Octopus Picks Against OU in Big 12 Championship

Octavia the octopus chose the Nebraska Cornhuskers over the Oklahoma Sooners to win the Big 12 Championship game.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:04 pm

By: News On 6

Octopus Picks Against OU in Big 12 Championship

Originally Published: Dec 3, 2010 4:3 PM CDT

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-Dean's List: OU vs. Nebraska
-Toby Rowland's Top 12 Storylines of Big 12 Championship

Rick Wells
Special Contributor for Oklahoma Sports

JENKS, Oklahoma -- Can animals really predict winners in sporting events? Many have tried.

There have been pachyderms, dolphins, dogs and most recently Paul the German octopus who correctly predicted World Cup soccer winners.

Now, the Oklahoma Aquarium has an octopus who's taken a run at picking a winner in Big 12 football.

Greg and Chuck, morning radio hosts from Z104.5 The Edge, named the octopus Octavia, hosting their show from the Aquarium Friday morning.

The idea came from Paul the octopus, who correctly predicted the World Cup soccer winners. Chuck and Greg thought they'd give it a try with a local octopus.

"Quite honestly, I wasn't that impressed with Paul," Chuck Stickel said. "Sure he had a good record at picking world cup games, but."

But it never seemed like much of a challenge.

So the boys got together with the staff at the Oklahoma Aquarium to create a tougher test. They rigged up a couple of hamster balls with screw-off lids. They've been testing it over the past few weeks.

"There didn't seem to be a preference for one side of the tank or the other," said John Money. "We flipped a coin to see where we put the Huskers or OU, on the left or right."

So for the big event they baited each of the hamster balls with a piece of fresh fish and waited.

Greg and Chuck did a radio play-by-play on their morning show.

It wasn't long before she popped the top and picked Nebraska over the Sooners.

The game is Saturday night down in Texas at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. We'll see if Octavia has any real powers of prognostication.