As is true most days, the 94-year-old Cotton Bowl on this recent morning was mostly empty, silent. The exception was a group of reporters and their tour guides — three stadium architects with a combined century-plus of experience — pausing in the ground-level concourse,

No. 1 Texas takes on No. 18 Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, and for the first time, it's a Southeastern Conference matchup. Both teams are coming off byes and have had two weeks to prepare for a clash at the State Fair of Texas and capture The Golden Hat.

The top-ranked Texas Longhorns are entering the weekend as 14-point favorites, but anything can happen in a rivalry game — especially in a rivalry game with 119 years of history.