Close Calls Nearly Leave Big 12 Embarrassed

Sunday, September 9th 2007, 6:40 pm

By: News On 6

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Nebraska and Texas sweated out harder-than-expected victories while Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Kansas State hardly broke sweats at all.

The Big 12 went 10-2 in nonconference games yesterday, but the league would have come out of the weekend red-faced if it hadn't been for some of the standard-bearers pulling out victories.

The folks breathing the biggest sighs of relief were at Texas A&M, where the Aggies squandered a 19-0 halftime lead and had to work three overtimes to win 47-45 over Fresno State.

Texas Tech found itself down 28-17 against UTEP before rallying for a 45-31 victory at home. The Red Raiders were 24-point favorites.

Nebraska won 20-17 at Wake Forest in a game that went down to the final minutes. Meanwhile, Texas trailed TCU 10-0 in the third quarter before finding some rhythm in a 34-13 win in Austin.

Oklahoma established itself as the best in the league after a dominant 51-13 victory over Miami. The 38-point victory followed a 79-10 stomping of North Texas in the Sooners' opener.

Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, and Baylor all had respectable wins.

As for the Big 12 losers -- Iowa State and Colorado were the only ones.