Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops insists he hasn’t thought too much about the possibility that it could be the last season of the Big 12 as he knows it.

He’s simply worried about Saturday, when his top-ranked Sooners host Missouri. The Sooners were No. 1 in the BCS rankings last year when then-No. 18 Missouri beat them 36-27 in Columbia, Mo. He said all the conference alignment talk isn’t a distraction.

“We were No. 1 in the country last year and we went up and they whipped us,” Stoops said. “So our players are more than aware of that and anxious to play.”

The other Big 12 game on the schedule in the first week of league play is the only match-up of Top 10 teams in the country, with No. 7 Oklahoma State visiting eighth-ranked Texas A&M.

While Stoops wants to make sure Oklahoma doesn’t forget about what happened last year against Missouri, Tigers coach Gary Pinkel isn’t talking about it at all with his team.

“Last year is a different year,” he said. “It’s just about preparing. It’s all preparation. You have to play well against those guys. There is no discussion of last year. “

Oklahoma has won the Big 12 title seven times, including a 23-20 win over Nebraska in last year’s title game. Stoops doesn’t believe that the possibility of the Big 12 breaking up after this season would make winning the title this season more important than it has been in the past.

“There’s always a great sense of urgency for us to do that and we’ve done it a lot,” he said. “Last year was pretty special with Nebraska leaving to play them in it. Every year, that’s one of our main goals. So this year it is too, but to say it’s more so than other years, that would be taking away from these other years where it was a big deal for us.”

Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman has been worried the last two weeks about the mindset of his team as the Aggies faced teams they were heavily favored against. This week, he knows his team understands what’s at stake.

“In games like this, they understand that and you don’t have to beat it into their head,” he said. “They hear things and they see things and they’re not stupid and they understand how important this game is for us. I don’t think you have to overstate it.”

The game will be the first meeting between Top 10 opponents at Kyle Field since the second-ranked Aggies beat No. 5 Texas 20-10 in 1975.

“In our conference this game has very explicit implications in regards to who takes an early lead in the conference,” Sherman said. “Playing our first conference game against Oklahoma State is huge.”

Early birds

Texas coach Mack Brown was unhappy about his team getting off to bad starts in its first two games, so he decided to tell the Longhorns that Saturday’s game against UCLA started an hour before it actually did.

It was unclear if his team really believed the game started early, but either way, Brown’s trick work for the 19th-ranked Longhorns. They jumped out to a 21-0 lead and were ahead 28-10 at halftime in a 49-20 win.

“In the first two ball games, until halftime we just didn’t get kick started at all,” Brown said. “So my message all week was fast start, fast start, fast start. So we actually said the game is going to start at 11:30 so let’s get whatever bad play out of the way so we can get started like we do in the second half in the first half. The guys did that.”

The Longhorns are off this week before traveling to Iowa State on Oct. 1. The kickoff for that game hasn’t been determined yet, so Brown won’t be able to sell his players on a fake start time during the off week.

Breakout performance

Receiver Darrin Moore joined the Red Raiders last year, but wasn’t able to get much playing time behind a group established seniors.

“He came in as a big receiver who could run, but we had two receivers that were seniors last year and they knew so much more about how to play this level of football that it was hard for him to break in,” Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said.

Things are much different in 2011. Moore had just 15 receptions for 117 yards last season, but has already grabbed 21 catches for 339 yards and four touchdowns in two games this season.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Moore spent a season at Blinn Junior College where he was part of the Cam Newton-led championship team in 2009.

“He had a very good spring practice and we could tell he had really grown up a lot in two-a-days,” Tuberville said. “He made the same catches in two-a-days. You earn the respect by showing your quarterback in practice: ‘Hey, if you throw it to me, I’m going to catch it.’ Then a lot of those things are going to happen in the game.”

Moore had 12 receptions for 221 yards and a touchdown in Tech’s opener against Texas State and added three scores against New Mexico. He leads the nation in yards receiving a game with 169.5 and is averaging more than 16 yards a reception.

Tuberville said Moore bruised his hip when he got caught up in the chains after a catch against New Mexico, but that he practiced Sunday and should be ready to play Saturday against Nevada.

Heavy hearts

The Aggies’ thoughts are with Oklahoma State linebackers coach Glenn Spencer, whose wife Angela died in the first quarter of the Cowboys’ game against Tulsa early Sunday.

Texas A&M defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter broke down and had to fight back tears when asked about Angela’s death. He said he didn’t know the family personally, but has friends who do. Her death reminded him of the unexpected death of his older brother John from a heart attack when he was at Nevada during the 2005 season.

“You get in a vacuum and you think all that matters is football,” DeRuyter said. “We will battle our hearts out come Saturday, but we wish the best for him and his family.”