FanHouse BoPelini

The Big 12 North remains a ways from returning to the prominence it enjoyed when the conference first formed in the late 1990s, but if Saturday's matchup between Kansas State and Nebraska for the division title is any indication then better days are certainly on the horizon.

After years of struggles by the Kansas State Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, which have coincided with a dip in the North's strength, the two meet Saturday in Lincoln for a winner-take-all showdown. Neither team has had quite the season it anticipated but each has won enough for the right to play for the Big 12 championship, likely against No. 2 Texas, Dec. 5.

"Certainly we've been in this position before, probably in different ways," said veteran Wildcats coach Bill Snyder, who broke out of a three-year retirement to return to the sidelines this season. "By the same token, I can't remember other than the very early years that playing against the Nebraska teams was not a great challenge and certainly key ball games were after those initial years after they beat us so soundly."

The resemblance to the old Blackshirt defense is there, but make no mistake -- this isn't your father's Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Still, in this current cycle where parity and mediocrity have met to transform the mightiest of college football programs into mere mortals, these Cornhuskers are good enough to be part of the Big 12 North championship conversation. Seriously, these very Cornhuskers who a few weeks seemed down after dropping back-to-back home games against Texas Tech and ... gasp ... Iowa State could actually fulfill the preseason prophecy of the Big 12 media by winning the North.

There is nothing new about Bob Stoops matching coaching wits with old mentor and boss Bill Snyder. They've done plenty of that over the years in Big 12 cross-divisional play.

But that doesn't mean Stoops isn't a little surprised to see Snyder, 70, back on the Wildcats sideline. The longtime Kansas State coach retired four years ago to pursue opportunities outside coaching, but was lured out of retirement last winter.

Stoops, whose 22nd-ranked Sooners host the Wildcats on Saturday, admits it's a little unexpected to be going up against his old boss again, but he was stunned when Snyder was no longer there, too.

It's just three weeks into the full-swing of Big 12 play but the North Division is looking like any of the six teams could win the race.

That doesn't necessarily bode well at all for the weaker half of the two-division league.

Nebraska and Kansas came into the season as the presumed favorites to represent the North, but after two weeks of inconsistent play neither seems as powerful. The same can be said for two-time North champion Missouri, which started the season a surprising 4-0, but has dropped its first two games of the Big 12 season.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In terms of rivalries, Missouri-Nebraska still doesn't quite measure up to Ohio State-Michigan, Texas-Oklahoma or USC-Notre Dame.

That isn't to suggest this rivalry hasn't had its moments during the 102 previous meetings that date back to 1892.

But in recent years, especially since the Gary Pinkel-era began at Missouri nine years ago, this Big 12 North matchup has produced quite a few fireworks. There was last year's 52-17 spanking the Cornhuskers took from Missouri in their own Memorial Stadium, marking the first time since 1978 that Mizzou had won in Lincoln. In 1997, an unranked Missouri team came within a miracle catch of upsetting the No.1 Cornhuskers in a co-national championship year.

Maybe it's premature to start trumpeting the return of the Big 12 North, but if the non-conference success of the big-three North teams is any indication this could be an interesting season.

Nebraska and Kansas were expected to dominate the weaker of the league's two divisions, but it appears they will have company. Missouri, which is supposed to be in a rebuilding mode after back-to-back North titles, is off to a surprising 4-0 start that catapulted the program into the Top 25 this week at No. 24.

It was of little surprise Monday when Texas coach Mack Brown named redshirt freshman running back Tre' Newton as the starter for Saturday's UTEP game.

Newton gave the second-ranked Longhorns everything they had been looking for in a tailback for the last two seasons during Saturday's win over Texas Tech, picking up difficult yards and moving the chains. Filling in for injured starter Vondrell McGee in the second half, Newton rushed for 88 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries.

His 18 carries for 81 yards in the second half proved pivotal in keeping Texas Tech's explosive offense off the field as the Longhorns escaped with a 34-24 win. It was the inability of the Longhorns backs to pick up critical yards late that paved the way for their upset loss to Tech last season.

At last, the road to the top seems awfully clear for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

How far they still have to go will be determined, at least in part, Saturday when the Cornhuskers travel to Blacksburg, Va., to take on the 13th-ranked Hokies, Nebraska's first real test of the season.

Just don't expect Nebraska coach Bo Pelini to admit that his team's first BCS opponent of the season will be a gauge for how close the Cornhuskers are to returning to their dominant former selves.

"Every week is a measuring stick," Pelini said this week. "We have to measure ourselves according to where we want to be and how we're executing. It's the way it is. You have to measure yourself every day. Are you improving every day? Are you getting better every day? Are you competing to be the best every day? You have to make improvement and this week is just the next step."

Dallas Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett certainly doesn't speak for everyone who has donned a college football uniform.

But it's a good bet the outspoken second-year pro echoes the sentiment of a large population of current and former major college football players when he questions the motives of those who have accused Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff of excessive workouts.

Current and former Michigan Wolverines players have told the Detroit Free Press that Rodriguez and his staff often held them for 12 hours on Sundays following a game and that summer voluntary workouts were not voluntary at all. Some ask, what's new?

On Sunday the Nebraska Cornhuskers found out that one of the quarterbacks who they were expecting to compete for a starting job this spring, Patrick Witt, was transferring from the school. The news came as a bit of a shock considering that Witt could have been considered the favorite to win the job this spring based on being the most game-tested field general the Huskers had.

Well, it appears that Witt and his father wanted a little more assurance that Patrick would be the man under center this fall. Word out of Lincoln is that Witt was asking Bo Pelini to promise him he'd be named starter after spring practice or he was going to seek a transfer.