Texas-Oklahoma Kickoff Set, Kyrie Irving Is No Top Pick, USA Takes on Mexico in the Gold Cup Final, and More in Today’s Fan Happy Hour for June 23, 2011

The Red River Shootout, and no I will never refer to it as the Red River Rivalry, has been set for October 8th at 11am from Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas on ABC for a national telecast according to the Austin American Statesman Wednesday. While many think Oklahoma is the class of the Big 12 and Texas has a ways to go compete again at a high level, remember that a terrible Longhorns team almost beat the Sooners in 2010. Should be a good game.

Tonight the NBA Draft takes place and thankfully they haven't drawn this out into a 3-day debacle like the NFL has with its draft. The Bleacher Report has 50 burning questions for tonight's draft and is worth a look. Also, Kyrie Irving is nobody to build a franchise around and hasn't played a full season of College Basketball. Can he make it in the NBA because his health is an issue the four-letter network analysts want to ignore.

The United States National Soccer team defeated Panama 1-0 last night in Houston to advance to the Gold Cup Final against arch-rival Mexico Saturday night in Pasadena, CA at the Rose Bowl. The 2009 Gold Cup final featured both USA and Mexico where the Yanks were embarrassed 5-0. This current U.S. National team played well in last year's World Cup, but I doubt the have the horses to face a rejuvenated Mexico team. Hopefully I'm wrong. Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez will give the Americans fits on Saturday night.

In non-sports news, Texas Tech University's Board of Regents voted today to raise tuition nearly 6% for the upcoming year and its not surprising that this vote happened in Dallas and not Lubbock.  The only regent to vote against the tuition hike was former Lubbock County Republican Chairman John Steinmetz. Texas Tech is claiming they are the second lowest in the Big 12 Conference for tuition, but that is nothing to brag about these days.