Happy Hump Day, friends and fans!

On Tuesday it was revealed that the Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball team will host the Mississippi State Bulldogs in next season’s Big 12/SEC Challenge. The Norman Transcript’s Joe Buettner has more details.

In the six-year history of the mid-season cross-conference challenge, Oklahoma is 4-2 against its SEC foes, and the Big 12 as a whole leads the overall series with a record of 4-1-1.

Although Mississippi State made it into the NCAA Tournament last March, the Bulldogs were unable to advance past the first round. This matchup should make for quite a compelling litmus test for both squads having to replace key contributors.

Now for today’s Hot Links! Several OU commits move up in their recruitment rankings, Trent Williams is still one of the top 100 players in the league, Zion Williamson is officially part of the Jordan Brand family and more!

OU Links

• 2020 four-star LB commit Edgerrin Cooper has seen his recruit ranking on 247 Sports bumped up from three stars to four. The Covington, LA prospect is gaining momentum as his senior season approaches.

• In other OU commit news, TE Jalin Conyers and OL Nate Anderson saw their player rankings skyrocket from just outside the top 100 to the top 50.
• In some unfortunate news, it’s been revealed that Adrian Peterson is currently in a substantial amount of debt after reportedly putting his trust into the wrong people.
• Trent Williams is still regarded as one of the top 100 NFL players in the game today, checking in at No. 81 going into the 2019 season. Boomer!

• Kyler Murray is used to being the first athlete to do something, and here he is again being the first rookie to grace the cover of Rotoworld’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide. K1 could be putting up insane numbers this season, so pick him while you can.

• Baker Mayfield’s QB RV in Cleveland is back, and I just wish a reality show existed to capture all the shenanigans that will undoubtedly take place during the Browns’ preseason camp next month.

• In case you haven’t done so yet, I highly recommend you check out SB Nation’s FanPulse Top 25. It’s a new college football poll that will be comprised solely of the opinions of well-informed fans across the nation, including your Oklahoma Sooners. If you want the chance to have your voice heard in this simple weekly survey during the season, sign up now!

Around the Sports World

• The New York Yankees came back from six runs down in the fifth to beat the Minnesota Twins 14-12 in 10 innings. It’ll probably end up as the game of the year, and the final out could very well go down as the catch of the year. Check out Aaron Hicks fly to snag this drive. Good stuff.

• ESPN’s NBA writer Tim Bontemps surveyed 20 head coaches to gauge their opinions on the hottest topics around the association this summer. It appears a lot of momentum went towards the Los Angeles Clippers after signing Kawhi Leonard, and I tend to agree.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers have announced plans for a $100 million ball park renovation ahead of next year’s MLB All-Star Game. The plans include erecting a statue of pitcher Sandy Koufax. I can hardly wait to see how it all turns out.
• Let the record show that Manny Pacquiao is not backing down from a rematch against Floyd Mayweather. Apparently these two are going back and forth in a talking contest, but it remains to be seen if Manny will ever get the chance to avenge his loss to Floyd before retirement comes knocking.

• New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson signed with Nike’s Air Jordan Brand, and it’s pretty fitting because the big man can absolutely fly.

Stick to Sports!

• Invader Zim is zooming back into our lives in an upcoming film titled ‘Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus’. After the successful television series ran on Nickelodeon from 2001-2006, creator Jhonen Vasquez is bringing the maniacal alien back for a feature length mission. This movie is set for global Netflix release on Aug. 16.

Follow Crimson & Cream Machine on Twitter!