Carlson: This isn't the biggest Bedlam ever, but Cowboys, Sooners have rarely played for higher spoils
Jenni CarlsonOklahoman
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STILLWATER — Mike Gundy is the foremost Bedlam football expert in the world.
What else would you call the person who has played or coached in more of these games than anyone else on the planet?
The Oklahoma State football coach has been involved in 30 games in the storied series. Saturday night will be No. 31. No one has had a hand in more Bedlams, not even his brother, Cale, the former OU quarterback and current Sooner assistant who has been a part of 27 Bedlams.
So, it seemed appropriate to ask Gundy how this year’s Bedlam compares to others. From the outside, it seems like Mega Bedlam. Armabedlam. Bedlamgeddon.
But does it feel different to someone with a finger on the pulse?
“Yes, it does,” Gundy said Monday during his weekly press conference, “because we’ve had a great year, so you’d like to keep that going.”
The folks at OU would say the same. The Sooners, like the Cowboys, have a 10-1 record, a shot at a Big 12 title and a path to the College Football Playoff.
With both teams having such lofty stakes, this is a Bedlam like no other.
Biggest Bedlam ever?
It's close, but it's probably second biggest. The 1984 edition of Bedlam matched No. 2 OU and No. 3 OSU. To the winner would go the Big Eight championship and a trip to the Orange Bowl, where it had a legitimate chance to stake a claim on a national championship.
But in the BCS/Playoff Era, there’s never been anything bigger than Bedlam 2021.
The only ones that compare are 2011 and 2015.
In 2011, Bedlam became a de facto Big 12 title game. The league wasn’t doing a championship game in those days, but when the Cowboys and Sooners met, the victor was going home with a trophy. OSU had a chance to win it outright while OU could have tied for it.
OSU also was hoping to make a closing argument for a spot in the BCS National Championship Game.
OU, though, wasn’t playing for such lofty postseason spots.
Fast forward to 2015, and OU and OSU had another Bedlam with epic stakes. Again, it was a de facto Big 12 title game, and OU came into the game ranked fifth in the CFP rankings while OSU was ninth.
That’s actually better than where the teams are likely to be this time around. OSU is likely to be seventh and OU ninth or 10th when the rankings come out Tuesday night.
But again, only one team entered the 2015 game with a legitimate shot at playing for a national title. OU was a contender for a playoff berth. OSU was not.
That puts this year's Bedlam at the top of the heap since computers and committees started deciding postseason matchups.
Of course, this Bedlam is about more than the quality of the teams or the stakes of the game.
For starters, we could have back-to-back Bedlams. If OU wins this Saturday, it will join OSU in the Big 12 Championship game next Saturday. That would be historic; the football teams have never even played twice in the same season, much less the same eight-day span.
Then, there is the future of Bedlam. OU announced earlier this year it would join Texas and leave the Big 12 for the SEC, and while we don’t know exactly when the exit will occur, it’s entirely possible Bedlam won’t survive the split.
Could this be the last Bedlam?
For that to happen, OU and Texas would have to negotiate an early exit from the Big 12, leaving before the current broadcast deal expires in 2025. There’s a widely held belief that the Sooners and Longhorns will get an early-exit strategy done, but it seems unlikely to happen before next season.
Schools have never negotiated an out from a conference any later than December and still made the move the next year, and at this point, there isn’t any indication the two sides are close on a buyout.
Additionally, the SEC has already released its conference football schedule for next season, and there’s nary a Sooner or a Longhorn on the slate.
Still, this may well be the final Bedlam football game at OSU for the foreseeable future. OU could go to the SEC before the 2023 season, and with Bedlam in Norman in 2022, that would make this the last Bedlam football game in Stillwater.
The schools could agree to play non-conference games and keep the Bedlam series alive. OU has indicated a desire to do so, but OSU doesn’t sound all that enthusiastic about doing so.
Gundy said Monday he didn’t believe Bedlam would continue after OU and OSU are in different conferences.
“I don’t think it will,” he said.
He added that he doesn’t have any inside information and that he’s not even sure who will make the final decision. Even though he won’t have a part in the final say, the Cowboy coach said he doesn’t believe playing a non-conference game against the Sooners would be in OSU’s best interest financially.
Gundy wishes that weren’t the case.
“I’m a traditionalist,” he said. “I’m not fired up about any of (the changes), but obviously, it doesn’t make a difference what I think.”
That’s not entirely true.
When it comes to having a perspective on Bedlam, no one knows the rivalry more intimately than Gundy. His experience in this rivalry is second to none, and he believes this year’s game will be as grand as he's ever seen.
“Some people might downplay it and say no,” he said. “I’m kind of speaking for the players, and I get that vibe from them. I think that the environment, the atmosphere, the electric feel … will be a big-time feel.”
Big-time hype and big-time stakes mean a big-time game.
Get ready for Big Bedlam.
