The Big 12 football schedule has finally been released, blasted out by the conference offices mid-morning on Tuesday.

And in case anyone thinks I’m overstating the “nightmare” part of this whole thing, think again. When the schedule was going to come out was easily the No. 1 question that I — or anyone else in the sports media in these parts — has received in the past couple months.

Everyone has wanted to know when they could mark their calendars to be able to, um, mark their calendars.

It’s a nod to how much life in this neck of the woods revolves around football in the fall. Want to get married? Want to have a bake sale or a fall festival or a community parade? Better not do it when Oklahoma State or Oklahoma is playing.

Unless, of course, you don’t want anyone to come to your shindig.

Now, everyone can look and see when those really big games are on the schedule.

The Sooners open Big 12 play hosting Kansas State on Sept. 22, an open date for the Cowboys.

The Cowboys open conference play the following week with a huge game against Texas. That’s a weekend that the Sooners currently have open, but unlike the Cowboys, they didn’t release their entire schedule  Tuesday morning. That leaves open the possibility that the Sooners could play one last non-conference game that weekend.

Wedding planners and civic leaders, you might want to avoid Sept. 29.

Another day to avoid? Oct. 13.

That’s when OU plays Texas, and while OSU is playing a much less appealing game at Kansas, much activity ceases in the state that weekend. Best to avoid.

I’d also steer clear of Oct. 20 and Nov. 10. Both teams are home those weekends, the only times that happens during the entire Big 12 slate. OSU has Iowa State and OU has Kansas in October, so neither are marquee games, but still, trying to get people to do anything that isn’t football-related that weekend will be a stretch. The same goes for that weekend in November when West Virginia is at OSU and Baylor is at OU. That might end up being the best two-game weekend of football in the state next fall.

There are other big weekends, of course. The Cowboys host TCU on Oct. 27 and Texas Tech on Nov. 17. The Sooners go to West Virginia on Nov. 17, then finish the season at TCU on Dec. 1.

But, of course, there’s no bigger weekend to avoid than Nov. 24 — Bedlam.

Think that game in Norman will be kind of a big deal after last year?

Yeah, me, too.

So, if you’re looking to plan something in the fall, your best bets are Oct. 3, Nov. 3 and, well, maybe you should just go with a summer wedding.

None more than Wes Welker.

The Oklahoma native and New England receiver has been in the cross hairs since dropping — his word, not mine — a fourth-quarter pass that would’ve almost certainly helped the Patriots run the clock and seal the victory. Fans are mad. Teammates’ wives are fuming. Well, at least one very notable spouse is.

But it sounds like New England’s front office brass isn’t ready to fire up the spit and fry Welker. There’s more and more talk that the Patriots are not only going to re-sign Welker, whose contract is expiring and is about to make him an unrestricted free agent, but they’re also going to take it a step further and give him the franchise tag.

Welker’s desire to remain in New England has been well reported, but the Boston Globe pointed out today that Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft has also expressed his desire to see Welker remain with the team. “Usually a good sign that something will get done,” the Globe  mentioned.

It’s a great point. It’s one thing when a player wants to stay with a team. It’s quite another when the player and the guy signing the paychecks wants that.

And nothing anyone with the Patriots’ front office has said since the Super Bowl has made anyone think that anything’s changed.

In fact, on Thursday, Globe writer Greg Bedard went on the Armando and Perkins radio show in Miami and indicated that he knows what New England plans to do with Welker.

“He’s going to be tagged, that I know for pretty much certain,” Bedard said, clarifying that it’s the franchise tag the Pats would use. “If they don’t, he’s going to sign with the Jets and they’re going to have to try and cover him twice a year, or the Dolphins … They want him back. I don’t see why things would change now, but the way it stood before the Super Bowl, they’re going to tag him.”

Interesting, for sure.

(Also interesting, I’m sure, for the editors at the Globe. One of their guys going on Miami radio with such news? Sure hope he broke it in the Globe before that.)

