When the University of Texas announced its new high-profile television deal with ESPN earlier this year, competitive Sooner fans bristled immediately, wanting to know where their deal was.

"If it's good enough for those orange-clad pansies," the thinking goes, "we should have a TV deal too!"

Apparently, smarter people than you or I have been working on this for a while, as SoonerTV is scheduled to premiere sometime this fall. The real questions:

• What is the market value of an Oklahoma television deal?
• How far will it reach?

To find the answers, let's first look at the blueprint provided by the Longhorn network.

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Following in the tradition of "U Can't Touch Mallett" and "We Are ND," Oklahoma Sooners safety Tony Jefferson has laid down his treatment of "Boomer Sooner" in preparation for the 2011 season.

Definitely beats "Who Let the Sooners Out."

Kirk Bohls and Randy Riggs went over Texas' horrific 2010 season with a fine-toothed comb for a synopsis in Sunday's edition of the Austin American-Statesman. While their muckraking doesn't produce any startling revelations, the piece succinctly sums up the whole meltdown, as well as where the Longhorns now stand.

Plenty of characters in the Statesman's story have moved on since Bevo wrapped up a bowl-less year. Whether by their own choice or that of someone else, Greg Davis, Will Muschamp, Duane Akina and a host of other major players in the 5-7 drama of 2010 are gone.

The main man in the middle of all the chaos, head coach Mack Brown, somehow made it back to Bellmont.

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So, ESPN, er, a "third party" apparently approached the Wisconsin Badgers and Texas Christian Horned Frogs about staging a rematch of their Rose Bowl thriller on the opening weekend of the upcoming season. The only catch: It would be a one-shot deal in Madison.

Not surprisingly, Wisky coach Bret Bielema jumped at the opportunity to exact some revenge on TCU, which struck a blow for the little guy versus his Badgers on New Year's Day.

TCU? Eh, not so much.

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Homerism is looking for new writers to join the staff. If you're interested in writing about the Oklahoma Sooners or college football in all its sizes, shapes and forms, hit me up at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Or, just leave a comment below.

Thanks for your time.

True or false: The Oklahoma Sooners ran the ball better in 2010 than they did in 2009?

Answer: It may have seemed like it, but I wouldn't be asking you that if they had, now would I?

OU did manage to increase its total rushing yards per game slightly from 134.6 in '09 to 138.7 in '10. Per carry, however, the Sooners' output on the ground fell from a terrible 3.61 yards (90th nationally) to a stunningly bad 3.36 (106th).

OU's passing attack improved so much last season that the offense had more plays. The running game was generating more total yards in the aggregate as a result, even though OU definitely was running the ball worse.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers have already played the most played-out of cards this week. We'll certainly hear it again Sunday night, no matter who wins Super Bowl XLV.

"Nobody believes in us. Nobody respects us."

Please, man. Everybody respects these talented teams, which are two of the NFL's most-storied franchises. In fact, my respect for the Steelers and what they've accomplished in the last six years is all that's keeping me from going all-in with the Green Bay Packers in this game.

Pittsburgh has a quarterback who can't help but win and arguably the premier coach in pro football right now. The Steelers also tipify a physical brand of football that enables them to simply "out-tough" opponents. With Blitzburgh's track record, how can you go against the Steelers?

Well, I'm going to hang it out there.

Pittsburgh has a poor offensive line, made even worse by the loss of Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey for this game. As good as Ben Roethlisberger is at avoiding the blitz, he can only evade untouched pass rushers for so long before they start getting to him.

Meanwhile, have you seen the numbers Green Bay has put up in dome games in the last few years? The Pack is built to put beatdowns on opponents indoors - ask Atlanta. Playing on the fast track of JeryWorld sounds ideal with all that speed on both sides of the ball for Green Bay.

I hate going against the Steelers in a game like this, but Green Bay and its quarterback Aaron Rodgers appear to be peaking at just the right moment.

Packers 28, Steelers 23. Who ya got?

Paul Myerberg runs one of Homerism's favorite college football blogs out there, Pre-Snap Read. Now that we've had a couple weeks to digest what happened in 2010, Paul drops by for a podcast to look back at a season full of hard feelings and hot-button controversies.

Paul and I cover:

• the animosity that defined the 2010 college football season;
• the underrated storylines from the past season, including a down year in the SEC;
• the massive TV deal between ESPN and Texas;
• the next dominoes to fall in the ongoing conference realignment saga;
• the coaching carousel, including an all-new staff at Texas; and
• the "sustainability" of college football going forward.

(Subscribe to the podcast through iTunes. Rate the podcast with iTunes, too, if you get a chance. Thanks.)

For most hardcore college football fans in the Internet age, National Signing Day feels like those Christmas mornings when you were a kid and had already found your gifts a week earlier. It's still fun opening presents, but the anticipation just isn't there.

Plus, with family coming over in the afternoon for dinner, you know you won't be breaking out the G.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip until sundown. That's if you're lucky.

Coach Bob Stoops and his staff essentially wrapped up the 2011 class eight months ago, so that left plenty of waiting around for today. Now, everyone has seven months to wait around to see possibly catch a glimpse of the new Sooner standouts.

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Brian McLaughlin covers recruiting for Sporting News and runs The Recruitnik, SportingNews.com's recruiting blog. With National Signing Day just hours away, Homerism caught up with him to get his take on the incoming crop of Oklahoma Sooners and the year that was in recruiting for coach Bob Stoops and his staff.

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