BOULDER, Colo. — It’s only Week 5 and Texas is next week and already, the season is too long for Oklahoma. Already, it’s all about the end rather than the next game. Already, thoughts flutter toward the Bowl Championship Series rather than the pecking order in the Big 12 South.

Perhaps not entirely.

Not on the Sooner sideline today at Folsom Field.

Not in the narrow and focused mind of Bob Stoops.

But it’s out there.

Indeed, for Sooner fans, the biggest game in the country may not even be today’s tussle in the mountains. Instead, it might be USC at Washington. LSU at Tulane is an afterthought, but get the Tigers in the heat of the SEC and the Sooner Nation’s second favorite team will be LSU’s Opponent in a dead heat with USC’s Opponent.

The good news is the Trojans and Tigers will entertain a few losable games. More good news, as long as one of those losable games is lost, OU appears to face none of them.

Not even next week.

Certainly not this week.

And still, the questioners do what they can to play along.

Uh, Bob, what about the altitude?

“We’re not going to be there 24 hours,” Stoops said. “I never hear of anybody going up to play the Broncos having trouble with that. I don’t believe in that whatsoever.”

I’m with Stoops.

That question’s like a laugh track. So predictable.

Uh, Bob, I know you hear this every year but you’ve got Texas next week …