For as tough a week as this has surely been for Welker, this is great news. I mean, getting re-signed by the Patriots and getting the franchise tag won’t change what happened on Sunday. New England still lost. Welker still had a hand in a play that could’ve won them the game.

But he deserves every good thing that happens to him. To think, he could go from a guy who was barely recruited out of high school and undrafted out of college to someone who is a “franchise player” in the NFL. And he could do that after suffering a knee injury that most folks believed would leave him a shadow of his former self. That’s pretty heady stuff.

Well-deserved stuff, too.

No. 9 by Scouts Inc.’s Todd McShay.

No. 7 on NFLDraftScout.com.

No. 3 on SportingNews.com.

No. 2 on FoxSports.com.

No. 2 on CBSSports.com.

I mean, we all know that the former Oklahoma State wide receiver is a superstar. We saw it with our own eyes these past couple of seasons. This past fall, in particular, you could just see how Blackmon was playing at a different level, a higher level than the other 21 players on the field.

It was the whole man-among-boys phenomenon.

And yet, to see him as a consensus top-10 draft pick with a legitimate shot at being a top-three pick?

It’s wild.

Blackmon, in my mind, will always be the kid from Plainview High. He was a small-school standout, but despite some eye-popping stats, he was still lightly recruited. He definitely wasn’t the marquee player in the Cowboys’ 2008 recruiting class. On Signing Day 2008, here’s what we wrote about Blackmon’s possible long-term impact:

After he adds some weight, he could blossom into a 205-pound target with good speed.

He blossomed all right … into a pass-catching, game-changing, defense-terrorizing monster.

And now, he is on the verge of pro-football riches and draft-day notoriety.

Being the second or third player picked in the draft would be amazing end to a meteoric rise. Players who’ve been selected in those spots during the past few years include Von Miller (No. 2, 2011), Ndamukong Suh (No. 2, 2010), Jason Smith (No. 2, 2009), Chris Long (No. 2, 2008) and Matt Ryan (No. 3, 2008). Those guys have all had big-time impacts even in a short amount of time.

Blackmon could have a similar imprint on whatever team selects him.

Even if he “falls” to the eighth or ninth, there are still plenty of impact players who’ve been picked in that neck of the draft woods. Three years ago, Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree was drafted 10th by the San Francisco 49ers. This weekend, he’ll be playing for a spot in the Super Bowl.

It’s pretty awe-inspiring to consider where Blackmon’s career may be headed.

And the truth is, he gave himself this opportunity. He committed himself to the workouts and the conditioning regimen when he first arrived in Stillwater, adding the strength and the speed to the skill that he already had. He made the most of practice, including those days on the scout team when he was catching passes from some third-string quarterback named Brandon Weeden. Turned out to pay pretty big dividends, huh?

I hate to sound like those commentators on TV who say, “Now, young players need to watch how this player does this”, but the truth is, there’s a great lesson in what Blackmon has done. Here it is, kids — Blackmon put in the work to make this whole thing possible.

Who knows where Blackmon will ultimately land? St. Louis? Minnesota? Jacksonville? But no matter what NFL hamlet he ends up calling home, this much is sure.

He’ll have earned his spot there.

Olivia Hamilton has completed treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

This isn’t a blog post about sports.

But it is about triumph.

Today — Jan. 11, 2012 — marks the last day of chemotherapy for Olivia Hamilton. The sports world knows her as the cancer patient who has become buddies with Oklahoma State receiver Justin Blackmon. We’ve told her story. ESPN has told her story.

No doubt she’s the best-known fourth grader in Sperry.

But all of that is a side note today. Olivia is finally done with treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and when I say finally, I mean finally.

She did 108 weeks of treatment.

One hundred and eight.

That’s more than two years of treatment, of going to the hospital once a week for radiation or chemotherapy, of having to endure the side effects of the drugs that were killing the cancer but that sometimes nearly did her in. There have been dozens of stays in the hospital, these past few years for everything from kidney failure to mouth sores to broken bones.

It’s been hell for a little girl who has faced it all with an iron will and a smile as big as the Oklahoma sky.

(She posted a picture on her Facebook page early this morning flashing that smile. She also had a hand-painted sign: Last Chemo.)

