Dallas ? So the Big 12 went 12-for-12 this past weekend, a first in the league’s 13 seasons. Sounds great.

But what does it really mean?

Not much, considering that’s what it was supposed to do. After all, 11 foes were from non-BCS conferences, and the only legitimate opponent, Cincinnati of the Big East, had the misfortune of playing at Oklahoma.

Thus, give credit to the schedule-makers for doing a heck of a job, including the four that dipped into the Championship Subdivision for competition.

And give a few light pats on the back to the coaches and players for taking care of business – like Kansas shutting out Louisiana Tech, Baylor flexing some muscle against lowly Northwestern State and Texas handling a wild atmosphere on the road against Texas-El Paso.

“We passed the test,” said Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy, whose team faced a Sun Bowl record crowd of 53,415, the culmination of two years of hype summed up in a popular T-shirt that read: “New Brand of Texas Football” and “09-06-08: Where will you be?”

Sunday, the conference got more good news with some minor improvement in the national ratings.

The Sooners moved up a spot to No. 3, Texas moved up two spots to No. 8 and Kansas moved up a notch to No. 13. Missouri remained sixth and Texas Tech stayed at No. 12. All told, that’s five of the top 13. (The SEC, by the way, has five of the top 11.)

Texas A&M and Texas Tech were the only Big 12 teams on the road.

Playing New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M., A&M made slapstick mistakes like wasted timeouts, too many guys on the field and only one first down in the third quarter.

And Tech’s defense gave up a whopping 488 yards to Nevada, but managed a 35-19 victory.