First off, happy birthday to Joyce Durand, legendary keyboardist and member of the famous Sidetrack Band. It’s fitting that Joyce’s 69th birthday coincides with a visit from the Oklahoma Sooners, given that she’s penned a few songs about our friends to the south over the years. Joyce will undoubtedly be in rare form tonight at Sidetrack Tavern, where it always feels like 1975, 1985 and 1995 all at the same time.

Good thing, too. Over the last few days, I’ve had to remind myself that it is, in fact, Oklahoma Week. Given the level of my Huskermania, that’s a pretty sad commentary on the current state of the Cornhusker-Sooner rivalry.

Growing up, my pre-OU stomach knots would start sometime the Sunday before the game, because the contest was more than the I-formation vs. the wishbone. It was an end-of-the-world, good-vs.-evil slugfest before a national TV audience. Championships, both conference and national, hung in the balance.

This year? Feels like just another game. Maybe that’s because, nationally at least, that’s all this edition of NU-OU is. It’s probably asking a bit much for a week of national hype when the victor’s prize is merely to be listed in the “Others Receiving Votes” section of the weekly polls. ABC being in town does help stir up some of the rivalry’s old flavor, but Gary Thorne’s  game call won’t exactly evoke images of Jackson and Broyles.

Once the Big Eight’s signature game, NU-OU has fallen into the same hole the rest of the old conference’s norms disappeared into when the Big Eight expanded in ’96. Remember those days, when we thought the Big 12 was simply going to be the Big Eight Plus Four? Yeah, me too. Compare that with this year, with the big conference showdown being Texas-Texas Tech. Man. There’s something fundamentally wrong with that.

I could wallow further, but let’s look on the bright side of this whole situation. Since NU and OU don’t play every year anymore, we should really appreciate it when the two schools do get together. At the end of the day, after all, it’s still Nebraska-Oklahoma. Last I checked, the Sooners still have that pervasive fight song and a head coach who you love to hate. Plenty is on the line for both teams. And there will undoubtedly be a moment or two during Saturday’s game where it feels like 1975, 1985 and 1995 all over again.

Also, rumor has it that Joyce will tell a few Sooner jokes tonight down at the bar. As they say: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Online Editor Steve Smith is the author of “Forever Red: Confessions of a Cornhusker Football Fan” and blogs at Life in the Red, a staff Weblog at journalstar.com.