Could Bedlam become a spring showcase?
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy suggested reviving the Cowboys’ in-state rivalry against the Oklahoma Sooners with a spring edition when he met with reporters Tuesday before the start of his team’s spring practice.
Gundy pitched playing a game in Stillwater, Okla., one weekend followed by a game in Norman the next weekend and charging $25 for tickets that both schools could put toward their NIL budgets.
If Oklahoma didn’t want to play two games, Gundy said, they could play one game each spring, rotate the host and split the proceeds.
“We get tired of practicing against each other. It’s not going to be a live game because, well, I don’t know what (Oklahoma coach Brent) Venables would say, but I would be concerned with making it live just because of injury,” Gundy said. “But nobody really has live scrimmages anymore, so you make it a full thud, like we’re doing, and practice against them, just like they do in the NFL. We’re moving towards the NFL. Why not do that?”
The two in-state rivals met 118 times from 1904 until 2023 but paused the rivalry after Oklahoma left the Big 12 to begin playing in the SEC last season. There are no plans to play a regular-season game in the future.
Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg has cited “logistical issues” as the reason for the end of the rivalry after Oklahoma’s exit.
The two programs met in basketball on Dec. 14, an 80-65 Oklahoma victory.
“I’ve had really good conversations with Chad about (Bedlam) and we’re going to play each other in a variety of sports going forward,” Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione told Sports Illustrated in 2023. “We don’t have those dates yet on our schedule, but we’ve been talking about those. And I think in time that we’ll find an opportunity to work dates (for football) that are mutually agreeable to both institutions that might be out there a ways. But I think in the end, that’ll end up happening.”
Gundy’s idea could move up that timeline.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders has reignited a long-discussed idea by publicly proposing the Buffaloes host a game this spring. After his comments last Monday, Syracuse coach Fran Brown volunteered on social media and the two sides have since submitted paperwork to the NCAA in hopes of being exempt from a bylaw that prevents intercollegiate games during the spring.
The NCAA Division I FBS Oversight Committee meets on April 10 and could grant the exemption.
Several major programs like Texas, USC and Nebraska have already announced plans to cancel their spring games, but Sanders promoted the idea of making the tradition bigger instead.
One concern from coaches is spring games offer a showcase to opposing coaching staffs who could begin poaching players when the spring transfer portal window opens on April 16.
Sanders didn’t buy that explanation, and he’s not alone.
“Listen, whether you have a spring game or not, it’s going to be tampering,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said earlier this month. “Canceling the spring game ain’t gonna stop tampering. We’re going to need a lot more help than that to stop tampering. And hopefully at some point that’ll happen.”
Oklahoma plans to host a “Crimson Combine” on April 12 with players doing combine-style drills and practice instead of a traditional spring game.
American Football Coaches Association president Craig Bohl told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the days of spring scrimmages between teams could be coming.
“If a couple programs choose to explore this, I think it’s going to be something that could have some real legs to it,” he said.
Bohl said there is “quite a bit of appetite” to holding games between teams as soon as this spring.
(Photo: Brian Bahr / Getty Images)
