Oklahoma and Texas A

Both the Sooners and Aggies competed in the Big 12 before Texas A&M left for the Southeastern Conference this season. The former conference foes meet Friday night in the 77th annual Cotton Bowl outside Dallas.

By Stephen Hawkins,?Associated Press / January 4, 2013

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) looks to pass as defensive back Clay Honeycutt (25) reaches in during practice for the Cotton Bowl NCAA college football game last weekend in Dallas.

LM Otero/AP

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Spencer Nealy and some of his Texas?A&M teammates were discussing potential bowl games even before their first SEC season began.

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"We were like, how funny would it be if we made the Cotton Bowl," Nealy said. "We were looking at SEC vs. Big 12 teams. That's what we thought about, that situation."

Well, Texas A&M's season of firsts ? coach Kevin Sumlin's first year, quarterback Johnny Manziel becoming the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy and the SEC debut ? will end with the 10th-ranked Aggies (10-2) playing a familiar Big 12 foe.

In the only bowl matching the SEC against the Big 12, Texas?A&M takes on 12th-ranked Oklahoma (10-2) in the Cotton Bowl on Friday night. Both teams have five-game winning streaks.

"It's a little more than a game," Nealy said. "It's almost like we had a great season but we have to win this one."

In their 16 Big 12 seasons, the only time the Aggies won more than nine games was when they were 11-3 their 1998 conference title season. They left the league with a winning record (7-6) last season only after a bowl win over Northwestern.

Once in the SEC, which has six national titles in a row, Texas?A&M lost its opener 20-17 to Florida. The other loss was 24-19 to LSU before the current winning streak that includes the Aggies' first-ever road win against a No. 1 team ? at SEC champion Alabama, which plays in the BCS title game Monday night.

"The first thing we did was we didn't talk about it very much what happened in the past. It seemed to be what everyone wanted to talk about externally, but internally we just didn't," Sumlin said. "Any time you have to get over a hump or clear a hurdle, you have got to win a game in a certain fashion."

Sumlin pointed to a 30-27 win at Ole Miss the first Saturday in October, when the Aggies overcame six turnovers and were down 10 points with 6 1/2 minutes left. They lost to LSU two weeks later, but haven't lost since.

The Sooners seemed certain of a Bowl Championship Series game after clinching a share of their eighth Big 12 title, even though Kansas State had a tiebreaker giving the Wildcats the league's automatic BCS slot. But Mid-American champion Northern Illinois then qualified as a BCS buster.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/aAUMdwp4dGU/Oklahoma-and-Texas-A-M-renew-Big-12-acquaintances-in-Cotton-Bowl

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