By John Shinn
For two straight years, Bedlam football lit up the college football radar. In 2003 and 2004, ESPN’s “College Gameday” descended upon Norman and Stillwater to shine a bright light on one of the most intense rivalries in college sports.
What was at stake in the Big 12 Conference as well as nationally made it more than a simple in-state rivalry.
The Sooners were ranked No. 1 and No. 2. The Cowboys came in at No. 12 and No. 20. The Big 12 South was up for grabs.
Over the previous five seasons, the Sooners prepared for the Cowboys with a potential Big 12 championship on the line. Three of those games included national championship implications.
Stakes like that won’t be on the table when Oklahoma (6-4, 5-2 Big 12) and Oklahoma State (4-6, 1-6) meet for the 100th time at 2:30 p.m. today at Owen Field.
Hopes of conference titles and BCS bowl invitations have long since faded for both teams.
Oklahoma defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek knows something’s missing, though he struggled to come up with just the right word: hype.
And without the ballyhoo, what’s left to play for?
For OU, plenty. For many reasons today still looms huge for the Sooners.
“I think it’s still an important game,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “The bottom line is we still need to win to try and complete our season in a positive way …
“Again, you can compare records. There’s been a number of years where we have been in situations where we’re not at the top of the league or not undefeated at this time. But they’re always important.”
For the Sooners, bowl implications swirl around Bedlam. Winning means the Sooners will travel to the Holiday Bowl or Alamo Bowl. A loss could knock OU down to the Independence Bowl.
For the Cowboys, this is it. All they can do is spoil the Sooners’ plans.
Should they prevail, it would likely seem like enough.
It’s a role they’ve been well-suited for in recent years.
In 2001, OSU knocked OU out of the Big 12 championship game with a 16-13 victory. In 2002, OU was bounced from the national championship picture by a 38-28 loss to the Cowboys.
Dvoracek remembers both.
“For me, I’ve played against Oklahoma State three times and I’m 1-2,” he said. “That doesn’t sit well with me.”
But there’s more to it than revenge and Dvoracek can think of several reasons why a Bedlam win is something OU can’t live without.
“We need to win it for our season, for a better bowl, for our fans. There’s a lot of reasons we need to win this game,” he said.
If that’s not enough, 20 seniors will play their final game at Owen Field today. They make up a group that’s helped OU go 42-9 over the last four seasons, winning two Big 12 titles along the way. Facing OSU seems like a fitting way to play their final home game.
“It would be great coming out with a win over anybody,” senior linebacker Clint Ingram said. “Being Oklahoma State, that’s our in-state rival, we aren’t going to get overwhelmed and just go crazy at the game. It is going to be pretty intense, especially for the seniors.”
This year’s Bedlam may not pack the same national wallop it has the last two seasons. But to the Sooners, that doesn’t make Saturday any less important.
“It’s one of those games that means more than it looks on paper,” senior offensive tackle Davin Joseph said. “You look at it on paper and you look at the records and it doesn’t look good. But knowing you’re going to get the best effort from both teams is really what makes this game special.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
