Congratulations to the football teams from The University of Tulsa and The University of Oklahoma.

The Golden Hurricane and the Sooners both made it to the conference championship of their respective conferences.

Tulsa will play Cincinnati in the Championship Game of the American Athletic Conference while Oklahoma will face Iowa State in Arlington, Texas, for the Big 12 Title Game.

These are major achievements in a football season littered with postponements, cancelations and quarantined players and coaches.

Tulsa was able to play only one nonconference game (a loss to Oklahoma State – which was poised to make it to the Big 12 Title Game until a flurry of injuries to key players hit).

And TU had miracle comeback wins in at least four AAC games. These were close games that Tulsa lost last year but came out ahead in this season.

Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery has done a stellar job after suffering through a couple of seasons of disappointing records.

Even if TU doesn’t win the conference, they are set up for a significant bowl invitation.

OU coach Lincoln Riley started a freshman quarterback and had three of his best players suspended for half a season. That led to two narrow losses in the two first games of the Big 12 schedule. Yet, Riley and the Sooners persevered.

They battled through coronavirus protocols and postponed games to win a spot against Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship. While OU’s string of appearances in the College Football Playoff seems out of reach, the Sooners can win an unprecedented sixth Big 12 title. That’s historic.

Philip Montgomery, Lincoln Riley and Mike Gundy are proven football coaches but they are also builders of character in young men. That alone is cause for congratulation.

Winning a conference title is icing on the cake for state football fans.