As most might see it, OU can’t do any more than win handily today.

The Sooners can lose, which would make less sense than what happened to Southern Cal at Oregon State. Or they can win by a whisker, which would make almost as little sense. Or they can do what they’ll probably do, which is win by a bunch.

It will be enough to keep OU ranked No. 1, though little more. For those unconvinced, nothing happening today at Floyd Casey Stadium will do the convincing. Instead, hard cases will have to wait a week, until OU and Texas meets at the Cotton Bowl and, should the Sooners prevail, the following week, when an exclamation point may be added by crushing Kansas back at Owen Field.

What OU can do today, however, is look the part.

It is no small thing and the players themselves will know the difference.

Further, it will matter.

The Sooners are No. 1, but nowhere near a unanimous pick.

They’re playing in the best division in maybe the best conference in the nation and must still play the Longhorns, the Jayhawks, No. 7 Texas Tech, No. 21 Oklahoma State and, should they make it, most likely No. 3 Missouri.

What OU can do today is not commit a bunch of penalties, not place itself in a position to overcome turnovers, send its kickoffs into the end zone, not give up any big returns, average more than 40 yards a punt for a change, execute its balanced offense unless Baylor wants to sell out to the run or the pass and then dominate accordingly.

Do that and there’s no need to get up for the big games, because OU will already be up. Do that and the only way things ever get off the track will occur through getting beat, yet not by giving anything away. Do that, and this team will be ahead of the game, even ahead of the last Sooner team to win the national championship.

Because while that team was the greatest story a bunch of Sooners ever told, it was also, eventually, the year of living dangerously.

That season, after ascending to No. 1, a month later than has occurred this season, OU needed Torrance Marshall’s miracle in College Station to beat Texas A&M, a two-touchdown victory over Texas Tech, freshman cornerback Derrick Strait’s break up in the end zone to keep OU’s run of Bedlam losses from beginning a year earlier and a three-point decision at the Big 12 title game in a rematch with Kansas State.

That team had something.

It wouldn’t give in, but it quit thriving near the end.

It held on.