And now, the treatment is done.

Sometime this afternoon, Olivia will ring a bell at the pediatric cancer unit at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa. Every patient who completes their treatment gets to ring that bell. It’s a celebration of what they’ve accomplished. It’s a moment that everyone has a chance to enjoy.

Here’s hoping that Olivia, with that big smile on her face, rings that bell as loud and long as they’ll let her.

You deserve it, Liv.

The prognosticators?

Us here at OPUBCO headquarters.

Every year, we do a football preview section, and this year, our college football coverage team picked all sorts of things. Best players. Best games. I got a kick out of going back through some of them.

None of us picked Alabama and LSU to play in the national championship game. Then again, who could’ve seen a rematch in the title game?

Good news is, six of the eight us had one of the two teams in the title game. Alabama was a pick for OU beat writer Mike Baldwin, OSU recruting writer Jason Kersey, sports editor Mike Sherman, assistant sports editor Ryan Sharp and yours truly. OSU beat writer John Helsley had LSU in the game.

Only my fellow columnist Berry Tramel and OU recruiting writer Ryan Aber had neither SEC school in the game. Berry liked Boise State vs. Virginia Tech while Ryan went with Oklahoma and Oregon.

Four of us actually had the Crimson Tide winning the whole thing — Baldwin, Sherman, Sharp and I.

Maybe we do know what we’re talking about occassionally.

It was interesting to see what teams everyone picked to play in the BCS bowls. Everyone had at least five of the 10 teams, a pretty good batting average if you ask me.

The best?

Well, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I picked eight of the 10 BCS teams. Alabama. LSU. OSU. Stanford. Wisconsin. Oregon. West Virginia. Virginia Tech. I only whiffed on OU and Boise State.

Of course, I also said Roy Finch would be the Sooners’ most thrilling player and that former OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson would win seven games in his first season at Indiana.

Finch struggled to get on the field the first half of the season, and the Hoosiers struggled to one win.

Hello, humble pie.

It’s just interesting to look back at predictions and remember that they all have to be taken with a grain of salt. And hey, we did ours in August. These predictions that are coming out now are being made before we even know all of the players who are headed to the NFL. The deadline to declare isn’t until Sunday.

I love predictions as much as the next person, but really, it’s more fun than serious.

Martin Luther King Day is just around the corner.

In honor of this holiday, I am looking to shine the light on a community hero who may be largely unknown to the world.

There is a quote attributed to Dr. King — “What are you doing for others?” — and I am looking to share the story of someone sports-related in the Oklahoma City metro area who is doing for others in our black community.

Men like Leotis Robinson and Varryl Franklin initially spring to mind. I’ve written about both of these men in the past few years. Robinson was the former legendary football coach at Millwood High School who died a couple years ago, and Franklin is the current legendary basketball coach at Millwood. Both are coaches by profession but builders of young men at heart. They live to do for others.

There are others like them.

But I need your help finding them.

If you know of someone, they don’t have to be involved in high school sports. Perhaps there’s someone you know who’s involved in youth sports or middle school sports. As long as they’re doing for others in the black community and doing it through sports, I want to know about them.

You can comment on my blog or email me at jcarlson@opubco.com.

Be sure to include a phone number where I can contact you.

There have been highs. There have been lows. There have been near misses and bizarre endings that have made even the diehards among you scratch your heads.

But there has never been anything like this season.

Beatdowns of Oklahoma and Texas and so many others.

A first-ever outright Big 12 title.

A first-ever BCS bowl.

This season has meant so much to so many, but we want to hear what it has meant to you. Maybe you have a heartfelt story of devotion to your Cowboys. Perhaps you have a funny tale of orange-tinted passion. Whatever the case, we want to hear your stories.

Tell us what this season has meant to you and why.

You could send a “thank you” to the Cowboys, or you could let us what you would tell the team or your favorite player or favorite coach if you had the chance.

Email Jenni Carlson at jcarlson@opubco.com. Be sure to include your name, your city of residence and a phone number where we can reach you.