 Homecoming, as that puts OU at 6-1 and gives the Sooners the #4 spot in today's first-of-the-season BCS rankings! We're ahead of #5 USC, and also ahead of #6 (eek!) Oklahoma State.
But our part was a great day too! Seven former drum majors and 130 alumni returning to Owen Field in a true homecoming. May I say, having watched from the side, that all the alumni marched really well. If you'd had two rehearsals, you might have been good enough to make SportsCenter!
And so the red box at the top of the home page vanishes until next fall, when it's time to start planning for Homecoming 2009! Just to be on the safe side, we've removed everything but the annual dues from the Pay Online page, but fear not: if you want to pay for something easily, contact Ann Darnold and she can tell you how to use the PayPal account for anything you want. (I believe it was mentioned that because of the way bank accounts work, donations or other fund transfers through PayPal are not tax deductible. Those have to go through the OU Foundation and can't be for actual goods (like tickets, shirts, lunches, and so on).
It may have been the longest OU football game I've ever seen (four hours!), but it was a great day for The Pride and the OU Band Alumni Association. Please feel free to comment here and share your thoughts on the day.
(And if you weren't there, why not? We had seven former drum majors, and would have had eight if Eric Shannon was not recovering from illness [hi Eric! We missed you!]. You really missed a fun day, so make sure you don't repeat that in 2009!)
Up next for the Sooners: playing Kansas State in Manhattan at 11:30 AM on Saturday. The Pride will send a pep band, and will next perform in full on the field in two weeks when the Nebraska Cornhuskers return to Owen Field. Kickoff time should be set within the next 24 hours, so watch our Events calendar for details on the game and all Pride performances!
With kickoff time only being set on Sunday, it took effort from your officers to get everything worked out, but we believe we have the schedule, and here it is!
9:00 AM
Marching Rehearsal—Meet at the Everest indoor practice facility southeast of the stadium for Rehearsal with the Pride and Pre-game
10:45 AM
Registration—for those who didn’t attend Friday’s Rehearsal (Beaird Lounge in Student Union). Refreshments served
11:00 AM
Business Meeting—Beaird Lounge – Second Floor Oklahoma Memorial Union
11:30 AM
Parade Begins—for those wanting to watch
12:15 PM
Lunch—served on the South Oval for those who purchased lunch tickets. Serving will stop at 1:15 PM. Pride members should be served before Alumni Band members.
1:30 PM
North End Zone—Meet in North End Zone for Pre-game (be sure to give yourself enough time to get through security!)
2:00 PM
Step-off—Pre-game Begins
2:30 PM
Kick-off—Jayhawk Cookout Begins
Click on the link above for a computer-generated version that you can get in printer-friendly form (and that's combined with The Pride's schedule), or click on the image to download your own version in PDF format.
There remains a slight possibility of changes, but it's slight. If there are any changes to this schedule, we will alert you through the mailing list so everyone gets it in their inbox, as well as posting it here. So if you haven't signed up for our mailing list yet, this would be a really good time to click this link and do that.
We hope to see everyone tonight (for the concert), Friday (for rehearsal), and Saturday (to beat those Jayhawks!). Boomer Sooner!
That didn't go as we would have hoped, but we knew two top-five teams meeting in a heated rivalry would be an intense game. Despite injuries, our Sooners hung in through the very last play, and so did The Pride of Oklahoma.
Update: Here's news coverage of The Pride's stop in Duncan on Friday from KSWO-7 (no video) and from the Duncan Banner, and the Norman Transcript'sstory about the band's OU-Texas trip.
But there's no time for any of that now. It's Homecoming 2008! Two quick points:
The last time Texas won the Red River Rivalry, OU went on to win both the Big 12 South and the Big 12 conference championship.
#16 Kansas, our opponent next week, today defeated Colorado 30-14. KU is also 5-1, and comes to Norman next week with a lot to prove against our Sooners.
We have much to do. There's a Wind Symphony and Symphony Band concert on Thursday that we'll post more about on Monday, and then we have our own work to do: the 2008 University of Oklahoma Alumni Band!
We've already posted a list of over 120 marchers for next Saturday, including eight drum majors! We have rehearsal Friday night, and we'll have a schedule within 48 hours as soon as ABC decides if they'll cover the game at 2:30 PM or 7:00 PM. (My gut feeling remains that if Missouri beats OSU tonight, then Missouri-Texas will be in prime time.)
So there's no time for looking back! The Big 12 and Big 12 South are still wide open, and this game is going to be big! Are you current on your music? Click here to get parts. Have you paid all of your fees or for your lunches or shirts or tickets? Click here to pay it all instantly and securely (you can even pay your annual dues if you can't make it to Homecoming this week).
Should your name be on the list of marchers but isn't, or you want it to be? Contact Rita Heath immediately!
5-1 makes OU a top-ten team and the season is only half over, so it's time to step it up in support of our Sooners and "The Pride of Oklahoma!" Let's get fired up for Homecoming!
There's even coverage today in The Oklahoman's online blogs:
The University of Oklahoma’s Pride of Oklahoma marching band has a big weekend planned in honor of this weekend’s OU-Texas game.
My friend, OU freshman trumpet player Stephanie Gonzales, says the band is playing and rehearsing at 9:30 this morning at Duncan High School and then continuing the long bus ride deep into the heart of Texas.
The band will be in Grapevine’s Colleyville Stadium at 7:30 tonight and will make an appearance afterward for OU alumni.
On Saturday, the band will play a pregame concert at 9:15 a.m. at the Dallas Fair Park Coliseum near the Cotton Bowl. The band then will march into the stadium before the 11 a.m. kickoff.
After the game, the band’s reward for its hard work will be a jaunt through the Texas State Fair before heading back to Norman.
Good luck to Steph and the rest of the band. And good luck to all Oklahomans who will be in Texas this weekend.
ABC will televise the Kansas at Oklahoma football game on Saturday, Oct. 18 at either 2:30 or 7 p.m. it was announced Monday afternoon. ABC is utilizing its six-day selection and will announce the game time on Monday, Oct. 13.
The network will televise the Missouri at Texas game that day and will decide which contest will be played in which time slot.
Other Big 12 games on television that day include Texas Tech at Texas A&M on FSN at 11 a.m. and Nebraska at Iowa State on VERSUS at 11:30 a.m.
So ABC will televise both the Missouri @ Texas and Kansas @ OU (homecoming) games, but will not decide which kicks off at 2:30 PM and which kicks off at 7:00 PM for another week. ABC gets the option to delay this long once (maybe twice) per season in its Big 12 contract, and with #1 playing #5 on Saturday, they're using it now. If sɐxǝʇ were to win this Saturday, the game in Austin next week would be a matchup of two top five teams (presuming Missouri defeats OSU in Columbia on Saturday) and would be perfect for prime-time. If OU wins on Saturday, Homecoming 2008 will pit the #1 team in the country against a team that could be in the top 15 (presuming KU defeats Iowa State on Saturday).
Or, phrased more negatively but more accurately in my opinion, if either Kansas or Oklahoma loses this Saturday, Missouri @ Texas is the more attractive primetime matchup for ABC. If both Missouri and Texas lose on Saturday, it's not that attractive in primetime.
The problem for ABC's schedulers is that, as of today, OU, Missouri, and Texas are all in the top five of the polls, but Kansas is #19. If Missouri vs. Texas remains a battle of top ten teams, it's probably more attractive than #1 vs. #15 or #14 (and it's unlikely KU could move up much more in one week—and that's not an opinion about whether their ranking reflects their capabilities, just a comment about how the schedulers read the polls). I would guess that the game in Austin is more likely to kick off in primetime, but as always, all predictions are guaranteed 100% wrong or your money back.
Posted by Webmaster on 10/7/08; 2:05:43 AM
from the Gameday dept.
Please do not call the band office (University Bands) if you have band alumni questions—their days are extremely full, and we don't wish to add to that. Click here to read the full entry for telephone and E-mail contact information about Homecoming 2008.
As expected, the TV networks decided on the games for weekend-after-next today. ABC-ESPN passed on OU vs. TCU, but Fox Sports Network picked up the game with a 6:00 PM kickoff time. Check your cable or satellite provider for channel details (here in Crimson & Cream Country, the game will be on Fox Sports Southwest, but it's likely to show up on other FSN channels as well).
We have also updated the "event calendar" with gameday information, amplified because September 27th is the annual Pride Parents' Day, where the Pride welcomes all the proud parents and has dinner and pictures with the members (probably including some of you—we know some of you are both alumni and Pride parents!). We've put the broader schedule up at our sister site for the OU Band Parents Resource Association if you'd like more information, or want to get in touch with Betty Wiseman about "Pride Wear".
Sam Bradford threw for five more touchdowns. No. 3 Oklahoma again reached half-a-hundred points. The Sooners won big, again. Bradford completed 18 of 21 passes for 304 yards, matched his career high with five touchdowns and ran for a sixth score to lead the Sooners easily past Washington 55-14 on Saturday night.
Our Pride of Oklahoma pep band didn't show up much on ESPN's coverage (I first saw them in the third quarter), but we heard them pretty clearly starting with OU's first touchdown and from then on. There was a lot of what the sportscasters euphemistically call "extra-curricular" activity before and during the game, and there may be some repercussions for Washington players who punched DT Marcus Granger on the play in which he was injured, but the Sooners come home 3-0 and ranked #2 in the nation.
That's right: #1 USC dominated Ohio State 35-3, and the AP headline describes #3 OU as "trampling" Washington 55-14, but #2 Georgia struggled against unranked South Carolina, going up 14-7 in the third quarter and holding it there for the win. That prompted both the sportswriters (in the AP poll) and the Coaches (in the ESPN/USA Today poll) to move OU ahead of Georgia, making the Sooners the #2 team in the country. Ohio State fell from #5 to #13 or #14, depending on the poll.
However, as Jerry Palm's indispensable CollegeBCS.com tables point out, OU would probably only be #4 in any BCS rankings that existed. Two of the six computers will not publish results until about the time of the first BCS rankings on October 19, because those computers start from scratch each season and need 5-6 games to build up enough data on past and future opponents to provide meaningful results. (If you start fresh every year, then after week one, half the teams in Division I are tied for #1, and the other half are tied for #61, since 60 teams win and 60 teams lose each week, give or take the odd game with the I-AA schools.)
