Bill McCartney? Gone.

Barry Switzer? Long gone.

If you've been in a cave the last decade, you wouldn't recognize the Big Eight.

Oh, that's right. It's not even the Big Eight anymore, is it? It's the Big 12.

And the Big 12, while it remains one of the nation's strongest football conferences, at least at the top, is changing.

Going into this season, know how many Big 12 coaches have been the head man at their schools for more than four years? Precisely four. Those would be R.C. Slocum at Texas A&M, Spike Dykes at Texas Tech, Bill Snyder at Kansas State, and Larry Smith at Missouri.

Dan McCarney of Iowa State and Bob Simmons of Oklahoma State are next in the seniority line. They're both going into their fifth seasons.

And five guys are in their first or second seasons.

So what's happening here?

Simple. It's evolution. Things don't stay the same in college football anymore unless you're in State College, Pa., or Tallahassee, Fla. Things change. They move on. They evolve.

Evolution: Young glamour boy Rick Neuheisel takes his river-tubing trips and ski excursions to Washington, leaving the Colorado program in the hands of Gary Barnett, who promises more running, more hitting and more discipline.

Evolution: Osborne puts down his whistle and picks up his fishing rod, leaving the Nebraska program to longtime assistant Frank Solich, who finds out just how tough Nebraska's fans can be when he goes 9-4 and the red-soaked faithful apply for federal disaster relief.

Evolution: John Blake departs in failure at Oklahoma, following the leads of Gary Gibbs and Howard Schnellenberger. Switzer seems a dim memory as a heralded defensive assistant named Bob Stoops takes over the program and promises to install a high-octane passing attack.

How different is the Big 12 now from the Big Eight days of yore?

Oklahoma and Nebraska, once Thanksgiving-weekend TV staples, don't even play each other anymore. The league's marquee games now are Nebraska-Colorado and Texas-Texas A&M.

Big Eight, we hardly knew ye.

		Will Nebraska return to being a power? From a lot of people in Nebraska, there were a lot of talk last year like, "Aha, I told you Frank Solich couldn't do it." Granted, the Cornhuskers had their hands full with injuries and some of the improving teams around them. I think this year Solich can showcase that he's a solid head coach. It's kind of cyclical. Tom Osborne went through tough times, as do all great coaches. This year Solich has a chance to quiet some of the critics because of Nebraska's schedule and because of some of the talent returning. But the Huskers have to get back to playing old, hard-nosed Nebraska football, and that was missing last year at times.

All five are loaded with talent from several blue-chip recruiting classes. Two -- K-State with Snyder and A&M with Slocum -- are led by familiar faces. The other three -- Nebraska with Solich, Texas with Mack Brown and Colorado with Barnett -- are putting their considerable legacies in the hands of relative newcomers.

Barnett knows the territory. He spent eight seasons in Boulder under the most successful coach in Buffaloes history, McCartney. He almost certainly would've taken over when McCartney unexpectedly retired in 1994 if he hadn't already bolted to Northwestern.

So now he's back, his Northwestern rags-to-riches legacy intact, his aim to put the school he loves back on the national map.

"It's literally coming home for me," Barnett said. "I was here 21 years (including his 13 years as a high school coach in the state). My entire professional life was spent in Colorado except for the last seven years."

After the laissez-faire regime of Neuheisel, who often was criticized for his lack of discipline, Colorado's players are welcoming Barnett's more businesslike approach. The team has spent much of the month of August going through three-a-days.

"We're a lot tougher than we were," wide receiver Marcus Stiggers said. "It's his personality. I don't what it is, but everybody's excited."

Everybody's excited in Austin, too. Texas has sold more season tickets for '99 -- more than 43,000 -- than any season in its storied history. Brown, in his second year, has created a level of anticipation seldom seen during John Mackovic's up-and-down regime.

The Longhorns will be without Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams, but overall will be more talented.

"It's exciting to be a part of what is going on right now and we're trying to build on that," Brown said. "But last year is just a memory. The coaching staff has challenged this year's team to leave their own mark, and hopefully they can make that happen."

Solich has yet to leave his mark on Lincoln, and more than a few of the red-clad crazies emerged from last season wondering if he is a fit replacement for the living legend of Osborne. But those whispers will be silenced in a hurry if the Huskers climb back to the top in '99 as many think they can.

Solich, for his part, isn't concerned.

"Nebraska has had some great teams in the past, but some of those things that happened to us last year didn't happen to them," he said. "I don't see it as trying to prove anything. We just need to go out and play good football."

Randy Holtz of the Rocky Mountain News is contributor to ESPN.com