It's Tulsa's game, but you can blame OU

Commentary

By Clay Horning

It’s unseemly, really.

It flies in the face of tradition, it pits the preps against the collegians, it forces fans to prioritize their loyalties, it’s even making this very newspaper turn cartwheels trying to do on a Friday what it’s always done on Saturday while still trying to do on Friday what it’s always done on Friday.

And you can blame Oklahoma.

It’s Tulsa’s game and the Golden Hurricane needs it more than the Sooners, and the OU brass may well have gone to the Oklahoma coaches association for guidance and, as Bob Stoops said, it may never happen at Owen Field.

Still, blame OU for tonight’s game at Chapman Stadium.

Just don’t blame Stoops, Joe Castiglione or David Boren. Instead, blame Barry Switzer, Wade Walker and Bill Banowsky. Because it was those three men who were football coach, athletic director and university president when OU and Georgia took the NCAA to court to, in a nutshell, deregulate college football.

The decision came down in 1984 and ever since the viewing choices of the college football fan have grown and grown and grown, limited only by the imagination of the broadcasters and the number of channels available.

Thursday night college football came first.

Most other days were soon to follow.

In 2003, Miami of Ohio, with a pretty good quarterback named Ben Roethlisberger, got off to a 7-1 start playing on Saturday. Then it played Bowling Green on a Tuesday (ESPN2), Marshall on a Wednesday (ESPN2), Ohio on a Saturday, Central Florida on a Friday (stunningly, no television), and the MAC Championship game, against Louisville, on a Thursday (ESPN2).

Those games put the MAC on the map.

It was a league that played little defense but a ton of offense. It was great viewing. And none of it ever would have happened if not for OU and Georgia taking the NCAA to court.

Remember all those probations that included “no television.”

Thing of the past, thanks to OU and Georgia.

Because just who did the NCAA think it was telling its member schools how often they could be on television and against whom?

It is still the only sport in which the NCAA doesn’t even crown a national champion at its top level, and yet the NCAA was still calling all the shots before the Sooners and Bulldogs became renegades.

The old rules produced the Game of the Century.

It was a great game, yes, but only the draconian NCAA could make anybody who wanted to watch college football that day have to watch OU and Nebraska. The old rules also made the 1974 Sooners the best team never seen by anybody but the ticketholders. OU was on probation and, thus, off the screen.

It is a tale of unintended consequences. The amazing thing is how long it took everybody to take advantage of the new rules.

ESPN was revolutionary when it started broadcasting marquee games on Thursday. Equally revolutionary, way back in 1984, was the thought that anybody anywhere would ever want to broadcast or sit down on their couch to watch Rice at Texas Saturday night. But those who do will get their chance by tuning into Fox Sports Net at 6 p.m.

OU doesn’t need tonight’s game, period.

The Sooners have little to gain in playing Tulsa and a ton to lose, but you have to respect and salute their willingness to take on the Golden Hurricane any day. For years and years Kelvin Sampson refused to play Tulsa. It’s nice to see Stoops run the other way.

Too bad, then, that an in-state showcase has to be marred by a Friday night kick that will leave crowds down at high school stadiums across the state. Of course, Tulsa absolutely loves this game.

The Hurricane might land a monumental upset, could move forward even in defeat and absolutely will be introduced to the nation, because other than The College of New Jersey at LaSalle, which I’m pretty sure isn’t on television, OU at Tulsa is the only game in the nation.

How about the irony?

OU doesn’t like it, wishes it weren’t the case and would prefer to play Saturday. Meanwhile, this is Tulsa’s deal, the Golden Hurricane’s chance to shine in front of millions. And you know who gave Tulsa its chance?

OU, all those years ago.

The Sooners and Bulldogs couldn’t have been more right way back when, even if 23 years later they made way for something wrong.

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com