Of the four computer rankings already released, two put OU at #2, one at #12, and one at #30, for a computer ranking average of #5, weighing down OU's poll average of #2. It's early, so you see these things: one of the computers has USC as #36! Also, the Harris poll used in BCS rankings doesn't start until October 19, so these preliminary calculations use the AP poll because it's similar. Nonetheless, the computers really like Florida right now, ranking it ahead of OU. In fact, the four computer rankings available today put Florida as #1 when averaged together. (USC would be #2, Utah would be #3, Missouri #4, and OU ties with Georgia for #5.)
It's still early in the season. The Sooners rest this weekend with a "bye" week, then host TCU at home on September 27 for Pride Parents' Day. They then travel to Baylor (the Bears beat Washington State last night 45-17), and then to Dallas for the Red River Rivalry in the newly slightly renovated Cotton Bowl.
And then, just one month from now, it's Homecoming 2008 week! Those registrations are due this week, so make sure you get yours in now! Homecoming is against Kansas, and despite losing a squeaker to South Florida on Friday night, the #19-ranked Jayhawks will be a formidable Big 12 foe this year, a strong contender for the Big 12 North title and perhaps the conference title itself. You won't want to miss it, so make sure you send in your registration this week! You can't use "preparing for the game" as an excuse since the Sooners have a bye weekend, so take a few moments to get it done. That way we can see you on the field on October 18!
Posted by Webmaster on 9/14/08; 3:33:42 PM
from the Gameday dept.
Last week's home game against Cincinnatti was much nicer than the Drenching in the Trenches from week 1: in addition to a lovely 52-26 Sooner victory against a team that never gave up (Cincinnatti scored a touchdown as the game ended and went for 2 on the untimed conversion, but did not succeed), there was no rain! The sun was out with occasional shade from the clouds, the stadium was packed with Sooner fans, and The Pride of Oklahoma did their thing with a show for the fans on the east side of the stadium with three popular hits: Dirty Little Secret by the All-American Rejects, Ocean Avenue, and First Time.
And did I mention that Meredith Sigler twirled three batons that were on fire? On both ends? Yeah, that too. That's why she's a champion!
The non-conference schedule picks up again on Saturday with the Sooners' first road trip—to Seattle, to face the Washington Huskies on their home turf. Most of you probably remember (vividly) the last time OU visited the Pac-10 for a football game
, but there's been a new controversy this week: last Saturday, Washington scored a touchdown late in the game to pull within one point of visiting BYU, but when quarterback Jake Locker threw the football in the air in celebration, the referees threw the flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. The resulting try was therefore spotted from the 17-yard line, not the 2-yard line, making it about a 35-yard attempt—and it was blocked.
Washington fans (and several rabble-rousing sportswriters, as if there is another kind) are convinced that the flag should never have been thrown. Unlike the OU-Oregon debacle of almost exaclty two years ago, though, the Pac-10 says the referees got it right, which has only intensified the controversy.
You can read the 2007 NCAA Football Rules in PDF format here, but the rule in question did not change for 2008. On page FR-122 (page 123 of the PDF file), Section 2, Article 1, section "a" lists "specifically prohibited acts and conduct". Subsection 2 of that section reads (with emphasis added):
After a score or any other play, the player in possession immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot. This prohibits:
Kicking, throwing, spinning or carrying (including off of the field) the ball any distance that requires an official to retrieve it.
Spiking the ball to the ground [Exception: A forward pass to conserve time (Rule 7-3-2-d)].
Throwing the ball high into the air.
Any other unsportsmanlike act or actions that delay the game.
PENALTY—Dead-ball foul. 15 yards [S7, S27] from the succeeding spot. Flagrant offenders, if players or substitutes, shall be disqualified [S47]. If a player or an identified squad member in uniform commits two unsportsmanlike fouls in the same game, he shall be disqualified.
So, basically, the argument is that conduct "specifically prohibited" by rules that explicitly define the offense is somehow not something specifically prohibited and should not have been flagged because other people have broken this rule and gotten away with it. It's kind of easy to see why the Pac-10 isn't buying that argument.
Nonetheless, we have the unusual situation of the Sooners visiting a Pac-10 team where both teams are convinced that the Pac-10 referees screwed up and cost them the game "last time" (last week for Washington, last time OU visited the Pac-10 for Oklahoma). You couldn't get me to officiate that game if you gave me all of McCain's, Obama's, Biden's, and Palin's houses combined.
The Pride of Oklahoma shall be represented by a 140-member pep band, so look for them on ESPN (and ESPN HD) at 6:45 PM CDT for the national telecast. They should be easy to spot: they'll be wearing the all-red uniforms debuted during last year's Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade. If you're in Seattle, you can catch the pep band at 3:00 PM PDT as part of the OU Alumni Association's "Boomer Bash" at the UW Baseball Field.
If you're in the Puget Sound area, we hope you can show up to cheer on the Sooners as they play in a tough venue, and to support The Pride. If not, pull up a chair in front of the teevee at 6:45 PM. BOOMER SOONER!
On Saturday night, we learned that if the Sooners are head of the opponent by 50-0 at halftime, and it then rains on the stadium so hard that they ask people to take cover on the concourse, and extend halftime by 72 minutes to let it pass, then many of those who left their seats will not return for the second half.
The picture at the right (a crappy phone picture, sorry) shows the view from the foot of the northeast tunnel during the storm. Click on it for a larger version if you like, but it's not much better. Other than the huge light, you can see the rain falling and the mostly-empty stands. When the "take cover" instruction came down, they shut off the scoreboards and most (not nearly all) of the field lights to "encourage" people to take cover rather than think they could see fun shows on the wonderful new SoonerVision HD, but those came back on after a few minutes.
Unlike the shorter but colder deluge during 2002's UTEP game, this time The Pride took cover in their pregame waiting tunnels, making things more bearable for all concerned. (Though we did feel sorry for the new Boomer and Sooner ponies pulling the Sooner Schooner—not only was it their first home game, but they literally got ridden hard during all the first half's scoring and put away wet during the delay. We're sure they're sturdy ponies, though, or they wouldn't get to pull the Schooner. And their handlers take good care of them. But think nice things for them this week.)
The storm hit just moments after The Pride of Oklahoma finished its first halftime show of the 2008 season—pop hits First Time (Lifehouse) and Ocean Avenue (Yellowcard). They got into the stands and then, almost immediately, got back out of them. The day went from hot and muggy to soaking in a very short time, so the new members of the 2008 Pride have quite a first-game experience to remember!
The challenges continue as the Pride works on this week's show through threats of rain. The game vs. the Cincinatti Bearcats kicks off at 2:37 PM CDT with coverage on ABC in HD, but coverage will vary by region. Click here for coverage maps later this week to see if the game will be on in your area. For reasons unknown to us, ABC and ESPN have chosen to cover both the other 2:30 PM CDT games in HD, but not OU vs. Cincinatti.
The gameday schedule for Saturday is posted on our Events calendar, and we hope you'll get to show up in Norman on Saturday afternoon to support the Sooners and see The Pride of Oklahoma!
Hanging on the wall of my office is a picture of Chauvin Aaron, the 2007 drum major of OU's Pride of Oklahoma. It's a peculiar image, although one that any University of Oklahoma fan will recognize immediately.
You think for a moment that you are looking at a headless man. You can't see Aaron's face because he's bent over so completely as he charges out of the band in the school's beloved pre-game tradition. His back is arched so improbably that the top of his hat nearly drags the ground behind him as the state song bursts out of the trumpet section.
Looking at it, you can almost hear the trumpets swelling: "Oooooo-klahoma!"
If my office were suddenly to burst into flames, and I had to run from the building, I might leave my paycheck sitting on the desk, but I'd grab that picture on the way out the door.
It goes on from there, and is well worth reading, and remembering how hard everyone worked to make it and keep it The Pride of Oklahoma.
Were any of you marching at that Nebraska game on November 23, 1973, that had such a big impact on Mr. Greene?
If you're not coming to the stadium to see the debut of the 2008 Pride of Oklahoma, you'll need to pony up about $30 to see it at home, the OU Athletic Department announced today:
NORMAN, Okla. - Oklahoma's season-opening football game against Chattanooga on Saturday, Aug. 30 at 6 p.m., CT will be televised live on pay-per-view by Big 12 Special Order Sports, FSN Southwest's pay-per-view division. The telecast will be available on participating cable television systems in Oklahoma and Texas and nationwide to satellite dish customers.
Suggested retail price is $29.95. A list of participating programming providers carrying the PPV game will be announced later. Most programming providers will begin accepting orders the week of the game. Fans should check with their local provider for availability in their area.
Tim Brando (play-by-play), former Oklahoma running back Spencer Tillman (analyst), former OU quarterback Paul Thompson (sideline reporter) and FSN Southwest's Emily Jones (sideline reporter) call the action. Former Oklahoma quarterback Dean Blevins will host the pay-per-view telecast from Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., and will anchor a one-hour pregame show, which will commemorate coach Bob Stoops' 10th season at Oklahoma.
Why pay-per-view?
The game is being televised on pay-per-view because it was not selected for over-the-air broadcast or cable television coverage. Under conference TV rules, games not picked up for regular television distribution can only be televised live on pay-per-view, giving fans the option to watch a game they otherwise wouldn't be able to see.
Participating cable and satellite TV providers will offer the game to their customers on a designated pay-per-view channel. The telecast will not pre-empt FSN Southwest's regularly-scheduled programming.
And if you really want to see it on TV for no additional cost?
FSN Southwest will replay the game in a one-hour format on Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 11 a.m., CT as part of its new BIG 12 NO HUDDLE series, which will feature condensed telecasts of Big 12 games throughout the season.
So there you go.
Posted by Webmaster on 8/15/08; 2:17:50 AM
from the Gameday dept.
