At Big 12 Media Days on Monday, Patterson was asked about preparing for a rematch in the championship game, which will always be the case in the Big 12, which stages a title game after a full round-robin schedule.

“In all my years, that was the best or the second-best offense,” Patterson said of the Baker Mayfield-quarterbacked Sooners. “The other one was Sam Bradford. I’m able to compare through all the years the teams they had. But you're going to have plusses and minuses. That game (2017) probably cost us a New Year's Six bowl, but you had an opportunity to win a championship, and that's the positive for the league when you play a round robin. The second-place team gets a second chance to play the team that won it.

“Now, the negative of that is if you do beat that team … you may keep them out of the playoffs because you have that championship game. A lot of times in other conferences, where they have split divisions, the only time they play each other is they play them that one time. To beat somebody twice is difficult and that's where you have to give Oklahoma a lot of credit. They were able to do that.”