Oklahoma would love to make an early College Football Playoff statement, just like Ohio State did last year at the Sooners' expense.
TCU wants to prove this season is different with a road win at Arkansas.
In both high-profile nonconference tests, the focus has been kept internal. Nobody this week was waving the Big 12 flag publicly.
"I'm carrying the flag for TCU," Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson said. "My job is to win ball games. If we win enough of them, then we'll be back in the national conversation. If we don't, we won't. But our goal every year is to try to do that."
Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield was even blunter this week, although he did reference his restored year of eligibility from the conference.
"I could care less," Mayfield said. "I love the Big 12 Conference. They gave me my extra year. I'm not trying to make any other team better in the Big 12. That's not what I'm trying to do this Saturday. I'm trying to win and take care of Oklahoma."
Regardless of the mindset, the Big 12 has a huge rooting interest in those two games, as well as the annual Iowa-Iowa State game.
Impressive nonconference wins could pay playoff dividends in December. Ohio State made the CFP without winning the Big Ten or even the East Division, partly on the strength of a dominating road win over Oklahoma. Even when the Sooners went undefeated against the Big 12's round-robin schedule, it didn't have a great argument for the playoff.
The Big 12's nonconference performance wasn't a help last season. The closest thing the conference had to a signature victory was Oklahoma State beating Pittsburgh, a nice win but not exactly one that reverberated.
So far, the Big 12 is 0-2 against its peers with Texas falling to Maryland and West Virginia losing to Virginia Tech on opening weekend.
Five more games are on the schedule Sept. 16: Texas at Southern Cal, Oklahoma State at Pitt, Kansas State at Vanderbilt, Baylor at Duke and Arizona State at Texas Tech.
Too many early losses and it will be difficult for the Big 12 champ to have a playoff-quality body of work.
For the Big 12, which has already missed the playoff in two of its three years, reversing the trend is a priority. The CFP was one of the driving reasons behind the return of a title game and the public exploration of expansion.
Even Mayfield acknowledged that "obviously, this game has huge implications on the playoff picks."
No doubt the game will prompt all kinds of snap judgments about Lincoln Riley's readiness to replace Bob Stoops and Mayfield's worthiness as a Heisman candidate.
"They are a very good football team," Riley said. "You are going to have to play well to beat them. But I'm confident in the team that we have."
Mayfield has made performing well in big games one of his top goals as a senior. Last season, he went 17 of 32 for 226 yards, with two touchdowns and two key interceptions against the Buckeyes.
"I think it was a huge learning curve for me last year, losing that game and watching the film and realizing that I didn't play well at all," Mayfield said. "I think I carried the same mind-set into this year."
