NOTE TO ALL OF THE 150,000 BAYLOR ALUMNI:
This is the last of the many reports I will send any of you unless you subscribe to our Champions digital package.

A reminder of what you will receive if you do subscribe.

For only $35.95, you will receive a FREE issue of the 2016 summer issue of Texas Football, a FREE issue of the 2016 winter issue of Texas Football, and all the reports I will write concerning the remainder of Baylor's 2015 games (that will cover Baylor's efforts to win a THIRD consecutive Big 12 football crown, including any probable bowl game), but also a story of those games I covered in the past â '¬" such as the first-ever Baylor football victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman last season; the games that led to Baylor's unforgettable Southwest Conference championships in 1974 and 1980, and all those other important victories I wrote about after I became sports editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald beginning with the 1954 season when Baylor had such terrific players as Ronnie Bull, Tommy Minter, Ronnie Stanley, Bobby Ply, Bill Hicks, etc. Incidentally, not only will you receive those free magazines, you will avoid paying the tax on those editions if you should buy them at a commercial outlet.

Also, in an effort to honor the starters on the multitude of Baylor football teams I have covered, I am going to list those names, season by season, at the conclusion of some of the stories on the 2015 Bears and also on the stories I have written over the 40 years I was sports editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald. I came up with that plan after talking to former Baylor football star linebacker Randy Behringer the other day, and I will include photos of those players when I can secure them. So pass the word to those players, friends and relatives if you know them.

But remember, all of this depends on those people buying a Champions subscription package, which can be obtained by logging in to Texas Football at www.texasfootball.com and using the special code words GOBEARS

- Dave Campbell

By DAVE CAMPBELL

Walking into Baylor coach Art Briles' meeting with the media this past Monday, I saw something I had never seen before, and I have been to hundreds of such meetings. There sitting in full view of us was a stand and sitting on top of that stand was a metal football-shaped black object. What in the world was THIS? we wondered. Some motivational toy Briles has devised for his Bears? But no. This was something entirely new: a new trophy, fashioned and sponsored by Texas Farm Bureau Insurance. It has the Baylor emblem on one side and the Texas Tech emblem on the other, and the trophy lists the results of the games (all 73 of them) that have occurred in this long rivalry.

It is an appropriate and very distinctive time for the trophy to make its historic appearance. You see, the series now features a flat-out tie: 36-36-1. The trophy, fashioned and sponsored by Texas Farm Bureau Insurance, will be up for grabs Saturday when the Bears and Red Raiders collide at Arlington's AT&T Stadium, and will go home to the winner for one year.

Why Texas Farm Bureau Insurance?

"We have had a long and outstanding relationship with Baylor and the Texas Farm Bureau, and also the Big 12 Conference," TXFB executive director Vernie Glasson told Texas Football Magazine, speaking of the company that has its headquarters in Waco. "Also, we have a lot of membership in West Texas and people who live close to Lubbock. We admire both universities and what they do. So it just seemed a natural thing to do. As a matter of fact, we have been sponsoring this Farm Bureau Shootout between these two teams ever since they have been playing in the DFW Metroplex, but this is the first time they have been playing for this specially-designed trophy."

Whatever the history, the trophy is a beauty.

Another Big Shootout, Briles termed the Bears' next game, harkening back to the words Texas coach Darrell Royal used when No. 1-ranked Texas met No.2-ranked Arkansas in Fayetteville in a game I covered and will never forget. (Texas won, 15-14, with an improbable fourth-quarter comeback that featured a long fourth-down pass from James Street to tight end Randy Peschel. That game came as college football celebrated its 100th anniversary.) My special report on that game will be available shortly to all those who buy Texas Football's Champions subscription.

So Saturday the two teams not only will determine who breaks the tie, more importantly they will also tell us if No. 5-ranked Baylor really is the "real deal" in this 2015 chase to win the Big 12 Conference Championship. Last week Baylor won a landslide victory over Rice in Waco; a few hours later Texas Tech lost a heartbreaker to TCU because of a deflected pass in the back of the end zone with 23 seconds left to play.

Said Briles in the Tuesday press conference: "Yeah, I feel we're amping up at the right time. We did beat a good football team (Rice). I feel we did what we needed to do. We know what we're getting into Saturday. We know the adversity is going to get tougher. We know we have a long way to go, but we do have the potential to be a really good team."

The open date they had before the Rice game gave them the opportunity to work especially hard on defense, and it showed -- but also on offense. "I know our guys ran harder, ran lower," Briles said. And QB Seth Russell had by far his best game. As a result, Baylor now leads all of major college football in scoring (64 points per game) and also in total offense (767 yards per game). But Tech is close behind (ranks third in scoring with 53 points per game) and fifth in total offense (594 yards per game). And Tech has compiled its figures against tougher competition (Arkansas and TCU).

"We know the intensity, the attitude, the effort and the intelligence we are going to have to bring to this game," Briles said. And his players, from quarterback Seth Russell to the Bears who were made available for interviews Monday, echoed his words.

Probably the same words were being said in Lubbock. In short, it could be quite a shootout.