By Andrew Golden
Fall 2023
In the state of Oklahoma, there aren’t any professional football teams. Not only are there not any pro football teams, but there isn’t a professional baseball team either. In fact, the only big professional team in Oklahoma is the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA team. That doesn’t mean the people of Oklahoma like football or any other sport less than the next American. Most everybody in the state loves sports. They’re just left with the challenge of who to support. Lots of people just pick a team from another state to root for, but that’s never the same as rallying behind the players where you live. Fortunately for Oklahomans, there is another option. In the 46th state, there exists a pair of first division colleges, colleges that have a long and intricate rivalry. I’m talking about the rivalry between Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma. The schools first clashed when they ran against each other in track and field in 1900, but the seeds of the rivalry were really sewn in 1904 when they first played football against each other. OSU lost. Over and over. From ’04 to ‘17, the Sooners beat the (at the time) Tigers “by an average score of 30.5-1.8” (Hayes 1). This made OSU’s first win that much better. When the Tigers beat the Sooners 9-0, there was a massive celebration. Students paraded through the streets, Old Central’s bell chimed for the first time in years, guns were fired in the air, the ground was repeatedly emblazoned with the score, and even the power plant’s whistle chimed 9 times to announce the results.
There truly was only one word to describe that day: Bedlam.
The chasm between the Sooners and the (finally) Cowboys had deepened, and would continue to do so. In 1932, Sooners stole the clapper from Old Central’s bell after they lost 0-7, but it still rang, thanks to some resourceful students (and their sledgehammers). OSU students soon after took the clapper back, but allegedly it was the clapper from a church, and not Old Central. The schools bickered about it for years, and in 1966 they agreed to compromise, and turn the clapper (more accurately, a crystal version of it) into a symbolic trophy for the winner of Bedlam.
This year’s Bedlam was also one for the history books. Going into this year’s series, the Cowboys had only won 5 football games against OU in the 21st century. The odds were stacked against them, but they somehow secured a win of 27-21. To celebrate this victory, OSU students ripped apart one of the goalposts with nothing but their bare hands and threw it in the nearby Theta Pond. When I conducted my survey, this game was universally agreed to be everyone’s favorite out of those who attended (Golden). Bedlam isn’t just important from a cultural and historic perspective, but from a financial one. At the ’23 Bedlam game, 54,105 people were in attendance, filling up a massive 97% of the stadium, with an average in the mid to low 80’s (“AP” 1).
But it seems that this year’s Bedlam series is the last one. Going into effect in the fall of 2024, Oklahoma University is leaving for the SEC, leaving behind Oklahoma State in the big 12. According to Oklahoma State’s head coach Mike Gundy, it would be “a ‘poor business decision’” to keep playing against each other, which means (at least for the foreseeable future) this Bedlam series was the last one (Wilson 1). Such a historic, iconic, and massive rivalry evaporating leaves me with a big question: Will the Bedlam football rivalry ever return?
Maybe.
Or maybe not. It’s very easy to see how the two teams would never play each other again, with scheduling being a major factor. As NCAA FBS teams, Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma both play 12 games a year, nine of which are against schools within a conference. This leaves only three games a year for the teams to play games against schools in the rest of the nation, and “OU has ‘limited availability for OSU on their future nonconference schedules’”, which will handicap the chances of the rivalry game (SBJ 1). Their schedules are so full that “The next season both have yet to schedule … the nonconference is 2031. After that … 2037” (White 1). This means that it’ll take 14 years for both of the teams to have the ability to regularly playa against each other, and even when they do, it will have to be at the expense of one of their precious nonconference slots. By then, both schools will have moved on from Bedlam. Oklahoma University already has the fierce Red River Rivalry with the University of Texas at Austin, and with three new teams joining the big 12, it’s certainly not impossible to imagine Oklahoma State University finding a different team to clash against.
On the more hopeful side of things, there might just be a way for the two teams to be reunited, allowing hatred to spew across the sooner state once more. To see how, we have to take a look at OSU’s original namesake, Texas A&M. For almost a century, A&M maintained a cruel rivalry with UT in the Big 12, until A&M moved to the SEC in 2012, and “despite efforts from Texas legislators, the series has not been played since 2011” (White 1). Their 12-year ceasefire will finally come to an end when UT joins A&M in the SEC in 2024. While it’s ridiculous to say it would be the entire reason for the move, the rivalry between Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma would be reignited if OSU happened to transfer out of the big 12 and join the SEC with OU.
The Bedlam Rivalry is a competition that’s held dear by many residents of the great state. It has cultural, historical, and financial significance to both of the schools. What’s going to happen to it next is anybody’s guess. It’s not uncommon for rivalries between schools to evaporate over a change of conference, but it’s also not unheard of for teams to face each other again after one moves with the other. The only thing that can be said for certain is that, at least for now, the Bedlam football rivalry is coming to an end.
Works Cited
Hayes, Jane. “Why is the OU v. OSU football game called ‘Bedlam’? How long has it been called that?”. The Oklahoman. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/sports/2023/11/01/bedlam-2023-oklahoma-state-vs-ou-rivalry-name-history/71392920007/. Accessed 30 Nov, 2023.
Wilson, Dave. “Mike Gundy savors last Bedlam, calls OK State’s win ‘a big deal’”. ESPN. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38820012/mike-gundy-savors-last-bedlam-calls-ok-state-win-big-deal . Accessed 30 Nov, 2023.
AP. “Gordon runs for 137 yards, 2 TDs as Oklahoma St. tops No. 10 Oklahoma to win last scheduled Bedlam”. ESPN. https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/_/gameId/401525883 . Accessed 30 Nov, 2023.
Golden, Andrew. “Survey about this year’s games”. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZgbQQgoJwhqZPTJeulZ406Avlvb4dEeoa1WPswNSbXTQ6Q/viewform?usp=sharing . Accessed 30 Nov, 2023. (To view data, click the pencil in the bottom right and then responses)
White, Ivan. “Bedlam Football After 2023: When Could the Rivalry Return?”. FanNation. https://www.si.com/college/oklahomastate/news/bedlam-football-after-2023-when-could-the-rivalry-return . Accessed 30 Nov, 2023.
“Oklahoma’s move to SEC putting end to annual Bedlam football game”. SBJ. https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/09/20/Colleges/Bedlam-Series-ending-Oklahoma-Sooners-Cowboys.aspx . Accessed 30 Nov 2023.
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