Tramel: The Bedlam series is about to end, and college football will be poorer for it
Berry TramelOklahoman
STILLWATER — Bedlam football kicked off Saturday night, capping a week of hype that did not all emanate from within state lines.
Sportscasters calling games all weekend talked Bedlam. ESPN threw up “Bedlam” on graphics game after game. National writers chimed in on the rivalry that has gone viral.
Bedlam has become a national brand.
And soon it will be gone, just like 1:30 p.m. kickoffs and Coca-Cola vendors climbing the stadium steps.
Oh, OSU probably will play in Norman next year. The Sooners’ move to the Southeastern Conference isn’t likely for 2022. But it’s hard to imagine OU still being in the Big 12 in 2023.
And despite OU officials’ repeated statements that they want the series to continue, such desire is not coming from Stillwater, and even if it did, it’s not a priority for either school.
Maintaining scheduling models holds that distinction.
Not everything wrong in America is somebody’s fault. And this is an example. Forces and trends across the nation cause people to make decisions they might not otherwise make.
The same financial crunch that caused the Sooners to take a come-hither look at the SEC, is making schools embrace the 21st century trend of limiting non-conference schedules to one Power 5 Conference opponent per year.
“We do want to keep it alive,” OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said of Bedlam. “And it's not just limited to football. They have to want to do that, but we certainly remain very open to doing that.
“That being said, I do think there is credence to working through the logistics of making it happen. We both have scheduled according to what we anticipated, and being able to accommodate three non-conference games each season.”
In other words, the model isn’t changing, just because OSU and OU are going to be in different conferences.
That's why Mike Gundy said what he said earlier in the week, that Saturday night might be the final Bedlam football game in Stillwater.
“I don’t think it’s a realistic thing … based on the business side of Power 5 Conference football in the Big 12 or the SEC,” Gundy said. “That’s just my opinion on it. I could be wrong, and I’m not getting that from anybody.
“We’re scheduled out, you guys can help me on this, through 2032 or something. We’re scheduled out way longer than they’ll keep me around here. So, your financial commitments to buyouts and payouts are at an all-time high now.”
Real discussion about continuing Bedlam, should talks even occur, won’t take place until both the Big 12 and SEC decide on a scheduling format. Both the soon-to-be 12-team Big 12 and soon-to-be 16-team SEC figure to play nine-game conference schedules.
If either settled on eight-game conference schedules, there could be some wiggle room to find Bedlam dates. But then again, maybe not. The SEC currently plays an eight-game conference schedule, which leaves four non-conference opponents. Thirteen of the 14 SEC teams this year played just one Power 5 opponent each. Only Georgia scheduled more than one.
The SEC is running a scam. Those 13 teams account for 39 games against non-Power 5 teams. SEC teams were 37-2 in those games, losing only with Vanderbilt at home to East Tennessee State and Mississippi State at Memphis.
The benefit to such soft scheduling is obvious. More home games, which pad the budget, and more victories. Thirteen of the 14 SEC teams reached six wins and thus bowl eligibility, after Florida beat Florida State and Louisiana State upset Texas A&M on Saturday.
So the primary window for non-conference Bedlam is to be the marquee non-conference game for each school.
Between now and 2037, OSU has openings only in 2030 and 2031. OU has openings only in 2034, but the Sooners do have SEC opponents scheduled for 2023 (Georgia), 2024 (Tennessee), 2027-28 (LSU), 2031 (Georgia) and 2032-33 (Alabama). Those games ostensibly will be canceled or folded into the SEC schedule.
Ode to joy; 2031 might be the first fit for a non-conference Bedlam.
A wild card could be the Big Ten/Pac-12/Atlantic Coast Conference alliance, in which officials from those leagues have indicated a renewed effort to schedule each other. How does that affect the SEC or the Big 12? Too early to tell.
Heck, we don’t even know if OSU wants to keep the series alive. A Cowboy source said that in the aftermath of the OU/SEC news, before the Big 12 solidified its future, the only consensus among OSU fans was that they wanted to discontinue Bedlam.
That’s likely emotion talking. Bedlam has been very very good to OSU, despite the Sooners’ 90-18-7 advantage in the series. Bedlam has provided a platform the Cowboys rarely have enjoyed.
Between the 1946 and the 1980s, the Cowboys rarely made football ripples. Jimmy Johnson and Pat Jones produced quality teams in the 1980s, and though they never beat the Sooners, Bedlam became an event, with memorable games in 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1988.
And in the 21st century, OSU is OU’s best competitive rival.
The Cowboys have been ranked higher than the Sooners five times in the last 12 meetings. Texas has ranked higher than OU three times in their last 21 meetings.
“I know the years I’ve been here, a game with a lot of important things riding on it,” Lincoln Riley said last week, well before OSU's 37-33 win on Saturday and Riley's move to USC on Sunday. “That’s what makes it more fun, there’s no question about it. Rivalry games are always great, but when you’ve got two good football teams going at it with a lot at stake, it makes it even better.”
Truth is, Bedlam football has become the state’s best sporting event. And now it’s endangered.
OU’s competition level will go up in the SEC. OSU’s competition level will go down.
And the primary issue about OU’s exodus — the financial hit, with the Sooners and Longhorns no longer part of the television contracts — could be slightly mitigated if OSU could go to the bargaining table with a home-and-home Bedlam Series.
Additionally, OSU’s season-ticket model for years has been based on selling no single-game tickets when OU or Texas comes to Boone Pickens Stadium, beyond the required allotment to visiting teams. OSU has found that such a policy increases season-ticket sales.
Who fills that void now? Brigham Young and Baylor?
But even if OSU officials recognized the importance of continuing Bedlam, it might not be possible without both schools letting loose of the scheduling model that has gripped college football and made it worse.
“The spirit and intent might be there, but there's certainly going to be some logistical challenges that we both have to navigate to make it happen,” Castiglione said.
“We remain open for the conversation. They've said publicly they're not sure that they want to do it. We haven't pushed that while the season is under way, but perhaps at a time after the season, we can have a conversation about their interest, and if the interest is there, how we might be able to work through some of the games we already have under contract, and whether or not they're movable to accommodate an annual game.”
Conference realignment, scheduling models, television contracts. They all have conspired to cripple some great best rivalries.
Texas A&M-Texas. Brigham Young-Utah. OU-Nebraska. Texas-Arkansas. Pittsburgh-West Virginia. Kansas-Missouri. Maryland-Virginia.
Perhaps Bedlam is headed for the status of Pittsburgh-Penn State. Once a raucous rivalry, the series was discontinued when Penn State began Big Ten play in 1993.
The Nittany Lions and Panthers renewed the rivalry with a four-game contract from 1997-2000, then another from 2016-19. But no more games are scheduled.
Could the same fate await Bedlam?
The SEC has another scheduling model. Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina each plays a cross-state, non-conference, arch-rival on Thanksgiving weekend. Bedlam would fit very nicely in that lineup.
My Sports Animal radio pal Al Eschbach had another idea. A Bedlam opener every year, on Labor Day Sunday night. The college football universe, not just within our state lines, would eagerly await OU-OSU all summer.
But there are emotions and contracts and scheduling models and budgetary concerns. And the people entrusted as caretakers for a sport so many love, sometimes are powerless to make decisions that would keep the fabric of the sport.
So Bedlam looks lost.
