NORMAN — Walk OU's Campus Corner 21/2 hours before kickoff of a 2:30 or 6 p.m. game, and it's a carnival midway. Walk Campus Corner 21/2 hours before an 11 a.m. kick, and it's the day the Earth stood still. It's a neutron bomb. All the buildings are there, but the people are gone.

Which is why there's much consternation over yet another morning kickoff at Owen Field. The Sooners and West Virginia play Saturday in a Big 12 showdown of top-25 teams, and sleepyheads will miss the first quarter. The game will reach the second quarter before noon, just like OU-Tulsa two weeks ago and three Sooner home games in 2014 and two OU home games in 2013.

The frequency of 11 a.m. kickoffs has triggered emotions of OU merchants, fans and administrators ranging from curious to livid. Counting West Virginia, seven of the last 13 games at Owen Field will have kicked off in the morning.

But the 11 a.m. frequency also is troubling for the conference. The Big 12 seems to have taken a backseat to the Pac-12. For instance, in the hard-to-understand pecking order, FOX had the OU-West Virginia game. But FOX's over-air network, what I call Big FOX, will telecast just one game this Saturday. It chose UCLA-Arizona State for a primetime game. Meanwhile, Fox Sports1 has Ultimate Fighting on Saturday night. So it made a daytime doubleheader out of OU-West Virginia and OSU-Kansas State. The Sooners drew the short straw.