Last time, it was Mike Anderson versus Rob Childress with nothing more than pride on the line. This time it's Nebraska versus Texas A&M with first place in the Big 12 at stake.

"I'm looking forward to it being about two teams that are having great years instead of me going back and it being a family reunion," the Aggies' Childress said Thursday.

When Childress came to town as A&M's first-year coach in 2006, the Aggies were bad, headed to a last-place finish. The Cornhuskers swept the series. Anderson and Children were the story because they worked together for eight years at Nebraska under Dave Van Horn and their families became close friends.

The backdrop for this weekend's three-game series is different because of A&M's rapid rise under Childress.

His 2007 team reached the NCAA super-regionals and posted 48 victories -- 23 more than in 2006. The Aggies won the Big 12 tournament after finishing fifth in the regular season.

The 2008 Aggies (41-8, 18-3) are as high as No. 5 in the national rankings this week and pursuing a top-eight national seed for the NCAA tournament.

They were the first Division I team to reach 40 wins and have won a Big 12-record 15 straight conference games. They also are on a nine-game road winning streak for the first time since 1989.

They would clinch at least a tie for their first conference regular-season championship since 1999 by winning two of three against the second-place Huskers, who also are as high as No. 5 in the national polls.

"I don't have to tell our players that. They know the standings and where they are," Childress said. "I tell the guys, truth be told, that this weekend is no more important than Texas Tech weekend, Kansas weekend or Baylor weekend. They're all the same. They don't count any more or any less."

Nebraska coach Mike Anderson said he and his players have been facing questions about the A&M series for at least two weeks. The Huskers haven't played since sweeping a nonconference doubleheader from Louisiana-Lafayette last Saturday.

Childress established himself on the national scene as Van Horn's pitching coach. When Van Horn left for Arkansas after the 2002 season, Anderson and Childress were up for the head coaching job. Former athletic director Bill Byrne, now the Aggies' AD, picked Anderson. Childress stayed on three more years before Byrne hired him at A&M.

"Rob and I are still close," Anderson said. "We talk quite a bit -- more about family than baseball.

"This whole week, the anticipation of it has been A&M and Nebraska, not Rob Childress. That's been the exciting part of it. I'm happy we've got both teams in this position."