Directly from the OU Athletic Department. Notice that parking is no longer permitted on Brooks Street, either north of the stadium or on Brooks east of Jenkins. View the parking map [PDF] directly for more information.
This year all public street parking will be clearly identified by parking signs, [Norman police Capt. Mike] Praizner said.
"By following the parking signs, game day parking will be done in an orderly fashion that will allow the Fire Department and other public safety vehicles to access any necessary areas around the University of Oklahoma," he said.
The most visible change to fans and citizens will be parking limited to one side of a street in some areas. This change is meant to improve motorist and pedestrian access and decrease potential obstacles for public safety responses.
In order to accommodate fans who may be displaced from a former parking place, OU plans to add paid parking in a lot on the east side of George Avenue, just south of OU's duck pond, Praizner said. The University will continue to offer free parking at the Lloyd Noble Center.
Posted by Webmaster on 8/4/08; 9:37:41 PM
from the Gameday dept.
If you'd like to see the debut of the 2008 Pride of Oklahoma, get your tickets now or get ready to pay around $30 or so for the privilege of watching OU play the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Mocs on TV:
The University of Oklahoma's season-opening football game against Tennessee-Chattanooga will be available on a pay-per-view basis through FOX SportsNet.
The kickoff has been set for 6 p.m., on Aug. 30.
Details pertaining to subscriptions and available viewing areas will be coming in the next few weeks according to OU Vice President and Athletics Director Joe Castiglione.
He indicated that the format for the game will be similar to other FOX-OU pay-per-view ventures that have aired in recent seasons.
(Yes, "Mocs." Until 1996, they were the "Moccasins." We have no word here yet on whether the Marching Mocs will attend the game or not.)
We've updated the Events calendar with the kickoff time of 6:00 PM CDT. That makes four games whose kickoff times have been set—the first three games and Texas (11:00 AM CDT, don't stay up too late).
As for homecoming? I have no information on that yet, either, but it looks like it's been set for the Kansas game on October 18, except they seem to be calling it "Reunion 2008," so I'm not completely sure. It looks like it, though, because one of the scheduled events for "Reunion 2008" is the "Homecoming Parade."
Update: OK, I guess "Reunion" is just for certain classes, and "Homecoming" is for everyone. We now have a Homecoming 2008 department and the dates are on the calendar.
Posted by Webmaster on 7/18/08; 2:37:02 AM
from the Gameday dept.
From today's Oklahoman, discussing the OU Board of Regents' approval of the charter airline service for the Sooner football team for the 2008 season:
The Regents also awarded a separate contract to Northwest Airlines in the amount of $148,504 to fly the Pride of Oklahoma marching band to Seattle next fall when the Sooners play Washington.
More details on the trip as we get them, for alums in the Puget Sound area. The game is scheduled for Saturday, September 13, and is now on our Events calendar since we know The Pride is going!
Our beloved Sooners are now 0-4 in their last four BCS bowl games, including two national championship games and two consecutive Tostitos Fiesta Bowl appearances. All hail to the Mountaineers, who overcame significant turmoil to play a fantastic game. Plus, a 11-3 season is nothing to sneeze at, nor is OU's second consecutive conference championship (#41 in an ongoing series).
We've got a few videos from KOKH-TV (Fox 25 in Oklahoma City) and from the national FOX Broadcasting's coverage of the BCS and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. First up, from KOKH news reporter Jaime Cerreta—an Arizona State University alumna, who's very familiary with the Fiesta Bowl and its festivities—a segment on The Pride's two-time world champion feature twirler, Meredith Sigler:
Next up is a live interview Jaime Cerreta conducted from the field at University of Phoenix Stadium with Brian Britt (not only one of us but, of course, director of The Pride of Oklahoma) at approximately 6:11 PM CST, or just about 70 minutes before kickoff, when The Pride entered the stadium:
Of course, what we really want to see is The Pride on the field, and FOX's BCS coverage in high definition obliged at both pregame and halftime! And if you can't have John McCormick, George Ryan, or Jeremy Gossett doing the honors on television, who better could you imagine to introduce The Pride of Oklahoma than legendary Sooners coach Barry Switzer?
And finally, nearly two full minutes of the halftime performance itself, featuring Jerry Goldsmith's score to The Wind and the Lion, and Michael Jackson's Thriller. FOX's timing did not include the Thriller dance, to everyone's great disappointment, but what did make the air looked pretty darned good:
The armchair coaches will have plenty to chew over until Pride auditions start in August, but there was no question to anyone watching the broadcast that The Pride was there for all sixty minutes of that game. Long after the TV shots made it clear that most Sooner fans had left the building, the young men and women in the new red uniforms finished strong, never giving up, never flagging.
We're proud to have had them carry on our tradition in this just-completed Oklahoma Centennial Season, one in which band members traveled over 10,000 miles supporting the Sooners and representing our state. Thanks, 2007 Pride of Oklahoma—and for those who have completed your time on the practice field, welcome to our ranks.
We're just a couple of weeks away from the 2008 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, when our beloved Sooners take on the Big East champion #9-ranked Mountaineers of West Virginia in a nationally-televised football showdown on the FOX network. The Fiesta Bowl is the new Orange Bowl, for those who were members during the days of the Big 8 Conference—the bowl that the conference champion always attends unless playing for the national championship—so the Sooners attend by virtue of being repeat Big 12 Conference champions!
For those who went last year, you'll find a similar schedule, with the Fort McDowell Fiesta Bowl Parade being one day earlier so it doesn't fall on Sunday. The men and women of the 2008 Pride of Oklahoma are thought of so well that the bowl and the university took extra care to make sure they'd be in Phoenix a day earlier than planned just so they could participate in the parade! (Sadly, the longer distance for their compatriots in The Pride of West Virginia Mountaineer Marching Band can't make the trip that fast, but will certainly be showing Mountaineer spirit during the block party and the actual Fiesta Bowl! If you have a chance, be sure to stop by the West Virginia University Alumni Band site and say "hi!")
We have updated our Events calendar with all of The Pride of Oklahoma's public rehearsals and performances during the bowl trip. If you subscribe to the calendar in iCal (Mac OS X) or Windows Vista Calendar, you'll automatically get everything, including URLs with maps and other information. A few notes for those planning on making the festive trip:
Our calendar contains time zone information. For example, the game kicks off at 7:00 PM CST, 6:00 PM MST, 8:00 PM EST, etc. If you subscribe to the calendar and view it in iCal or Windows Vista or another similar program, it should display times in your computer's current time zone. If you go to Phoenix, change your time zone to Mountain Standard Time when you get there and all the times should update to match local time.
If you're reading the online version, note that by default, all times are displayed in US Central time. We've hacked in a new version of the calendar software that supports time zones, so if you want to read the page from the bowl site, scroll down to the 'preferences' link and set your time zone to something appropriate (like "America/Phoenix"). If you get errors on setting preferences, delete all cookies in your browser from "static.oubandalumni.org". The only cookies from that domain should be your online calendar preferences. (The cookies from "oubandalumni.org", though, include your login session, so if you delete those, you'll have to log back into the site next time.)
The Fiesta Bowl Committee runs two bowls: the Fiesta Bowl and the Insight Bowl (formerly the Insight.com Bowl, formerly the Copper Bowl). This year's Insight Bowl is on December 31 in the Phoenix area, and features Indiana playing (wait for it) Oklahoma State. In other words, there will be lots of Oklahomans in orange floating around during the days before the Fiesta Bowl, so don't be surprised to see them.
The Pride's planned halftime show ends with a certain number that has, in the past, featured a certain dance. All plans subject to change, your mileage may vary, void where prohibited.
The Fiesta Bowl is a great experience and a fantastic bowl trip to the Valley of the Sun during a time that, as we've seen this week, can be a bit frozen around these parts. They're excited to welcome back the Sooners and The Pride of Oklahoma, and we hope all alumni who can make the trip can support the bands in the various parades, performances, and spirit events. And as alumni, feel free to drop by rehearsal and say "hi" if you want, but don't try to vote for next year's drum major. Let's not get into recounts and hanging chads and the like, thanks!
So BOOMER SOONER and we hope to see you at the Fiesta Bowl! GO SOONERS!
For those who think the Fiesta Bowl is a bit of a letdown, that it's "just" another conference championship, chew on these facts:
With the win over Missouri last night, Oklahoma becomes the first team in Big 12 history to win back-to-back conference titles. Really!
2007 is the Sooners' first conference championship win in an odd-numbered year in 20 years (1987, when the Sooners won the Big 8 title but lost the Orange Bowl and the national championship to Miami).
This is the ninth consecutive year that OU has gone to a bowl game, and that's a school record. The Sooners have gone bowling every year that Bob Stoops has been head coach.
The Sooners are the designated home team for the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, so if either band gets to play the national anthem, it'll be The Pride of Oklahoma! Last night, our boys and girls in very red performed Tonight from West Side Story, and the Gnarls Barkley tune Gone Daddy Gone.
The bowl show and schedule is all to be determined in the next several days, of course; we'll post details of public Pride appearances on our Events calendar as we know about them, as we did last year. Our opponents are the Mountaineers from the University of West Virginia—2007 Big East Conference champions, #9 in the final 2007 BCS rankings, and owners of a similar 10-2 record. This will be the first time OU will play WV outside of Norman, and the first meeting between the two schools since 1982 (when WV won). OU holds a 2-1 edge in the series.
The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl is a great bowl with a strong tradition of all the trappings of college football: band competitions, a good parade, lots of celebrations for both participating schools, and a New Year's Eve block party that, this year, is headlined by Barenaked Ladies. Everyone had a great time last year right up until the end of overtime (grr), and this year can be even better!
We'll post updates as we have them, but for now, congratulations to The Pride of Oklahoma nearing the end of a spectacular Oklahoma Centennial season, and to the Big 12 champion Oklahoma Sooners!
Forget what you read from sportswriters: the Sooners had clinched the Big 12 South division title Friday afternoon with Texas's loss to Texas A&M, a victory that was not enough to save Dennis Franchione's job.
