In Mizzou's Big 12 days, Stoops' Sooners set standard

** FILE ** Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, left, talks with Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, right, before a football game in Norman, Okla., in this Oct. 13, 2007 file photo. Oklahoma dealt Missouri its only loss of the season back in October. The Tigers say they gave the game away. The Sooners say they took it. Heading into the Big 12 championship game on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007, between No. 9 Oklahoma and top-ranked Missouri much has been made of how the first matchup turned out. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)COLUMBIA, MO. • In his 15 years at Missouri, Gary Pinkel never lined up against another head coach as many times as he did Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops. The fellow Ohio natives — Pinkel from Akron, Stoops from Youngstown — met eight times from 2002-2011, including two matchups in Big 12 championship games. The Sooners dominated the series, winning all but one of the eight games. In the spring of 2015, long after the Tigers left Stoops’ Sooners and the Big 12, Pinkel was diagnosed with lymphoma and announced his retirement later that fall. He was 63 at the time.

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