The comprehensive four-day series on Big 12 football by the Tulsa World that kicks off today demands a prediction. So the time has come to crawl out about as far on a limb as one with a bulging waistline dare go.

No problem. Here's a potential matchup — with records and rankings — that could happen in 2009: No. 2 Oklahoma State (11-0, 7-0 Big 12) at No. 1 Oklahoma (11-0, 7-0).

If that Bedlam Series scenario becomes a reality on Nov. 28, this football-crazy state might lose its collective mind in the week leading up to the game.

Pat Jones looked at me the other day like I had already lost all my marbles when I suggested the unbeaten Bedlam showdown to him. Jones often gave me that same dumbfounded stare during the 11 seasons I asked him questions when he was OSU's coach.

Nobody outside of Austin, Texas, would consider it outlandish to suggest OU will be undefeated when the Sooners host the Cowboys. After all, several national media members have already predicted an OU-Florida rematch in next season's BCS national championship.

But OSU opening with 11 straight wins? Most of the so-called experts believe that prediction will be history after the Cowboys lose their season opener to Georgia on Sept. 5.

While I'm definitely in the minority with my position on the Pokes, I'm not alone. Bruce Feldman, the veteran ESPN.com writer who is a real expert on the college game and not a so-called one, has listed OSU as one of his 10 picks "with the best shot of winning the BCS title."

Rest easy, OU fans. Feldman has the Sooners at No. 3 and the Cowboys No. 9.

OSU also has strong support from five national media outlets that have published their first preseason polls. An average of the polls places OSU at No. 7, with losses coming to No. 2 Texas and No. 3 OU.

Before you fit me for a straitjacket, consider the logic behind my belief that OSU has a shot to start 11-0. Notice I said "shot" and not "lock." But it's not as insane as the critics undoubtedly will label it via e-mails, and Jones delivered with his incredulous expression.

Like any team that opens 11-0, OSU will need to avoid serious injuries to key players and get a few lucky bounces, the ones every undefeated team gets.

OSU's schedule is a key part of a perfect storm that's brewing in Stillwater. OSU will play an incredible eight homes games.

It's imperative for OSU fans buy into the excitement by turning Boone Pickens Stadium into a snake pit. OSU needs its sparkling stadium to be sold out and rocking to give them the extra edge they will need against teams like Georgia and Texas.

Two of OSU's out-of-state road trips are short jaunts to Texas, where OSU fans must follow the Pokes in hordes. Texas A&M and Baylor are improving, but both are winnable contests for the Cowboys.

Also, Zac Robinson has to play with a controlled rage that's fueled by his desire to prove he belongs in the same Big 12 sentence with OU's Sam Bradford and Texas' Colt McCoy when the topic is the nation's best quarterbacks.

It's also no secret that the optimism surrounding OSU skyrocketed when coach Mike Gundy hired former OSU linebacker Bill Young as defensive coordinator. There's a certain symmetry to bringing an old Cowboy back home to finally fix the one area that has been broken for years.

In addition to his extensive experience, the 62-year-old Young has a quiet confidence about him that screams, "I know how to succeed where so many others have failed."

It's the dramatic impact Young's coaching could have on senior cornerback Perrish Cox that provided the final push out on that 11-0 limb. Young must make Cox into the second coming of Aqib Talib, the former All-American cornerback at Kansas.

When KU stunned everyone in 2007 by going 12-1 and winning the Orange Bowl, Young's defense was the linchpin in that dramatic turnaround. Led by Talib, the Jayhawks ranked fourth nationally in scoring defense, eighth against the run and 12th in total defense.

OSU fans have long lusted for those type of defensive numbers. Finally, their years of wandering in a defense-less wilderness may soon be over.

If the Young-Cox combination clicks as Young-Talib did, it's not a stretch to predict OSU will take a couple other numbers with it into Bedlam 2009: 11-0.