The rules for breaking a Big 12 divisional tie are ambiguous at best (leave it to the Big 12 to write confusing rules intended to clarify a situation), but presuming the first tie-breaking step, "The records of the three teams will be compared against each other," means that they'll compare the overall records of all tied teams, that would have immediately dropped OSU from consideration (had the Aggies Cowboys won yesterday, they would still have been 7-5, while both OU and Texas would be 9-3). By rule, that drops OSU from consideration, leaving a two-way tie between OU and Texas, which OU would win because OU won the Red River Rivalry in October.
If the rule really means that they'd compare the three teams' records in playing each other, that would remain a tie (OU beat Texas, Texas beat OSU, and OSU would have theoretically beat OU or we wouldn't be doing this exercise). It would then stay tied through the fourth tie-breaking rule, "The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish - 4, 5 and 6." The fourth-place Big 12 South team (had OSU won yesterday) would have been Texas Tech. Texas and OSU both beat Texas Tech, but OU did not. By the same rule cited above, OU would then fall out of consideration, and Texas would win the tie-breaker with OSU. It would not have gotten as far as BCS rankings, the fifth tie-breaker, and no one who reads the tie-breaking procedure can possibly think it would have.
Fortunately, it didn't matter: the Sooners defeated the Cowboys 49-17, returning to the form that had previously kept them in BCS National Championship consideration. The Pride was hot on a cold day as well, providing the home debut of the new bright red uniform coats as seen in the Macy's Parade, and ending halftime by sharing the field with the Cowboy Marching Band in a Centennial-inspired rendition of Dr. Roland Barrett's arrangement of the state song from 1989 (for OU's centennial), You're Doin' Fine. (The OSU band also, wittingly or not, paid a little tribute to The Pride by opening with Roland's 2000 arrangement of Luck Be A Lady, written and performed during Coach's final season.)
NBC really did love feature twirler Meredith Sigler—we learned this weekend that the network's TV coverage people moved her to the position in front of the drumline, which was not the position in which she practiced, so they could feature her more prominently. There's really no question why, either: during the concert feature of Mambo from West Side Story, Meredith wowed the crowd from the north end zone by flawlessly twirling three batons that were each on fire at both ends. FSN may yet regret not showing halftime performances. Meredith repeated the feat during the post-game concert. It's easy to see why she's going for her third world twirling championship in 2008—good luck, Meredith!
The Sooners now travel to San Antonio for next week's Big 12 Championship, kicking off at 7:10 PM from the Alamo Dome on ABC-TV in high definition. This will likely be the toughest game the Sooners have faced in years: their opponent, the Big 12 North champion Missouri Tigers, already played OU hard this year in Norman and came up short. Many of you will remember this, since it was Homecoming 2007.
OU is Missouri's only loss this year, and with the victory over previously undefeated Kansas and LSU's second loss on Friday, Missouri will be at least #2 in this week's BCS rankings, and may be #1 (West Virginia will hold the slot that Missouri does not). Plus, for better or worse, the Sooners have not done well on the road this season.
If OU wins the Big 12 championship, the Sooners are in a BCS bowl—most likely the Fiesta Bowl, where the Big 12 Champion goes by default, but other bowls are possible, especially if Ohio State somehow makes it into the championship game. If the Sooners lose, the team may fall out of BCS at-large consideration. On the other hand, if Missouri wins their first-ever Big 12 championship, they will play for the National Championship. By the media's rules, even though the Sooners are playing for a BCS berth, OU will be cast as the "spoiler" to Missouri's national championship hopes.
There may be an opportunity to support The Pride at a public rehearsal in San Antonio on Saturday, December 1; we'll update our Events calendar if such information becomes available. We've made the Macy's Parade coverage into its own page so you can find the video more easily, too. The post-season destination is on the line Saturday night, and The Pride will do its best to boost the Sooners into the BCS. Cheer like a champion!
My inner hunch that I'd have more fun in Austin than Lubbock grows stronger every other year.
Barring a set of circumstances that can most charitably be described as "mammothly improbable," the Sooners' loss to Texas Tech last night knocks them out of contention for the BCS National Championship. But in a sense, that just makes this Saturday's game hosting Oklahoma A&M State even more important.
The Sooners clinch the Big 12 South division title with either a Texas loss to Texas A&M on Friday, or an OU victory over OSU on Saturday. Texas is currently a strong favorite over A&M, but everyone remembers last year: Texas lost QB Colt McCoy to injury in the next-to-last game, and lost that game and their last game at home to their hated in-state rival. That double loss turned Texas's "sure-thing" division championship into an OU division title, with the Sooners going on to beat Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship to earn a berth in the Fiesta Bowl.
With Sam Bradford injured in last night's loss, OSU is without doubt looking to repeat that pattern north of the Red River. OSU can't win the Big 12 title, but at 6-5, the Aggies Cowboys are barely bowl-eligible, and would improve their chances of a good post-season trip with an upset of the Sooners. If OU wins, they'll face the winner of Saturday night's Kansas-Missouri game for the Big 12 title in San Antonio on December 1.
If Kansas wins that game and the Big 12 championship, they'll play for the national title. If Missouri or OU wins the Big 12 championship, they'll go to the Fiesta Bowl. Interestingly enough, as of this weekend, Jerry Palm of CollegeBCS.com is predicting that OU will win the conference title, and that Kansas will be a BCS at-large team—and that the two will meet in the Fiesta Bowl. I can't tell if he believes Kansas or Missouri will win the Big 12 North title, but I think he think it'd be Kansas, because the Jayhawks wouldn't be an attractive BCS at-large team with two losses. (Palm currently believes OSU will be invited to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio with a loss to the Sooners on Saturday.)
There's a lot at stake in this final home game, made all the more serious for our men and women of The Pride of Oklahoma because they leave tomorrow for New York City and the Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade. Keep them in your thoughts on Thursday, as they get the wake-up call for the parade at 1:30 AM on Thanksgiving morning, just the start of a very long day that doesn't end until very late Thursday or early Friday when they arrive back in Norman.
We've got the Events calendar updated with Saturday's tentative schedule. There do not appear to be any public rehearsal or spirit opportunities in NYC before the parade itself (sorry, East coast alumni ), but if any present themselves, we'll update the calendar. The Bedlam game kicks off at 2:30 PM CST and will be televised regionally by FSN on cable and satellite—that's channel 37 for Cox OKC customers, channel 416 on Dish Network, and channel 643 on DirecTV, though some customers can get HD versions on other channels if the game is broadcast in HD).
It's also Senior Day, and The Pride's halftime show not only salutes our seniors, but ends in a spirit of Centennial cooperation that should be a sight to see. We hope to see you at the concert and the game, and if not, we hope you cheering for the Sooners in front of the TV. It's the last and most important game of the regular season! BOOMER SOONER!
Last night's 52-21 victory over Baylor puts our Sooners at 9-1 and, with Ohio State's loss, at #4 in the BCS ratings, behind LSU, Oregon, and (yes, I know, but it's true) Kansas. There's a lot yet to be determined as the Sooners travel to Texas Tech on Saturday night, and host the Oklahoma A&M Aggies OSU Cowboys a week later.
The Pride is so busy during that same period that we may have to start a Red Bull Scholarship ("Red and White Bull?"). The entire Pride will be in Guthrie on Friday for the Centennial Statehood Day Parade on, appropriately enough, the 100th anniversay of Oklahoma Statehood. Then a pep band takes off for Lubbock in preparation for the game, which was set this week for a 7:00 PM kickoff and primetime coverage on ABC-TV.
And then it's off to the Big Apple to represent Oklahoma in the Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade! Although the parade will be televised on both NBC and CBS television networks, NBC has paid for the rights to the parade, so only NBC can show the performances in Herald Square, where The Pride will perform its show.
The bad news is that, because NBC time-shifts Today to air from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM in all time zones, the network is doing the same for the parade. It starts at 9:00 AM EST (8:00 AM CST), but airs at 9:00 PM in all time zones. That means it's delayed by one hour here in Oklahoma. The CBS broadcast is live in the Central time zone (at least here in the OKC area), but as noted above, will not include The Pride's prepared performance. (We should also note that since most local TV stations around the country still lack the ability to record and rebroadcast HDTV signals, NBC's coverage will be in standard definition, not high definition. CBS's coverage is SD as well.)
The Pride then rushes back to Norman to prepare for Bedlam two days later. Kickoff time is not set yet, but we hope it will be set by Monday—hopefully before we see you all at the Wind Symphony and Symphony Band concert tomorrow night! Our Events calendar is current as of tonight, and we'll update it with more Pride appearances as we know about them.
Update: This news story from last week says that ABC-TV has one "six-day option" left and is using it on the OU-OSU and KU-MU games on November 24. If ABC chooses to air KU-MU in primetime, OU-OSU will air on Fox Sports Net and kickoff at 2:30 PM CST. If ABC chooses to air the OU-OSU game, it will kickoff at 7:00 PM CST. But we won't know until Sunday, November 18. Sorry.
The Sooners kept the Aggies in check all night, leading 21-0 at halftime and 35-0 in the third quarter, on the way to a final OU 42-14 victory in Norman last night in primetime. With two higher-ranked BCS teams (Boston College and Arizona State) posting losses yesterday, the Sooners' BCS chances are definitely improved today—but a lot of things still have to break OU's way for the Sooners to have a chance at a post-new-year's trip to New Orleans, not the least of which is winning the next four games.
There's a book about The Noble Men (and Women) of Kyle—The Pulse of the Spirit of Aggieland Nationally Famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Marching Band, published by Texas A&M Press. Entitled The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band, the book's description begins, "They always win the halftime."
The Austin American-Statesman newspaper (which, by the way, has now figured out that Oklahoma defeated Texas this year) would agree, as one columnist wrote today:
The Aggies were the fourth-best group on the field Saturday, behind the Sooners, the A&M band, and the OU band, which provided a nice little dance rendition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
That's neither the only nor the first column to rank the Texas A&M organizations in that order.
However, I'm reasonably certain that if I'd had an applause meter on the field last night, The Pride would have won in a squeaker. The Noble Men (and Women) of Kyle—The Pulse of the Spirit of Aggieland Nationally Famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Marching Band always gets a fantastic reception in Oklahoma Memorial Stadium during their biannual visits, but the 64-count Thriller dance in The Pride's tribute to Halloween easily was one of the most loved performances ever.
