By Jaime Aron
The Associated Press

DALLAS - To many folks on both sides of the Red River, the second weekend of October is reserved for the Texas-Oklahoma game, and the renewal of a rivalry filled with color, pageantry and history.

In recent years, though, the Longhorns and Sooners have been playing for more than just interstate bragging rights. Now the entire nation is watching.

When the No. 2 Sooners and No. 3 Longhorns play Saturday, it will be the third straight time both have come in ranked among the top 11 teams in the country. It's the second time in a row both are ranked in the top five, a feat that's unprecedented in the rivalry's long history.

"I'm proud that the game means what it means nationally now," said Texas coach Mack Brown, who was an assistant coach for Oklahoma in 1984, the last time both teams were ranked this high. "It is like a bowl game at midseason."

Texas and Oklahoma have met in Dallas every October since 1929, rather than Austin or Norman. Each time, they've played inside the Cotton Bowl with the State Fair of Texas going on outside the stadium.

The neutral site is less than a four-hour drive from both campuses, drawing plenty of fans from both sides.

Whichever team is having the better season usually has more of its colors worn on the fairgrounds, but the stands are always a 50-50 split of burnt orange and crimson.

"That setting is so intense that nobody wanders into the stadium by accident," said Fred Akers, Texas' coach for 10 years and an assistant for nine more. "You know there's going to be something significant taking place."

Seeing the dichotomy of colors while walking out the end-zone tunnel is something few ever forget. The late Bud Wilkinson, who coached Oklahoma against Texas 17 times, used to say the crimson and orange in the stands was what he thought of first.

"It brings out the best in you and gets the hair up on the back of your neck," Sooners coach Bob Stoops said.

The rivalry intensified in 1996 when the schools became part of the Big 12, both in the South division. Only one team can come out of the division to play for the league title, and the BCS berth that goes with it. Winning this game doesn't guarantee winning the South, but it sure makes it easier.

Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer says the fact it's a conference game makes it far more important than the 23 times he was involved.

"Before, there was no question it was a big game," Switzer said last year. "But now, there's even more riding on it."

Despite the unique hoopla, national interest in the game bottomed out as recently as 1998.

With neither team ranked for a second straight year, ABC didn't make it one of its games of the week - even though Texas' Ricky Williams was on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy.

But like a ride on the giant Ferris wheel on the State Fair midway, the game's sudden drop in popularity has been followed by a quick rise.

It started in 2000, with Brown in his third season at Texas and Stoops in his second at Oklahoma. The Sooners came in No. 10, on the strength of four straight convincing victories. The Longhorns, with three lopsided wins and a close loss, were a spot behind. It was the first time both were ranked among the top 15 since 1984, when No. 1 Texas and No. 3 Oklahoma played to a 15-15 tie in a driving rain.

Led by quarterback Josh Heupel, Oklahoma lived up to Switzer's old saying about hanging half a hundred on 'em, and kept going all the way to a 63-14 victory. Having proven they were as good as they thought, the Sooners went on to win their seventh national title.

Oklahoma was still rolling when it came to Dallas last October ranked third. The Longhorns were fifth.

The Sooners led the whole game, but never comfortably. Then, with 2:01 left, safety Roy Williams made a Superman-style leap over a blocker and into Longhorns quarterback Chris Simms, forcing an interception that was returned for the clinching touchdown in a 14-3 win.

Although Simms has lost both games he's played against Oklahoma, the New Jersey native loves everything about the border battle.

"When I go home and people ask me about Texas football, this is the game I always tell them about," he said. "If they want to come to a game, that's the one.

"We have brought this game back to the main prime-time show. I grew up watching Florida State-Miami. Now here we are and Texas-OU is the prime-time game."

Sure enough, No. 1 Miami plays No. 9 Florida State in an early game Saturday. It should finish about the time the Red River Shootout gets going in Dallas.

Considering the rankings the Sooners and Longhorns have carried into the last two meetings and this one, it's easy to say the rivalry is enjoying its biggest heyday since its greatest era, 1974-79.

Since the AP poll began in 1936, there have been seven Texas-OU games with both ranked in the top five; this year makes eight. Three came between 1974 and '79.

Those games also featured two Heisman Trophy winners (Texas' Earl Campbell in '77 and Oklahoma's Billy Simms the next year), 38 All-America selections and two College Football Hall of Fame coaches - Switzer and Darrell Royal, the Texas coach through 1976.

The current generation isn't quite at that level. Yet.

"I think this game will be this way from now on," Brown said. "It's two programs that should be this good each year."