STILLWATER, Okla. — The flyover before Oklahoma's 61-41 victory over Oklahoma State wasn't your proud-to-be-an-American show of patriotism.

This was a show of favoritism. The pilot, presumably in a burnt orange bomber's jacket, puttered over Boone Pickens Stadium pulling a banner: "Texas 45, OU 35 — Settled on a neutral field."

The threat of another message plane that was to drag "Texas Tech 39, Texas 33" across the Oklahoma sky never materialized, but Oklahoma fans showed up with enough signs reminding people of the score.

Messages were being delivered across the college football landscape over the Thanksgiving holiday, because the results on the field aren't providing much help in the Big 12 South.

An entire regular season couldn't produce a division champion. Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech are all 7-1 in the Big 12 and 11-1 overall. No less than a chance at the national championship is at stake, at least for the Longhorns and Sooners.

The team going to Kansas City to meet Missouri next Saturday will have the best math, the highest-rated team in the BCS standings.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops believes that will be the Sooners.

"I think we have a really good chance," he said. "Usually it's what you're doing at the end of the year, and we have finished pretty strong."

A 44-point victory over then No. 2 Tech last weekend and a 20-point triumph over No. 11 Oklahoma State on the road on Saturday make Stoops' case.

Texas counters with the message on the airplane, plus this: The Longhorns beat both Bedlam teams and the North co-champ Tigers. Nobody else can make the claim.

Mack Brown reminded the national television audience of that accomplishment as Oklahoma was scoring at will against the Cowboys. Two days earlier, in the aftermath of the Longhorns' resounding victory over Texas A&M Brown called the situation "more screwed up than I think it is" if Texas' accomplishments weren't deemed worthy enough.

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe has a message of his own. Trust the system.

"It's going to come down to a strong finish verses head to head," Beebe said. "People can argue both sides of that."

The people are the voters in two polls, the USA Today roll call of coaches and the Harris pollsters. Both entities ranked the Sooners ahead of the Longhorns last week but Texas was second in the BCS standings because of a stronger average of the six computer polls.

What won't be part of the argument is Texas Tech. At No. 7 in the BCS, the Red Raiders won't challenge for the top Big 12 spot.

With Tech out of consideration, does it come down to the head-to-head meeting?

Remember we're down to two because the Sooners thinned the herd with their 44-point demolition of the Red Raiders two weeks ago. I've said it before, Tech can't be demoted without Oklahoma being promoted.

And I still don't understand the logic that Tech's miserable loss to the Sooners created a two-team race that defaults to Texas. That suggests Oklahoma would have been better off beating Tech by six points rather than six touchdowns just to keep a three-team race alive.

Other considerations:

Geography? Texas's victory over Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl was the only one in the round robin not scored at home.

Oklahoma's victory on Saturday was the most impressive on the road by any of the contenders.

What will happen Sunday? This is a guess, but Oklahoma will retain its slight edge in the polls — the Sooners and Longhorns expectedly won their season finales. But Oklahoma will gain in the computer polls because the Cowboys were a stronger opponent than Texas A&M, and that will send the Sooners into second place and on to Kansas City. And the bitterness will deepen in the Red River rivalry.