If you're lucky, you might get to see some of this Saturday, as the Sooners host the Baylor Bears in home game #6 of the 2007 season. The game, but probably not the dance, will be televised live on Fox Sports Network, with kickoff scheduled for 5:30 PM CST.
Update: Watch the Thriller dance performed during halftime from the view of The Pride seats here, or again during the post-game concert here.
We knew two days early that Saturday's game vs. Texas A&M is scheduled for a 7:00 PM kickoff, because while I was watching ABC, the network scrolled the kickoff time across the bottom of the screen during the Ohio State vs. Penn State game.
Now we also know that the Baylor game will kickoff in Norman at 5:30 PM on November 10.
Our Events calendar has been updated with the gameday schedule for this weekend, and the tentative/standard schedule for next weekend as well. "The Pride performs and entirely new show this week, playing to the East ("Student") side of the stadium at halftime.
Our current members also continue to prepare for the the Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City in just over three weeks; we'll keep you updated with any opportunities for Pride and Sooner Spirit in the Big Apple as we get word of them.
Update #2: Now we also know that the Bedlam game on November 24 will kick off at either 2:30 PM or 7:00 PM in Norman, meaning that The Pride won't have to face 6:00 AM rehearsal just two days after the Macy's parade. Something else to be thankful for!
We know that the Sooners' next game, at home vs. Texas A&M, will be televised. We just don't know when it will kick-off.
According to the Texas A&M Athletic Department:
ABC has put two games on the ready list including Texas A&M at Oklahoma and Texas at Oklahoma State. ABC has not decided if it is televising one or two Big 12 games on that date. The potential windows are set for 2:30 PM and 7 PM central.
In the event ABC selects only one game, the other contest will be televised by FSN at 11:30 PM.
So, if ABC chooses to air only Texas @ OSU, then the OU game will kickoff at 11:30 AM and air on regional Fox Sports Network stations. If ABC chooses to air the OU-A&M game, it could kickoff at 2:30 PM or at 7:00 PM. ABC may have a Big Ten option for the other game (Illinois vs. Minnesota will air on the Big Ten Network), and CBS has already slated LSU vs. Alabama for a 4:00 PM CDT (yes, due to changes in the law, November 3 is the last day of Daylight Savings Time in the US for 2007), so ABC will wait until Monday, October 29, to pick what it thinks will be the most competitive and high-stakes game for the primetime slot.
So while we don't know the kickoff time yet, we do know it will be 11:30, 2:30, or 7:00. We'll post the final time when we get it.
Posted by Webmaster on 10/23/07; 6:02:33 PM
from the Gameday dept.
The lesson of Homecoming 2007? There is no such thing as "they have all the momentum" in our house.
And quite a gameday, too—from The Pride appearing live on national television at 9:00 AM for ESPN College Gameday to rehearsal with the Alumni Band, the Homecoming Parade, and a four-quarter great Sooner homecoming game, that day just didn't stop. Congrats to all members of The Pride (especially since they were back in uniform barely 12 hours later for the Oklahoma Centennial Parade on Sunday afternoon) and of the Alumni Band for a memorable Homecoming 2007. Fight for OKU is a great spirit song, and that West Side Story show is sounding awesome as well.
We've removed all of the schedule stuff from the home page to keep things a little clearer, but you can get to all of it anytime through the Homecoming 2007 link that you probably bookmarked. We'll post any minutes of the business meeting or other documents as they're made available.
Homecoming 2007 was the middle game of the seven played at Owen Field this season, and this Saturday's game against Iowa State marks 2/3rds of the 12-game season. Our 6-1 Sooners travel to Ames for the last of the three games against Big 12 North conference opponents (OU has already played Colorado and Missouri), against the 1-6 Cyclones. (Iowa State beat Iowa on September 15 by a score of 15-13, but has lost every other game, including this past weekend to Texas 56-3.) The Pride will send a pep band to the north end of the conference to help cheer on the Sooners, who are ranked #5 in the first BCS rankings of the season, released earlier today.
Kickoff has been set for 11:30 AM CDT on Fox Sports Network regional channels, so check your local listings for the station on your cable or satellite system. After that, the Sooners get a bye week and can rest up for Texas A&M's visit to Norman on November 3. There's still a lot of football and marching left this season!
We are delighted to have everyone joining us this weekend. It should be an exciting experience for all of us! Below are some logistical issues that will aid all of us in having as smooth and enjoyable a day as possible. Thanks in advance for helping us make the 2007 Homecoming a success!
If you've never been there before, click here for a satellite view and an opportunity to get directions from Google Maps. (Note that directions are to ETC, not to available parking—see this post for basic gameday information.)
The Pride will rehearse from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM, immediately following the performance for ESPN College Gameday
Please note that no food, drinks, gum, or tobacco products are permitted inside the facility.
Portable restrooms are located immediately west of the facility for our use.
The Alumni Truck will be parked west of Everest and will be open by 10:00 AM for instrument pick-up.
After rehearsal, all alumni instruments will be loaded and locked inside the Alumni Truck.
The truck will then be parked inside the football practice facility at the stadium to facilitate Alumni Band access prior to pregame and during the second quarter.
Game Information
Stadium Entry
Since you will not be carrying an instrument, you will be able to enter any gate you like with your ticket.
Field Access
Your uniform and instrument will allow you access to the field at pregame and halftime.
Please stay out of the team areas at all times.
Keep an eye on the field during pregame warm-ups to avoid any collisions!
Playing during the game
The Alumni Band will be able to play extended tunes during the breaks between the 1st and 2nd quarters, and between the 3rd and 4th quarters.
There will be other, more brief opportunities during the game as well.
Pregame Logistics
Immediately following the teams exiting the field, we (OUBAA) will take our positions and prepare to start.
Brian Britt will be marching with the OUBAA this year and will communicate with the drum majors to ensure a smooth and timely start.
During the Marching Mizzou performance, we will prepare both The Pride and Alumni Bands to enter the field.
Following the Missouri band, the order of performance is:
Field entrance
Fight for OKU Combined Pride and Alumni
Scatter to Pride halftime set (Alumni exit to sidelines)
Pride performance—two selections from West Side Story
Maria
Mambo
Boomer Sooner and exit
Instrument Return
Anyone who is not sitting with the Alumni Band and would like to return their instrument following halftime should meet Russell Pettit at the truck upon exiting the field.
All others should meet Russell following the conclusion of the football game.
6:30 PM—Registration and playing rehearsal (Band room, Catlett Music Center)
9:00 PM—Rehearsal ends; reception for all alumni hosted by current ΚΚΨ/ΤΒ&Sigma members, followed by a joint ΚΚΨ/ΤΒ&Sigma alumni ritual, then ΤΒ&Sigma alumae-only ritual
Saturday, October 13
10:15 AM—Assemble at Everest Training Center for pre-game rehearsal with The Pride
Update: Please note that ESPN College Gameday will be broadcasting live from the general area of GF/OMS at about this time, so allow extra time to get to rehearsal on time!
12:15 PM—Registration for those who didn't attend Friday night rehearsal (Beaird Lounge, Oklahoma Memorial Union)
12:45 PM—OUBAA Business Meeting (Beaird Lounge, Oklahoma Memorial Union)
2:30 PM—Homecoming Parade (if you want to watch)
3:15 PM (or thereabouts)—Lunch served for those who purchased lunch tickets (Van Vleet [South] Oval)
4:30 PM—Meet in north end zone of Owen Field to prepare for pre-game march
5:30 PM—Kickoff!
Again, keep up with the Events calendar for the best, most accurate, printable, up-to-date schedule info! And start warming up—rehearsal is FRIDAY!
Now that's more like it! The river they're crying in Austin may be named "Denial:" click on the thumbnail image to the right for a section of a screen capture from the Austin American-Statesman early Sunday morning and their headline about the game. Click here to download the entire article as a PDF file, for those of you with your own "Dewey Defeats Truman" collections.
(Hint: the final score was OU 28, Texas 21. The Statesman has since fixed the headline on the article, which may be found here, but the first version was priceless. Small problems with reality down there, folks?)
The Pride of Oklahoma entertained the crowd with a 50th anniversary tribute to West Side Story, which opened at Broadway's famed Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957. Bands are alloted less time at halftime than in 1985 when The Pride first wowed with Rod Harkins' version of the show, so this year's edition was closer to the 1997 version: Maria, Mambo (a newer arrangement that I think is rythmically even trickier than the 1985 version!), and Tonight.
And now it gets even harder. Coming up this week for our 4-1 (1-1) Sooners: The surprising, 5-0 (1-0) Missouri Tigers, who spanked Nebraska last night 41-6. This is also Homecoming 2007, as we hope you know, and we promise you that we will post the schedule items just as soon as people start retuning my constant cranky E-mails about it. Subscribe to the Events calendar in iCal or Windows Vista for automatic updates and you'll know when we do!
It's a full week for The Pride, too: in addition to homecoming and activities with alumni, the full band travels north on Sunday, October 14, to participate in the Oklahoma Centennial Parade, following a 1.5-mile route through downtown Oklahoma City. The parade also features the Cowboy Marching Band and several state high school bands, and will be telecast statewide on OETA.
Quite the schedule post-Texas, even as The Pride prepares for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November in New York City, so we'll do our best to make sure everything goes smoothly. Keep checking the Web site or subscribe to the RSS feeds for updates as we have them!
We finally know kickoff time for the Homecoming 2007 game against Missouri: 5:30 PM CDT, televised regionally on Fox Sports Network. Now we can work on a Homecoming Weekend schedule and get it out to you ASAP!
Also, because both OU and Texas lost their games on September 29, ABC-TV has dropped the OU-Texas game to regional coverage: 27% of the country will see Iowa at Penn State instead, and 18% in the southeast get North Carolina State at Florida State. Everyone west of the Mississippi River (with exceptions in the eastern Dakotas, eastern Nebraska, and parts of northwestern Nebraska) will get the OU-Texas game in high-definition. See this map for the precise details.
