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Score one for the little guys
Published: 2/16/2012 7:09 PM
Last Modified: 2/16/2012 7:09 PM

Conference realignment hasn't exactly been good to the little guys.

You can go no farther than a few blocks away to see the upheaval it's caused at Tulsa.

The Golden Hurricane's new "conference to be named later," which spans the globe -- or at least the entire United States -- isn't exactly a best-case scenario for the school's sports interests.

In today's climate, however, it was a necessity out of self defense.

But in the last few weeks, at least, a few little guys got their revenge.

Namely, Texas-El Paso, which used the scheduling uncertainty caused by conference realignment to force Oklahoma into a rare season opener on the road.

The Sooners are playing in El Paso for the first time not involving a bowl game. Although OU is the fourth Big 12 school to play at UTEP in the last eight years, it hasn't happened since Kansas visited in 2009.

With a few BCS-conference schools needing games on short notice, smaller schools finally had a little leverage. And at least UTEP and Louisiana Tech used it.

Both managed home openers against BCS foes -- La Tech plays host to Texas A&M in Shreveport on the first Thursday of the season.

Good for UTEP and La Tech to use what little leverage they had. Neither accepted a road game this season for a future home game that could have been bought out at a later date.

It leaves OU with a less than desirable road trip and fewer home games than it wants -- most BCS schools strive to have seven home dates per season.

But it's just a momentary blip for the Sooners. It may be the only bright spot for UTEP in the conference realignment game.

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The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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