When Texas coach Mack Brown came to the Big 12 three years ago, the conference had more infighting than a Jackson Five reunion.
Coaches sniped about the wisdom of a Big 12 championship game, while athletic directors griped about the location of it. Southerners bickered that "we did it this way in the Southwest Conference" while Northerners grumbled that "we did it that way in the Big Eight."
And the play on the field wasn't much better. For the most part, only Nebraska and Kansas State made national title runs, with the Texas teams relegated to the role of spoilers.
In short, it was an uncivil war. North vs. South. Old vs. new.
|  | | Mack Brown has Texas in the national championship mix. |
"When I first got here, I didn't feel that the conference had meshed very well," Brown said. "There was this discussion all the time on whether the south was better than the north or the north better than the south. I sure don't hear that anymore. I hear a lot of collective pride."
Indeed, the only things separating the Big 12's elite now are a few points in the national rankings.
For the first time since it formed in 1996, the conference has three teams -- Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas -- ranked in the Top 5 in the Associated Press and the Top 6 in the ESPN/USA Today polls. A fourth team, Kansas State, is ranked 11th and 13th. A fifth team, Colorado, is peeking into the Top 25, at 27th and 29th.
And then there's the list of last year's accomplishments -- five teams in the final polls, seven teams in bowls, the nation's best winning percentage against non-conference opponents.
"I said at last year's media day that I thought this was the best conference in the nation," said Iowa State coach Dan McCarney, who led his team to a 9-3 record and its first bowl victory in school history last year. "It sure played out that way and I don't see any reason for any drop-off this year.
"I think people around the country are just starting to realize how special this conference is. There's no doubt in my mind it's the best conference in the country."
While that may be up for debate, there's little doubt about why Big 12 teams have gone from overrated to overachieving:
Forward thinking, forward passing. Last year, the conference made more passes than a congressman at an intern party. The most glaring stat? Big 12 teams threw 500 more passes during the 2000 regular season than they did in 1999. It was a far cry from the old smashmouth, yawn-inducing running attacks of the Big Eight and Southwest conferences.
Stoops led the revolution by bringing Florida's free-wheeling philosophy to Norman in 1999. He not only toppled Oklahoma's run-rich tradition; he inadvertently transformed the rest of the league. Last year, Stoops' offensive coordinator, Mike Leach, left for Texas Tech, turning the runnin' Raiders into the Air Raid. Texas, Texas A&M and Colorado have followed suit, scrapping run-first option attacks for multi-receiver sets.
Marquee coaches. Nebraska coach Frank Solich had more wins in his first three years than his legendary predecessors, Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney, had. Yet he might be just the fourth best coach in the league. Kansas State coach Bill Snyder has beaten Solich two out of three times. Stoops and his young staff are the most energetic, charismatic coaches in the nation. Mack Brown is a master recruiter, if not tactician.
Those coaches have made the conference so competitive that veterans like Colorado coach Gary Barnett, who won a Big Ten title at Northwestern, and A&M coach R.C. Slocum, the sixth winningest active head coach in the nation, have found themselves on the outside looking in.
|  | | Nebraska's Eric Crouch's running and passing ability could land him the Heisman Trophy. |
Clutch quarterbacks. Last year, Josh Heupel was one of the nation's best passers while Eric Crouch was one of the nation's best runners. Now, with Heupel gone, Crouch will be fighting for the national spotlight with such game-breaking, headline-making talents as Texas' Chris Simms, Colorado's Craig Ochs, A&M's Mark Farris, and Oklahoma newcomer Nate Hybl.
Cutthroat competition. To a man, Big 12 coaches say the conference's stature has risen with its competition level. New rivalries are emerging, Slocum said, and former doormats like Iowa State are improving. Slocum noted that Oklahoma State, 3-8, had legitimate shots to beat A&M and Oklahoma last year.
Leach, who coached at Kentucky, said the Big 12 slate is more grueling than the Southeastern Conference. "The Big 12, from top to bottom, is tougher," he said. "I think there are less breathers in the Big 12 than there are in the SEC.
"But when you get right down to it, the Big 12 isn't in the hugest population base, so it hasn't gotten the coverage that the other conferences get."
It's getting that publicity now. But the question is whether conference prominence will turn into national dominance. Or will the Big 12 cannibalize itself like other leagues -- read: the Big Ten and Pac-10 -- have?
Time will tell. But history offers one interesting perspective: The last time any conference had three teams ranked consecutively at the top was in 1971. That year, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Colorado finished one, two and three in the Big Eight --- and the nation.
It hasn't been done since. And it probably won't be done this year. But it could be fun to watch.
"There are five, six teams in the conference that feel legitimately that if things go right, they have a chance of winning the conference race," Solich said. "And there's probably four that feel if it really goes right, they have a chance to be in the national championship game. If you have those kinds of teams, you know you're really going to have a great conference."
Todd Cooper is a staff writer at the Omaha World-Herald.
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