We've updated the Events calendar with tentative times for some of the normal Gameday events: morning rehearsal, pre-game concert, pre-game performance, and so on. All of these are based on the normal gameday routine, but since it's Homecoming, the Homecoming Parade and other activities may throw any of those off. We'll update them as we have more concrete information, and we'll add in the OUBAA events (the business meeting, luncheon, and so on) as those are set. The calendar updates immediately when we enter new info, and if you've subscribed to it in iCal or Windows Vista, you'll get updates on your next refresh. Events for The Pride are prefixed "Pride:", while those just for alumni are prefixed "Alumni:", just to keep the two tracks clear.
Hmm. Well. OK, that didn't go the way we wanted. That was painful. And depressing. And it made me want Prozac.
And it was yesterday. It's old news. No time to wallow—it's Texas week!
The Sooners are now #9 in the Harris (BCS) poll and #10 in the USA Today (Coaches) poll, behind only Florida in one-loss teams in both surveys. Texas is now #17 in the Harris poll and #16 in the Coaches poll. Both teams lost to a Big 12 North opponent yesterday, but both teams are expected to win most of the rest of their conference games.
That means the Red River Rivalry puts the winner in the driver's seat for the Big XII South and a trip to the Fiesta Bowl—and, if there are no undefeated teams in December, in contention for the national championship. The loser is probably looking at a post-season list that would be lucky to top out with the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, but probably starts with the Gator or Alamo Bowl.
(For those who don't know: After the BCS chooses its representatives, including no more than two Big 12 teams, the bowls pick in the following order and are not required to respect conference finishing order: Cotton Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Gator Bowl*, Alamo Bowl, Sun Bowl*, Insight Bowl, Independence Bowl, Texas Bowl.
The Gator Bowl and Sun Bowl split their spots with the Big East conference. Jerry Palm explains this at his CollegeBCS.com site, well worth the annual $15 fee if you're hooked on college football (go sign up now!):
Beginning with 2006, the Gator and Sun Bowls are sharing a spot with the Big 12 and Big East. Each year, the Gator will choose first between the Big East #2 or the Big 12 #4. If the Gator picks a Big East team or ND [Notre Dame], the Sun will get the #5 choice in the Big 12. If the Gator takes a Big 12 team, the Sun gets the Big East #2. The Gator also has a one time option over the next four years to choose second from the Big 12 instead of fourth. The Gator is required to split the four years evenly between the Big 12 and the Big East/ND. In 2006, the Gator took a Big East team (WV).
This increases the chances that the Gator Bowl will pick a Big 12 team this year, and if they don't, they must do so in the 2008 and 2009 seasons.)
So, despite talk about the "luster" coming off the game, it's a very important conference match indeed. Plus, it's Texas, as if it needed to be any more important than that. Texas has won the last two games in the series and one national championship, following a five-game OU domination streak that included one national championship and two more attempts. Both teams have something to prove, and a national high-def TV audience watching them attempt to prove it. It's time to look forward.
Texas Weekend begins Friday, as usual, with The Pride's trip to Dallas, starting with a public rehearsal Friday morning at Pauls Valley High School. The Pride performs Friday night at the Lewsville vs. Carrollton Newman Smith football game at Standridge Stadium, plus usual appearances at the OU Club of Dallas's "Beat Texas" dance. All of the public performances are now listed on our Events calendar, complete with addresses and links to Google Maps where available. (Note that some events are private, invitation-only, sold out, or all of the above.)
If you're in Dallas or going there for the game, come see the Pride in other places if you can and support our kids. And start practicing those rah-rahs, because Homecoming 2007 is less than two weeks away, with a schedule coming very soon. BOOMER SOONER!
Posted by Webmaster on 9/30/07; 4:27:47 PM
from the Gameday dept.
When people visit our little site from a search engine like Yahoo or Google, their question is usually provided when they click the link from the search engine. Unsurprisingly, we get a lot of people searching for common terms like "Sooners" and "OU Homecoming" and "Oklahoma Band," but some of the questions are topical, and we thought we'd take a minute and try to answer a few of them.
How many people are in the OU Band?
I believe that the 2007 Pride of Oklahoma has 310 members, let's say ±2%. This has been a typical size for the band in the past several years. Every member auditions every year (even section leaders, who audition in the spring semester as part of the leadership determination process).
Where does the OU band sit at the Texas game?
I actually did not know this, because you probably saw all the news stories saying that, "starting in 2007," OU and Texas would alternate end zones each year. But we asked, and after all of the press and confusion, this year the answer is—no change whatsoever. The Pride will sit in bleachers on the stadium surface in the corner of the "South" end zone at the Cotton Bowl, just to your right as you come out of the tunnel. The Show Band of the Southwest occupies similar seats on the same sideline but behind the other ("north") end zone. In other words, it's just like it has been for the past several years. (The seats in the Cotton Bowl stadium were removed this year and replaced with benches, but the bands don't occupy any of them.)
What are the lyrics to O.K. Oklahoma?
The full lyrics to O.K. Oklahoma are found on this page, where you'll also find the story of the song, and a recording of its first-even performance on the NBC Red Radio Network from December 1, 1939.
Where can I find the trumpet part to Boomer Sooner?
Members of OUBAA can find parts to Boomer on this page. We have parts to some of the spirit tunes available here to assist Alumni Band members who want to practice before homecoming. However, these arrangements belong to the University of Oklahoma, and they're not licensed for other uses or performances. If your group is interested in recordings or sheet music of OU-specific spirit songs, contact the OU Band Department for details on what is available.
Where is The Pride performing in Dallas this year?
The full Texas trip schedule has not been announced, but we're told that The Pride will rehearse Friday morning in Pauls Valley, and perform Friday Night at a high school football game in Carrolton, among other pep and OU alumni events. The best way to keep track of public Pride performances (at least, the ones we track) is to check out our Events calendar. You can subscribe to it in iCal (Mac OS X) or Windows (Vista) Calendar and get all the latest updates automatically. Instructions are on the page. We'll update it with details of Texas performances as they're made available.
I don't like the ads.
That's not a question. Either way, the answer is to log in, or join the site by registering (it's free). Logged-in members do not see the ads, and can also comment, access the sheet music, and generally get more free things. Consider it a nudge.
Thanks for visiting the site, and keep your eye on the Homecoming 2007 News.
Last Saturday, in what we can only hope presages any contest between the Sooners and teams informally known as "Aggies," OU defeated Utah State 54-3 in a bright afternoon game, with weather much more amenable to football than the dilapidated hurricane that blew through the previous week. The Sooners, now 3-0 (0-0 in conference play) are ranked #4 in both the AP and USA Today polls. The BCS computer rankings don't treat OU as nicely, but many of them start at a "zero" point and level out only after six or seven games. That's why official BCS rankings don't start until October 14th, the day after Homecoming 2007.
Up next for the Sooners: the season's first road trip, and it's just up the Turner Turnpike! OU plays the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane tomorrow night (yes, Friday night) at "Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium," with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 PM CDT. The game will be broadcast nationally in HDTV on ESPN2. For Cox Cable customers in OKC, regular (standard definition) ESPN2 is on channel 28, and ESPN2 HD for digital customers is on channel 721. For DISH Network subscribers, standard ESPN2 is channel 144, and ESPN2 HD is channel 9425. DIRECTV customers can find ESPN2 standard on channel 209, and ESPN2 HD on channel 73.
The Pride of Oklahoma is travelling to the game—yup, the entire band—but it's a standard "away" game, so the Pride will perform only in the stands and during halftime (sorry, Tulsa-area fans and alums, no on-field pregame this year). Our Events calendar has details of a quick rehearsal in Norman on Friday morning and the times when The Pride will enter Chapman Stadium for those who want to turn out and support our members in red and white. The game is sold out, and Chapman Stadium has a capacity of just 35,542 seats (they actually reduced it in the 1990s by tearing down the North End Zone bleachers to build a new training complex), so ESPN2 may provide the best seats. The Pride will perform both drill and concert tunes at halftime.
Oh, and one week from tonight, the fall semester concert ensembles will perform at Catlett Music Center. We'll have more on that for you this weekend, after the game. Boomer Sooner!
If you were in The Pride in 1973 or 1975, you may have previously experienced the joy of seeing the Sooners beat the Miami Hurricanes. For those of us who marched in the mid-1980s and saw three consecutive losses to the Hurricanes (one that ended Troy Aikman's OU career, one that kept the Sooners from playing for the national championship, and one that was playing for the national championship), yesterday's 51-13 victory felt really good. Even Jerry Palm, a Purdue band alum and propietor of the impressive CollegeBCS.com site, named OU QB Sam Bradford as "player of the week."
As previously announced, The Pride followed the dedication of Jason White's statue in Heisman Park with an Oklahoma Centennial halftime show featuring a fanfare from the centennial anthem Oklahoma Rising and a medley of tunes from the musical Oklahoma!. "The Rocketman" flew over the band as it exited the field to Boomer Sooner, and HOLY COW WAS THAT DISTRESSINGLY LOUD. We'd have warned you if we'd known.
Rain in the first quarter gave way to temperatures in the high 80s with intense sunlight, 2000% humidity, and no breeze. It took a heavy toll on our Pride members, who had not been been able to practice in such conditions, so we wish them all a restful weekend. Photos will be available here within a few days.
Up next for the Sooners: hosting the 0-2 Utah State Aggies at Gaylord Family/Oklahoma Memorial Stadium this Saturday, September 15, with kickoff at 2:30 PM. It's Pride Parents' Day 2007, and if you're a parent who bought tickets, you'll see it live. For everyone else, the game is available only via Fox Sports Net pay-per-view at a price of $29.95, although Fox Sports Southwest intends to rebroadcast the game on Monday, September 17, at 11AM CDT. Other Fox Sports regional networks may show it as well at varying times; check your local listings for details.
We've updated our Events calendar with times for Saturday's festivities, and so far the weather is looking pretty good, with moderate temperatures and a 10% chance of showers. The Pride's show includes an alumni band favorite and other tunes to the East (student) side, too.
