ARLINGTON, Texas. — Mike Gundy wasn’t shy about expressing his feelings regaurding the future of the Bedlam rivalry on Wednesday.
With Oklahoma departing the Big 12 for the SEC in 2024, the Oklahoma State coach was asked plenty of times about Bedlam. Gundy was blunt about the potential of the in-state rivalry continuing once the Sooners leave the conference.
“The Bedlam game is over because Oklahoma chose to leave the Big 12, period,” Gundy said during Big 12 Media Days. “It's (got) nothing to do with Oklahoma State. Do I like that? No. Do I like that conferences have broken up in the past? No, I don't. But I also know that we have to control what we can control, which is conference realignment is there. It's probably still going on. Wherever we all end up and whatever schedule they give us to play, we all play it and do the best we can.”
It was yet more evidence that Bedlam continuing is unlikely.
The future of the rivalry, which has been played 109 times since 1914, was immediately called into question after Oklahoma and Texas voted in 2021 to join the SEC by no later than 2025. Earlier this year, Oklahoma, Texas and the Big 12 announced an agreement for the two teams to exit on July 1, 2024.
The only feasible path to keeping the rivalry alive would be for the two teams to schedule each other as non-conference opponents, but that also brings complications. Each Big 12 team plays nine conference games every year — SEC teams will play eight in 2024, though it could change after next season — and both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have all or most of their non-conference games already scheduled out into the 2030s.
Regardless, Gundy said he wasn’t interested in scheduling the Sooners as a non-conference opponent once they join the SEC.
“We have nine conference games scheduled, and then we have — I think through 15 years, we're scheduled all the way up, and we're full for the most part, and we have Power Five teams (scheduled),” Gundy said. “I'm going to go back to what I said earlier. Oklahoma State is not going to change what we do because Oklahoma chose to go to the SEC. They need to change what they do because they're the ones that made their mind up to go to the SEC.”
“So with all the talk from administration and people saying that Oklahoma State needs to do this and that, all Oklahoma had to do was not go to the SEC. So it is what it is. We can cut right to the chase. For me, I want to listen to the board. I'll listen to (OSU president Kayse Shrum). I'll listen to (OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg). If that's something they want to do, I'm good. But I don't think it's going to happen based on the way the scheduling is. Everybody needs to realize, it didn't have to happen if (OU) didn't change leagues.”
Gundy did express disappointment that the rivalry could end after the 2023 season, but again said that the decision to end it was ultimately made by Oklahoma.
“It’s a sad subject when we end Bedlam (after) 110 years. It’s history,” Gundy said. “But it is what it is.”
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are scheduled to play on Nov. 4 in Stillwater for the last time as conference opponents. OU coach Brent Venables will take the stage at Big 12 Media Days at 11:50 a.m. CT on Thursday.
