Joel Klatt calls for Bedlam to be played every year

USA Today

22-05-2025

Joel Klatt calls for Bedlam to be played every year
When the Oklahoma Sooners departed the Big 12 Conference in favor of the Southeastern Conference last summer, their annual "Bedlam" rivalry game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys was lost. The Pokes remained in the Big 12, while OU went to the SEC along with the Texas Longhorns.
After years of a great in-state college football rivalry being played annually, the matchup stopped after the 2023 season. With the two teams in different leagues, there was little interest (especially from OSU's side) about continuing to play the game. As it stands currently, there are no future Bedlam games on the books.
FOX Sports' lead college football color commentator, Joel Klatt, called for that to change. On his show, "The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast", he discussed multiple rivalries in the sport that need to be played every single year. Oklahoma-Oklahoma State wasn't the only rivalry he wanted to see annually. Klatt also wanted to see games like Notre Dame-USC, Kansas-Missouri, Florida-Miami, and Colorado-Nebraska happen each season, calling them "part of the fabric of this sport."
But there was no game he wanted to see more than Bedlam. He pointed out that the Cowboys were less than thrilled about the Sooners leaving them high and dry in their old conference.
'You talk about no love lost in particular after the conference realignment, I want Bedlam. I want Bedlam every year," Klatt said. "Nothing is scheduled right now. In December, Joe Castiglione, the athletic director at Oklahoma, said it wouldn't be until well into the 2030s that we're gonna get this matchup.'
Bedlam began in 1904 and has been played 118 times since then. Oklahoma has dominated the series and holds a 91-20-7 all-time series lead. In the last 25 matchups, the Sooners are 19-6, including an eight-year win streak from 2003 to 2010, and a six-year win streak from 2015 to 2020.
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy recently proposed a spring game series between the two programs, but that wouldn't even be close to the same thing as a true game in the fall.
Conference realignment took Bedlam away from us. As a result, the Sooners don't want to add another difficult game to their schedule in the most daunting league in the sport. OU will be trying to make the College Football Playoff and they always get OSU's best shot when the teams face off. That could come back to haunt Oklahoma, as a loss would be very costly. The Cowboys don't want to have to play a team each season that typically gets the better of them, and they also have a shot to make the CFP now in the expanded playoff era. A loss to OU could be the difference between being in or out.
However, there is hope. SEC teams like Georgia, Florida and South Carolina play an out-of-conference rival every season. The Bulldogs have the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The Gators have the Florida State Seminoles. The Gamecocks have the Clemson Tigers. All three are also in-state rivalries.
The Bedlam Series is one of college football's most exciting rivalry contests. Bringing it back would be a great thing for the sport. Although it may never happen, there's still hope that the Sooner State rivals can put down their swords long enough to get games on the schedule down the road. Then, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State can pick the swords back up and start fighting again, except that these fights would happen on the football field where they belong.
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