Saturday's home debut was great for both the Sooners and the 2007 Pride of Oklahoma. In addition to a record-setting Sooner victory, halftime featured a tribute to Billy Sims and two fine marching bands.
Then came The Pride's show, "Random Acts of Rock," featured Dr. Roland Barrett's arrangements of the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction with new drill, and Chuck Berry's Roll Over, Beethoven in concert with feature twirler Meredith Sigler. The Pride looked and sounded great!
Now onto the national stage as the Miami Hurricanes blow into town for the national game, in HDTV, on ABC Sports ESPN on ABC, Saturday morning at 11:00 AM CDT. It is the national game—no regional coverage, so it should be on every ABC affiliate in the continental United States.
Most of you know what an 11:00 AM CDT kickoff means for the Pride:
Marching in the dark!
With rehearsal at 6:00 AM on campus and the dedication of the fourth and final statue in Heisman Park (for Jason White) at 9:00 AM, it's a busy busy morning. As of last week's polls, the 'Canes were ranked 31st in the writers' poll and 28th in the coaches' poll, but they'll move up this week after their easy victory over Marshall, just as the 8th-ranked Sooners will move up after defeating North Texas (and especially after 4th-ranked Michigan had its unfortunate incident).
The Pride's show is part of the Oklahoma Centennial Celebration, with tunes that should bring smiles to the faces of spectators and band alumni alike. We've already updated the Events calendar with Saturday morning's schedule, and feel free to use the discussion link to ask questions or talk about the season (but you have to log in first!). Boomer Sooner!
We've updated the Events calendar with your opportunities to see and support The Pride of Oklahoma during the first home game, September 1, as the Sooners take on North Texas State University in Norman. See there for details on rehearsal, parade time, pregame time, and the dedication of the Billy Sims statue just east of the stadium.
If you haven't been to a game in a while, click the above link to read all about parking, new concession areas for 2007, new women's restrooms, new scoreboard (video boards over both pregame tunnels!), tailgating policies, and lots more.
And just to make sure you don't miss pre-game:
SOONER FAN FEST
Sooner Fan Fest, presented by The Oklahoman and Cox Communications, is an interactive area located on the grounds directly north of the stadium. The event is free to the public and includes food vendors, games for children, autograph opportunities, radio pre-game shows and Go Vision, a 20 foot video board that will display games from around the country. Sooner Fan Fest opens three hours prior to kickoff and closes when the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band enters the stadium [f]or [the] start of the game.
And what precedes entering the stadium? The parade!
Band Route: This season, the Pride of Oklahoma's pre-game activities will include a concert on the lawn area just north of Jacobsen Hall, directly across from Campus Corner. The concert will begin one hour and thirty minutes prior to kick off. Additionally, on all home game dates, the Pride will parade to the stadium and will pass through Campus Corner, with the exception of the Homecoming game vs. Missouri on October 13.
Of course, you won't miss it during Homecoming, because you'll be entering the stadium in preparation for playing, right? Of course! See you there!
Yes, I would have told you sooner, but I just found out myself. I'm looking for a loop to get inserted into. Be that as it may: tonight at 6:00 PM in Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, the annual pre-season pep rally kicks off yet again, featuring:
The gates to Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium open at 5:00 p.m. The Sooners will hold a brief scrimmage on Owen Field prior to the event which starts at 6:00 p.m.
Festivities include the 2007 Pride of Oklahoma, spirit squad performances and remarks from OU head coach Bob Stoops and team captains as well as the OU soccer and volleyball teams.
I'm not sure when The Pride became a "festivity," but it's fun, it's free, there's fun for the kids immediately afterwards north of the stadium, and it's a public performance by your 2007 Pride of Oklahoma after just one week. If you're in town, come by the stadium and support the Sooners!
It's a 3D model of Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, made with Google Sketchup, so you can play around with it in all three dimensions in that free program or in Google Earth, where it appears exactly in place, with the south practice fields and Section 29 and everything. Show your friends where you sat, although the view is more exciting with actual football on the field!
Update: Yes, section 29—despite concerns from last year about moving seating, and this year's NCAA rules change talking about team "pass-throughs," Mr. Britt confirms that Pride seating in Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is unchanged from last year. Whew!
Pride Parents' Day will take place on September 15 when the Sooners take on Utah State. Parents' Day is an opportunity for all Pride members' parents to take part in a gameday experience with their son or daughter. A schedule and order forms were mailed to the home address we have on file on Thursday, August 16. You may also download the information in PDF format if you did not receive the mailing. Please note that these items are very time sensitive so complete them today! We would like everyone to be able to participate! We look forward to seeing you on the 15th. Boomer Sooner!
The loaded up-front schedule makes time a problem in planning these things, especially with our 2007 Pride of Oklahoma just announced five days ago and busily preparing for the first game in under two weeks, so if you're a Pride Parent this year, get this material in ASAP!
OU vs. Miami is now slated for an 11 AM kickoff, and will be televised by ABC. As the linked SoonerSports.com article indicates, it's the second game of the season for both teams, on Saturday, September 8, at beautiful Owen Field. Any potential Pride members or parents reading know what that means: calisthenics in the dark!
Other than the Big 12 Championship game, it's still the only game for which we have a definite kickoff time. (Although it was previously announced that the Sept. 21 game at Tulsa will kickoff at 7:00 PM, the SoonerSports.com Web site still lists it as "TBD." You can see that here, and the Pride-related schedule (complete with unofficial 7:00 PM kickoff in Tulsa) has been updated on our Events calendar.
Update: The OU Athletic Dept. has now announced that the season and home opener, OU vs. North Texas on September 1, has been picked up by FSN and will kickoff at 6:00 PM. The Sooners host Utah State on September 15, and kickoff for that has been set at 2:30 PM, although no television plans are finalized. The calendars have been updated.
From the Dallas Morning News tonight (registration required):
Mayor Laura Miller will announce Friday that the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma will continue to play their age-old annual football showdown in Fair Park's Cotton Bowl - at least through 2015, city officials familiar with the announcement said Thursday.
Grambling University and Prairie View A&M University also will agree to play their annual game at the Cotton Bowl through 2015, the officials said. A news conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday on the Cotton Bowl's 50-yard line.
If they don't start it by 9:00:25 a.m., they have to move the press conference to the 45-yard-line due to the five-yard penalty for "delay of game."
The schools' new contracts, which several Dallas officials say will include hundreds of thousands of dollars in new city-funded incentives, ends months of speculation that they soon would leave the aging Cotton Bowl for other venues, including the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium in Arlington, 20 miles away.
…Several city officials confirmed that the deal tentatively calls for Dallas government in 2008 through 2011 to provide Texas and OU with a combined $850,000 in direct annual subsidy, up from the current $250,000 grant. Grambling and Prairie View together would receive $150,000, up from $50,000, the officials said.
In 2012, Texas and OU together would receive an additional $150,000 annually, according to the officials' understanding of the contract. They added that Grambling and Prairie View would receive more money in 2012, although they did not know how much.
At least initially, the money would come from a standing $700,000 annual subsidy to the organizers of the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, which will vacate its namesake stadium in two years. AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic president Rick Baker declined comment, pending the official announcement.
Such numbers are inherently tentative, since the Dallas City Council must vote to approve any contract agreement.
The new stadium in Arlington is a more attractive choice for the Cotton Bowl Classic, since their game is not timed to coincide with the Texas State Fair. It's to be built entirely out of magic glass, with a 60-yard-long jumbotron scoreboard hovering over the field, supported solely by Jerry Jones's ego.
The City of Dallas wants to hold several high-profile games at the stadium every year, especially during the state fair:
Several colleges who don't currently play at the Cotton Bowl have for months been considering playing annual or periodic football there, wooed by State Fair of Texas, business and city officials. The schools include Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, the University of Notre Dame, Oklahoma State University, Baylor University and Louisiana State University, State Fair officials say.
"Hey, OU plays there every year - we should too! What? What inferiority complex? Huh? Is it time to wave yet?"
City and State Fair officials have also expressed hope of attracting college football conference championship games and international-class soccer contests to a Cotton Bowl renovated with a new video scoreboard, seats, lights, team and media facilities and a host of other improvements. The stadium's capacity will also increase from about 76,000 to more than 90,000, officials say.
I have a life-size picture of the annual OSU-Baylor game in the Cotton Bowl selling out 90,000 seats. But maybe that's just me.
Posted by Webmaster on 4/19/07; 8:04:22 PM
from the Gameday dept.
Note that as of this schedule, OU vs. OSU is still slated for October 27 in Norman. Last year, this game was moved to Thanksgiving weekend sometime in April or May, so it may yet change.
Announcement today from the Big 12:
OKLAHOMA CITY -- This year's football game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will be played on Nov. 24, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Big 12 Conference said Monday.
The game, which will be in Norman, had been scheduled for Oct. 27. The change was requested for television coverage reasons.
It will be the third straight year, and the seventh time in the last nine years, that the Bedlam game will be played on the holiday weekend.
The last two years, the game also was scheduled for earlier in the season before being moved to Thanksgiving weekend.
The Bedlam game will continue in that spot on the schedule for the foreseeable future, as Big 12 schedules released last December have the game set for the holiday weekend through the 2015 season.
[…] the Sooners and Cowboys now will each have an open date on Oct. 27.
Oklahoma State has consistently supported playing the Bedlam game on Thanksgiving weekend, while Oklahoma generally has preferred to have an open date, citing a desire to keep the holiday weekend open for athletes and fans and also to have an extra week to prepare if the Sooners competed in the Big 12 Championship game the following week.
Our online Events calendar has been update. As of this writing, neither the official Sooner football schedule nor I have any information on the date of Homecoming 2007. If you make me guess, I'll now say November 3 - OU plays Texas in Dallas on October 6, Mizzou at Columbia on October 13, and Iowa State at Ames on October 20, and now October 27 is an open date. On November 3, the Sooners host Texas A&M. It seems a logical date for homecoming, but that rarely means anything.
When the Campus Activities Council decides, we'll let you know. (That links shows us that College Bowl begins tomorrow, so go Sooner Scholars!)
Posted by Webmaster on 3/26/07; 8:46:32 PM
from the Gameday dept.
