Transcript Staff Writer

The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University football teams today will meet for the 100th time.

That's a century of bedlam on the gridiron, and the rivalry has been one-sided. The Sooners lead the series 76-16-7, and they trounce the Cowboys in all-time wins (752 to 476), conference championships (38 to nine) and national titles (seven-zip).

But bragging rights between the universities extend well beyond the playing field. OU proudly calls itself the flagship university of Oklahoma, whereas OSU proclaims itself "the STATE's university."

Both institutions are eager to have everyone in Oklahoma and beyond know about what they have to offer.

"Our new tag line, 'The STATE's university,' has really caught on," OSU President David Schmidly said last month in fall convocation remarks, "and it has become a key component of the new strategic initiative to capture and convey OSU's leadership as our state's land-grant university."

And in an open letter on OU's Web site, President David Boren writes, "The University of Oklahoma is truly a great university. It is becoming a pacesetter for public higher education in the United States. ... It's time for us to let others know about the strengths of our university and our determination to make it better."

So how do the state's titans of higher education really stack up? What does the tale of the tape say?

Campuses: OSU five, OU has three.

OU campuses are in Norman, Tulsa and the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. OU-Tulsa offers classes from programs based in Norman and the HSC.

OSU has campuses in Stillwater, Oklahoma City, Okmulgee and two in Tulsa -- OSU-Tulsa and the Center for Health Sciences. The Oklahoma City campus is primarily a community college and Okmulgee is a career technology center. OSU also runs agricultural extension offices in all 77 counties in Oklahoma.

Enrollment: Cowboys in a slight edge.

OU's enrollment on all campuses was 31,134 in 2004 and stands at 23,910 this semester on the Norman campus. The entire OSU system currently has 32,721 students, its highest ever.

Big-time freshmen: Slight edge slides back to Norman.

OU ranks first among public universities per capita in National Merit scholars, with a current enrollment of nearly 700 including 147 among this year's freshmen. And with an adjusted ACT (SAT scores factored into ACT results) of 25.8, this year's OU freshmen have the highest college entrance score average of any incoming class in state history. The pure ACT average is 25.5 at OU, 24.6 at OSU.