Barbecue with Texas and OU

It’s not a city battle like UCLA against USC, or a state war like Auburn against Alabama.

The Cotton Bowl isn’t as pretty as the Rose Bowl, and you may even like your state fair better than theirs.

When Oklahoma and Texas are both undefeated in football, though, there’s no barbecue better.

When everything is magnified, as it is this year, the cotton candy tastes sweeter and the livestock get livelier.

Oklahoma-Texas, in its 106th incarnation, is what happens when rivalry meets revelry in the shadow of a carnival ride.

The Cotton Bowl sits on the grounds of the Texas State Fair, meaning stomachs get churned inside the stadium and out.

“Most of the recruits in the two states come to this ballgame,” Texas Coach Mack Brown said this week. “It’s a huge game for guys to see. Very few players get to play in this game, so it’s kind of like the Rose Bowl. It’s a really, really special game to play in for everybody.”

What a setup Saturday’s game turns out to be: The schools are meeting for the 25th time as undefeated foes, meaning there’s even more needling, poking and prodding.

The Big 12 Conference, on the verge of collapse a few weeks ago, has been spared.

Texas will claim it saved the league by coming to the table to compromise and mend fences. And Oklahoma will spit its coffee.

Texas will say it never wanted to leave the Big 12 and only used the Pacific 12 Conference as leverage -- again. Oklahoma will counter that it was the Sooners who used the Pac-12 as leverage to get Texas to cave on revenue sharing.

No one likes the sound of his own voice more than Oklahoma President David Boren, unless it’s Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds.

Texas and its bully pulpit Longhorn Network might have annoyed Texas A&M; out of the league and jeopardized a rivalry that started in 1894, but Dodds told the Tulsa World this week that it was really more important to save Texas-Oklahoma.

Oklahoma doesn’t have to take any of Texas’ guff. Oklahoma has seven national titles to Texas’ four.

Sooners Coach Bob Stoops joked on a conference call last month that his coach’s show this season would be aired on the Longhorn Network. It was a zinger only Stoops could fire.

Texas could laugh about Oklahoma thinking it could go to the Pac-12 without the Longhorns and their academic rating.

Texas and Oklahoma, of course, need each other more than they know. Stoops spoke almost nonchalantly about ending the Texas-OU series with his “life changes” speech. But he couldn’t have meant it.

No undefeated Oklahoma season could be complete without a win over Texas. Oklahoma, on its way to the 2000 championship in Stoops’ second season, hit the gas pedal with a 63-14 win over the Longhorns.

Texas, in 2005, after five straight Cotton-stinking Oklahoma defeats, ended the streak in Dallas, 45-12, en route to the Bowl Championship Series title in Pasadena.

And so they meet again, in the most perfect of settings. Oklahoma, which started the season No. 1, expected to be 4-0, but Texas’ rise from last year’s 5-7 finish has been a surprise.

Brown said last year’s misery was more than a wake-up call. “I think it’s a kick in the face, a kick in the stomach” he said. “Whatever it was, it was awful.”

Texas is on the payback trail, having already avenged last year’s losses to UCLA and Iowa State.

Texas has raised the stakes for Texas, but also for Oklahoma.

“If there is pressure on us,” Stoops said, “we are more than capable of handling it. This is what you want.”

It’s what everyone wants.

When both schools are undefeated, the scene and senses are more acute. The pregame logjam in the stadium tunnel gets more contentious.

“It’s a whole different feeling and a whole different atmosphere,” Oklahoma wide receiver Kenny Stills said.

The Cotton Bowl is magnificently divided. Texas patrons, in their burnt orange, fill the north end; Oklahoma crimson covers the south.

Texas running back Fozzy Whittaker said the deafening boos can turn to cheers just by crossing the 50-yard line. “So it’s kind of one of the coolest experiences that you’ll experience,” he said.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com