...and it includes another Friday night game at Tulsa, for everyone in the northeast part of Oklahoma. It's the only game for which we currently have a scheduled kick-off time: 7:00 PM, telecast on ESPN2.
Gregg Easterbrook may finally have a point - after years of complaining that "football factory schools like Oklahoma" play more home games than away games by counting the Texas game as a "home" game in even-numbered years, Oklahoma this year actually does play more games in Norman than at other places - three non-conference home games before Tulsa, one home game the week after Texas, then one road trip and three conference games at home, for a total of seven games at Owen Field. We don't know which game will be Homecoming 2007 yet, though. (Or, at least, I don't.)
Note that as of this schedule, OU vs. OSU is still slated for October 27 in Norman. Last year, this game was moved to Thanksgiving weekend sometime in April or May, so it may yet change. If it doesn't change, the Sooners (and The Pride) not only have seven home games, they have no "bye" weeks during the regular season - they'd just have Thanksgiving weekend off before a hopeful Big 12 Championship appearance.
The full band travels to Tulsa and Texas, so that's at least 9 games out of 12 for The Pride in 2007 - yow! It's going to be a busy fall!
The full football schedule is part of the "events calendar," both online and on your own desktop, so check that out if you haven't.
Posted by Webmaster on 2/28/07; 11:09:13 PM
from the Gameday dept.
Our Pride of Oklahoma leaves this week for the Fiesta Bowl trip. Those of you who were in the band in 1983 (the last time OU went to the Fiesta Bowl!) may recall that this particular bowl trip is full of performances, so if you're headed to Arizona, there are plenty of chances to see and support the 2006 Pride - and there's another chance in Midland, TX, too!
Here's the full schedule of 2006 Pride of Oklahoma rehearsals and performances on the trip. Read more in the full article.
Because the next best thing to sports are sports updates, right?
Basketball: As many of you may have learned via E-mail, Showmen Alumni are invited to play at one of two games next week while The Pride and its staff are on the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl trip. Trent Davis is again leading the alumni opportunity for these two games:
Thursday, Dec 28: OU Men's BB vs. SMU, Lloyd Noble Arena (tip-off time: 7:00 PM)
Saturday, Dec 30: OU Women's BB vs. New Mexico, Cox Convention Center, OKC (tip-off time: 2:00 PM)
If you're interested in performing at either or both BB games, contact Jeff Jahnke or Trent Davis to confirm or ask any questions.
Football: Today, the Big 12 Conference released the football conference schedule for 2008-2015. Some of the dates may be changed for television, of course, and all eight OU vs. OSU games are listed for a two-day span, as they could be played on either the Friday or the Saturday after Thanksgiving in any given year. There are a couple of glitches on the page, too (they have OU hosting Colorado two consecutive years, and the November 2013 game at Nebraska has no date, although they mean "November 2, 2013").
Nonetheless, we have entered these games and their locations on our online calendar. To view it online in your Web browser, click here; to subscribe to it in a program like iCal, Now Up-to-Date, or Windows Vista calendar, click here instead. (Subscribing is better if you can do it, because that way, your own calendar program automatically picks up any changes we make to the schedule.)
The 36th Annual Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, in which BCS #8 Boise State takes on BCS #10 Oklahoma, is on the FOX Television Network (not Fox Sports Network, the regional cable/satellite stuff, but the broadcast one where you find 24 and The Simpsons) on January 1, 2007. Coverage begins at 7:00 PM CST, and will be available nationwide in high-definition. We'll post opportunities to see and hear The Pride of Oklahoma in Arizona as we're aware of them.
Boomer Sooner! and a happy intersession to you all.
Paul Thompson threw two touchdown passes to Malcolm Kelly and led the longest scoring drive in Big 12 championship history, leading Oklahoma to a 21-7 victory over No. 19 Nebraska on Saturday night.
Oklahoma also set the Big 12 championship record for fastest score. The game set an Arrowhead Stadium all-time attendance record at just over 80,000 fans, too.
Fun trivia: At Nebraska, Bill Callahan is now 0-12 when trailing at halftime.
The Sooners are now headed to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, at the brand new Cardinals Stadium in Glendale, AZ. Kickoff time is 7:45 PM on Fox (not FSN, but regular "home of The Simpsons" Fox) in high-definition. Ticket information is available online. We'll have links to Pride photos and schedules as they become available.
For the 40th time, the Sooners are conference champions!
The Cotton Bowl said today that it intends to extend an invitation to the loser of the Big 12 Championship game between Nebraska and OU on Saturday, so it looks like the Sooners are headed either to Glendale or to Dallas for a January 1 bowl game!
The only other outcome is the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville - the Gator Bowl can pick ahead of the Cotton Bowl once in the next four years if choosing a Big 12 team, and I can't find any evidence that they've definitely decided not to exercise that option. They could take the runner-up in the Big 12 title game - but SoonerSports.com, the arm of the OU Athletic Department, pretty clearly believes the choices for both OU and Nebraska are the Fiesta Bowl or the Cotton Bowl. BOOMER SOONER!
Posted by Webmaster on 11/29/06; 9:08:17 PM
from the Gameday dept.
Click the link to read about bedlam - and to post your favorite memory of bedlam as a member of the Pride of Oklahoma!
Posted by Webmaster on 11/18/06; 3:06:20 PM
from the Gameday dept.
Click the link to read about a final home game that was extraordinary in more ways than one. Don't ever let people tell you that something can't happen.
Mr. Brian Britt and The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band are making dreams come true for one lucky Texas boy. Eight year old Parker Hayes suffers from Primary Immune Defiency Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Parker is a big fan of the OU Drumline. Mr. Britt, on finding out about Parker and his love of the OU drumline, set about making Parker's dream of sitting with the line at a game a reality.
Parker and his parents will be attending the Nov 11th game as a guest of The Pride, sitting with the drumline. The band members are taking up a collection to pay for a hotel room for the family so Parker could rest after the long drive from Dallas. Parker will becoming to Norman after leaving Dallas from Medical City Dallas Childrens Hospital, where he is recieving treatment for his illness.
The spirit of community service that the band promotes really shows through in this undertaking, as many of the students are from Texas. Norman can be proud of Mr Britt,the members of The Pride and the University of Oklahoma for their commitment to improving the quality of life for all.
(Not sure what's up with the punctuation in the original, we've fixed it some)
OUBAA does not currently have a way online for you to donate to such worthy causes, so if you can help, please contact Brian Britt directly by clicking on his name - and a big thank you from everyone involved for anything you can do!
Click on the link for an update on the Sooners and our Pride of Oklahoma, including bowl possibilities, next week's long trip, and what's left in this 2006 season!
Click the link to read the full item, including the Iowa State summary and the start of Homecoming Week information (nothing totally new, just links to the gameday calendar and some other tips you may like). Boomer Sooner!
Perhaps this story is apocryphal, but it's fun nonetheless:
An old Big 8 legend says that Oklahoma's Barry Switzer once came into the Sooner locker room mid-way through a Red River Shootout match with Texas. Realizing his players were overhyped, nervous, and committing mental mistakes, he merely said, "I've been coaching college football for more than twenty years and I've never seen the band play at halftime." He took his players out to the edge of the tunnel where they watched the Pride of Oklahoma march, then proceeded to whip the Longhorns.
Supporting the Sooners does not end when the uniform goes back to the band room for good. The Pride's performance schedule for the weekend is here. News about the alumni drunk OU Club of Dallas's "Beat Texas Dance" is here. The game is to be nationally televised by ABCSports ESPN on ABC, with kickoff at 2:37 PM CDT from the Historic Cotton Bowl. OU is the home team, so The Pride performs full pre-game before the show, including the national anthem.
ABCSports ESPN on ABC is televising the game in 720p high definition, but a money dispute between Hearst-Argyle (the owners of KOCO, the ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City) and Cox Cable means that Cox has dropped KOCO-DT from its lineup. Oklahoma City Sooner fans who want to see the game in high-definition need an over-the-air ("OTA") antenna and appropriate equipment, or will need to head to a sports bar that has good hi-def. (The cruel irony: it's very difficult to pick up KOCO-DT over the air in most parts of Norman.) OKC Cox HD customers who want to stay abreast of the latest should keep an eye on HDTVOK.com, where it has been suggested that the two sides might compromise long enough to allow the game to go over cable in hi-def (but no guarantees).
Put on your red and white, get the TV ready, and remember that it's 3/11/10; 12:37:29 PM and Texas still bites!
Update: The Pride's performance tonight at Trinity High School has gotten some advance notice in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram!
Posted by Webmaster on 10/6/06; 9:32:52 AM
from the Gameday dept.
Click the link above for the full story on OU vs. Middle Tennessee State, on Pride Parents Day, what's next for the Sooners (it bites!), and even some homecoming reminders.
Posted by Webmaster on 9/25/06; 10:23:25 PM
from the Gameday dept.
Check out the full entry for grumbling about OU's loss, and lots of news about this Saturday's events for Parents' Day, pay-per-view information, and more.
Posted by Webmaster on 9/17/06; 11:46:13 AM
from the Gameday dept.
They had these "Sam Bradford, Heisman Trophy Winner" free desktop wallpaper pictures online less than 30 minutes after the award was announced.
Although my own DVR lists ABC as carrying Penn State vs. Iowa at 2:30 PM on Saturday (from KOCO in Oklahoma City), ABC and ESPN insist that everyone in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and most of New Mexico, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Montana will see OU vs. Texas A&M. The southeastern seaboard will see Clemson at Florida State in HD, and the rest of the country gets Penn State at Iowa in HD. And yes, that means the OU game is not in high-definition this week. When ABC has three regional games simultaneously, one of them is not in HD. This week, it's OU. Check out the 
Fortunately, it didn't matter: the Sooners defeated the Cowboys 49-17, returning to the form that had previously kept them in BCS National Championship consideration. 
), but if any present themselves, we'll update the calendar. The Bedlam game kicks off at 2:30 PM CST and will be televised regionally by FSN on cable and satellite—that's channel 37 for 
Click the link to read more about the end of the season for OU, bowl opportunities, and Pride performances!
