You too, Jermaine and Trent.

Oklahoma fans want to be absolutely certain they heard Wednesday what they think they heard.

Did quarterback Sam Bradford, tight end Jermaine Gresham and offensive tackle Trent Williams really say they intend to play the 2009 football season at the University of Oklahoma instead of in the National Football League?

Yup. And you can toss in All- American defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, another stud underclassman who announced last week that he’d spend next season in an OU uniform instead of wearing the colors of an NFL team.

So every one of the Sooners’ talented juniors and redshirt sophomores who have first-round NFL draft potential will put off the chance to become instant millionaires so they can play another season for dear, old OU?

Yup. That’s what they said.

OK, fine. Then I have just one more question: What BCS championship loss?

That long winter of discontent OU fans had dug in for after last week’s national title defeat to Florida got a whole lot shorter with yesterday’s exciting news.

Suddenly, the coach who has lost five consecutive BCS bowl games is looking better to those critics who ripped him following the 24-14 loss to the Gators. Bob Stoops demonstrated he still has some “Big Game” in him when he went 4-0 in convincing his four best underclassmen that it’s in their best interests to spend another season with the Sooners.

When you toss in the junior trio

Holding on to the 2008 Heisman Trophy winner would have been amajor coup by itself for Stoops.

After all, Bradford wouldn’t have been just a millionaire had he decided to bolt for the big bucks. He could have set himself up for life, becoming amulti-millionaire as perhaps the first quarterback selected in April’s NFL Draft.

Bradford is definitely the cherry on top of this delicious story for Sooner supporters.

But instead of Big Game Bob, you can call him Remarkable Recruiter Robert.

Stoops completed the clean comeback-for-another-season sweep by going Nancy Reagan on us and convincing his players to “just say no” to the scumbag agents who exploit athletes by stroking their egos and sweet-talking them into leaving college before their bodies, minds and games are ready for the real football world of the NFL.

Oh, and those moans you heard coming out of Stillwater; Austin, Texas; Lawrence, Kan.; Lincoln, Neb. and other Big 12 outposts were from coaches who thought 2009 would finally be the season one them was guaranteed to end the stranglehold Stoops has on the Big 12 championship.

Sure, OU’s defense should be as salty as they come with McCoy and eight more starters back. But take away Bradford, Gresham,Williams and either Brown or Murray (or both) and you gut an offense that went on an NCAA-record scoring binge last season.

Most experts had already penciled Kansas in as the preseason favorite to win the Big 12’s North Division.

And Texas, with its own magnificent junior quarterback, Colt McCoy, also putting the NFL off for a year, was the overwhelming choice to win the South Division, snap OU’s three-game winning streaking in the Big 12 title contest and make a serious run at the 2009 BCS national title.

The Longhorns could still be the preseason Big 12 favorite, but the vote won’t be a landslide. And the Red River Rivalry’s intensity next October in Dallas, which already figured to be sizzling after OU got the BCS title shot that Texas thought it deserved, is now dialed up to scorching.

Themoaning and groaning wasn’t limited to the Big 12 region. Most members of the College Football Nation thought they had seen the last of OU in BCS title games for awhile. The coach they love to rip was facing a major rebuilding job after hisHeisman Trophy winner took his ball, his offensive buddies and headed to the NFL.

Now, they have to deal with the fact that OU transformed itself yesterday from a potential BCS has-been to a BCS contender once again in 2009.

Those who predicted BCS doom for OU didn’t realize that money isn’t the most important thing in Bradford’s life.He decided you can’t put a price on the opportunity to spend another year with a football program he’s loved since childhood, to attend a university where he’s thrived as a student, and enjoy quality time with teammates who have become some of his closest friends over the past three years.

“The ability for me to spend another year playing with them,” said Bradford, “is really what I wanted to come back for.”

That’s right. Play it again, Sam.

You, too, Gerald, Jermaine, Trent and the rest of your rowdy underclassmen friends.