After watching the BCS Championship, you can understand why Andy Geiger has drool marks on his Ohio State tie. The Buckeyes' athletic director just deep-sixed John Cooper, which means OSU can make a run at Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, who's hotter than a space shuttle re-entry tile. Stoops is a Youngstown guy -- a Big Ten guy -- a guy who can appreciate football history.

So Geiger will ask for -- and receive -- permission from OU to speak to Stoops about the job opening. Money won't be an issue. Ohio State has money. What it doesn't have is someone who can beat Michigan, win a bowl game that isn't played in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia or Idaho, and worm its way into the national championship equation.

Stoops can do that. In two years' time he restored Oklahoma to its rightful place among college football's elite, and he did it without steroids or semi-automatic gunfire from Wilkinson Hall. A season ago the Sooners were in the Independence Bowl ... and grateful for the bid, which is all you need to know about the state of OU football. But in the wee, wee hours of Thursday they happily gathered at midfield in Pro Player Stadium and posed for the kind of team photo you usually see after Stanley Cup championships.

This is what Geiger wants for Ohio State. He wants to hoist some Sears Trophy crystal, to be sure, but he also wants what was so obvious in that OU Kodak moment: a roster without lawsuits, Animal House GPAs and petty jealousies. Stoops did it at Oklahoma; he could do it in Columbus, too.

Problem is, Stoops isn't going anywhere -- at least, that's what Oklahoma says.

"We're very confident he's a Sooner and a Sooner to stay," says OU president David Boren, who thought so much of Stoops that he approached the coach with a big-money contract extension before the 13-0 season began.

Boren is no dummy. He knows there are only so many coaching phenoms in the business. That's why he all but doubled Stoops' salary after a 7-5 season and who knows, might add even more cash to the latest deal.

After OU's thoroughly convincing win against favored Florida State, the Sooners returned to their locker room, where Stoops told them how proud he was of their effort. He said he always believed in them, but the fun part was watching them learn to believe in themselves. He told them to handle the victory with humility and then he asked his team to take a knee, this time for the Lord's Prayer.

Geiger is probably doing the same thing these days. It's going to take a medium-sized miracle to convince Stoops to seriously consider a move to Ohio State. Boren says it won't happen and he's probably right. Stoops makes serious money, he has a two-deep depth chart that includes 23 freshmen and sophomores, and the nation's best recruits are starting to call him. No wonder Stoops told the postgame crowd, "I think now it is easy to say that Oklahoma is officially back."

Meanwhile, Ohio State is officially in the same division as Alabama and USC, once-powerful programs that can't spend too much time waxing poetic about Woody, or The Bear, or McKay. They never seem to make the jump to warp speed, mostly because they're too busy re-living 1967.

Oklahoma was like that until Stoops arrived. Not anymore. Stoops embraces the OU tradition, but he leaves lots of wiggle room for new eras.

The Stoops Era got a nice start late Wednesday night. Two years, one national championship. Not bad, and there could be more on the way.

Ohio State should be so lucky. And maybe it will -- but Geiger and the Buckeyes will have to find their own version of Stoops. By the looks of things, this one isn't leaving.

Gene Wojciechowski is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at gene.wojciechowski@espnmag.com.