Chuck Carlton

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The Big 12 and its media members will have a difficult act to follow when they convene north of D/FW Airport for three days of football talk beginning Monday.

The Southeastern Conference set a standard for press frenzy last week at Hoover, Ala.

First, there was the Inspector Clouseau-like pursuit of who left Florida's Tim Tebow off their all-conference ballot. Then, one intrepid online journalist asked Tebow, maybe the biggest campus celebrity in the country, if he had managed to avoid temptation so far. The gasps could be heard from Altamonte Springs to Winter Haven, although Tebow handled the question as well as possible.

The Big 12 might not rise – or fall, depending on your viewpoint – to that level.

Anyway, there are plenty of plotlines even without probing the private lives of Heisman candidates. Here are a few:

■ Red River Rivalry, continued: Texas-Oklahoma brings enough anger, animosity and ill-will to fill countless schooners. The two never cared much for each other in the best of times. Recent events have only ratcheted up the inherent dislike.

Consider the various elements: 45-35; the flyovers; the Big 12 tiebreaker and the BCS standings; Heisman winner Sam Bradford, Heisman runner-up Colt McCoy; the asterisk; the projected tie in the Big 12 media poll.

DMN file photos

Oklahoma's Sam Bradford (left) and Texas' Colt McCoy lead the Big 12's best teams.

The rivalry story pretty much writes itself.

■ The long-term Aggies outlook: Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman will face plenty of questions, but the biggest one may be impossible for him to answer with any degree of certainty: What happens if the Aggies go 4-8 again and fail to win a game against the Big 12 South?

Sherman may have a plan, as he's told boosters this summer, and he may have improved A&M's recruiting profile, especially with freshman running back Christine Michael.

But any measurable improvement may not come this season given the strength of the South.

■ The Pirate: Just about any year, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is a viral video waiting to happen.

This July, Leach has more to talk about than normal.

He's coming off a breakthrough 11-2 season. He must replace quarterback Graham Harrell and receiver Michael Crabtree. He almost became the former coach at Tech before agreeing to a five-year, $12.7 million contract.

It's a shame that he and Texas A&M counterpart Mike Sherman aren't booked on the same day to debate the NFL prospects of Stephen McGee.

■ Great expectations: Oklahoma State, with a star-studded offense and new high-profile defensive coordinator Bill Young, is getting the same preseason love that Texas Tech received last year.

The Cowboys have never been this highly regarded in the Mike Gundy era. How will the Man, now almost 42, handle the scrutiny? He actually held up well during a media blitz earlier this month on ESPN.

■ What about the North? Bill Snyder may be back at Kansas State attempting Manhattan Miracle II, but it's not exactly 1999 for the North.

Teams from the South have won the last five Big 12 title games by a combined margin of 233-51. The South dominated the preseason all-conference team with 21 of 26 picks.

Sure, the North looked ready for a breakthrough in 2007 with Missouri and Kansas. Now it's reverted to the status quo.

Maybe Nebraska, in Bo Pelini's second season, can return to being, well, Nebraska.

Maybe.

Big 12 football media days take place in Irving this week. The schedule for coverage of each school:

Tuesday's edition: Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Iowa State

Wednesday: Missouri, Baylor, Kansas and Oklahoma

Thursday: Kansas State, Texas Tech, Colorado and Texas