Will this be the year of the changing of the guard in the Big 12 football kingdom?

There are changes aplenty in the Big 12, but as much as the times and teams are changing, many things are expected to continue on as before – at least for another year – in the conference’s seemingly one-sided North-South civil war known as Big 12 football.

Recognized over the past decade as one of the premier college football conferences in America, there is no emerging evidence to suggest that the level of competition and quality of football played by Big 12 schools will fall off of the national radar screen anytime soon, even with the imminent departure of Nebraska to the Big Ten Conference in 2011 and Colorado, a year afterward, to the Pac-10.

If anything, the ensuing conference realignment and member reduction will make the Big 12 even stronger and more competitive in football than before among the remaining 10 schools.

With that backdrop, the 2010 football season is about to unfold in what will be the final season for Big 12 football in its current super-conference model. After this season, the North-South divisional structure, which has been in place since the Big 12 was formed in 1996, is expected to be discontinued, and the conference championship game, pairing the North Division winner with the winner in the South, will be dropped.

There are questions aplenty and several new faces in the coaching ranks around the conference as the teams count down this week in preparation for the opening kick-off to the new season, beginning tomorrow night and continuing on through the Labor Day weekend. (See my weekly Big 12 game predictions every Thursday throughout the football season, starting tomorrow.)

Will this be the season that the Big 12 North finally asserts itself as the conference’s power center and a team other than Oklahoma or Texas plays for and wins the Big 12 Championship in football? How will the new head coaches at Kansas (Turner Gill) and Texas Tech (Tommy Tuberville) fare in their first year taking over programs under turmoil at those two schools. What key changes will they make?

There also are eight new coordinators in the conference: two at Texas A&M (offensive and defensive coordinator), two at both Kansas and Texas Tech, as part of the head-coaching changes at those schools, and at Kansas State (defensive coordinator) and Oklahoma State (offensive coordinator).

Thirty Big 12 players from 11conference schools were taken in the 2010 NFL Draft in April, including nine in the first round and five of the first six players selected. The first three players taken in this year’s draft were from one Big 12 team, Oklahoma. How will the conference teams involved replace the lost talent. How will Texas rebound after losing four-year starters Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley, or Oklahoma, having said goodbye to Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 NFL draft selection Sam Bradford, Jermaine Gresham, Gerald McCoy and Trent Williams?

Oklahoma State, a perennial contender in the South, lost 22 seniors and several key underclassmen from last year’s team, which no doubt is going to create considerable growing pains for Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy and his staff as they try to regroup in Stillwater. Staying in the South, how well will Baylor do with a healthy Robert Griffin behind center for the full season. Could this be the year the Bears escape the basement in the power-laden South.

What will the reception be for Nebraska and Colorado when those schools are playing on the road in conference play this season?

Several major milestones will be met and/or tested during the coming season. In its final home game a year ago, Nebraska extended its NCAA record to 304 consecutive sellouts at Memorial Stadium. With the team the Cornhuskers are expected to have this season (ranked in the top 10 in both the USA Today and AP preseason polls), there is no reason to believe this record won’t grow to 311 by season’s end.

Also, with a victory, as expected, in its season-opening game with Utah State, Oklahoma will reach the 800-victory plateau in the school’s football history. Only seven other schools have reached that milestone. Also, the Sooners have won 30 consecutive home games, the longest current college home winning streak and the eighth longest since World War II. That should get tested as early as the second game this year, when Oklahoma hosts nationally ranked Florida State.

The time for S.W.A.T. analyses and preseason speculation is almost up. The only thing that really matters is the action on the field. Therein lie the answers. And it all starts now.

How the Big 12 teams stand in 5 words
1. Oklahoma Sooners – Schedule one of country’s hardest.
2. Texas A&M Aggies – Watch out for these guys.
3. Texas Longhorns – Locked and loaded, as always.
4. Nebraska Cornhuskers – Going out winners top priority.
5. Colorado Buffaloes – Not much different in Boulder.
6. Kansas State Wildcats – Middle-of-the-pack year.
7. Missouri Tigers – Nebraska game will determine fate.
8. Texas Tech Red Raiders – For Tuberville, defense is first.
9. Kansas Jayhawks – New coach, too few weapons.
10. Baylor Bears – Bears are pushovers no more.
11. Oklahoma State Cowboys – Many big shoes to fill.
12. Iowa State Cyclones – OU, UT on road. Yikes!

5 Things to watch for this season in the Big 12
• Nebraska’s vaunted Blackshirt defense, led by DT Jared Crick and CB Prince Amukamara, may be even better this year than last.
• A healthy Blaine Gabbert at Missouri will lead a new crop of productive Big 12 quarterbacks.
• Will new coach Tommy Tuberville revamp Texas Tech’s high-powered, multiple-spread offense?
• Texas A&M will score points aplenty, but can they outscore enough opponents to win 9 or 10 games?
• Running backs will outshine receivers and QBs in the conference’s stat lines and headlines in 2010.

5 things that won’t happen in Big 12 football this fall
• There will be no Heisman hopefuls from the Big 12 for only the second time in 10 years.
• Oklahoma won’t lose five games in 2010 like it did in 2009.
• Baylor is no longer the Big 12 doormat in football.
• With killer trips to Norman and Austin on its schedule, Iowa State, which posted a winning season and went to a bowl game in coach Paul Rhoads’ first season, won’t win a conference game this season.
• Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins will not survive this season, even though the Buffaloes will be better than a year ago.

How they rank by position
QB – Texas A&M/Missouri/Baylor
RB – Oklahoma/Nebraska/Texas A&M
WR/TE – Texas A&M/Oklahoma/Texas Tech
OL – Missouri/Nebraska/Oklahoma
DL – Nebraska/Oklahoma/Texas
LB – Texas/Oklahoma/Texas A&M
DB – Texas/Nebraska/Missouri
Special teams – Nebraska/Baylor/Texas
Coaching staff – Texas/Oklahoma/Nebraska

Most meaningful games for Big 12 teams in 2010
Sept. 11 – Florida State @ Oklahoma; Georgia Tech @ Kansas
Sept. 19 – Texas @ Texas Tech; Baylor @ TCU
Sept. 25 – Oklahoma @ Cincinnati
Oct. 2 – Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas
Oct. 9 – Texas A&M vs. Arkansas in Dallas
Oct. 16 – Texas @ Nebraska; Kansas State @ Kansas
Oct. 23 – Oklahoma @ Missouri
Oct. 30 – Missouri @ Nebraska
Nov. 6 – Oklahoma @ Texas A&M
Nov. 13 – Kansas @ Nebraska (Turner Gill’s return to Lincoln)
Nov. 20 – Nebraska @ Texas A&M
Nov. 25 – Texas A&M @ Texas
Nov. 27 – Oklahoma @ Oklahoma State; Kansas vs. Missouri in Kansas City