LINCOLN, Neb. -- Oklahoma and Nebraska should play every season!

That's the idea, isn't it?

Whenever this game comes around, that's the thought. Because the good old days never cease being good and old, it always sounds like a bang up plan.

Other games live on, geographic divisional boundaries be damned.

Why can't this one?

Perhaps it wouldn't be what it's been every year, but these are still two fine programs. The nostalgia their meeting creates is never anything but cool and if all it ever really accomplishes is getting reruns of the Game of the Century shown yearly on ESPN Classic isn't that still enough?

So play it every year.

It's a good argument.

Hard to get past.

Hard to fight your way out of.

Except for this.

It's the wrong argument.

It doesn't apply.

Perhaps it's worth pointing out that playing the Sooners every season can only help the Huskers. OU doesn't need the help. Prestige hasn't been a problem around here since October 2000.

Of course, nobody wants to be selfish, so go ahead and shelve the go-build-your-program-back-up-and-then-we'll-talk line of thinking.