Dysfunctional Bedlam Matchup Is a Microcosm of the Big 12's Problems
On one side, there's the defending conference champion with an unblemished conference record but scars from out-of-conference losses to Houston and Ohio State.
On the other, there's the "little brother" with one conference loss, a solid out-of-conference win over Pitt and a terrible "loss" to Central Michigan in a game that was decided on a final play that should never have been allowed to happen.
Ah, Bedlam—the battle between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State that is filled with "what-ifs" and will be overshadowed by conference championship games that are labeled as such.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Or, simply, the Big 12 in a nutshell.
What better way to close out a tumultuous season that included conference expansion that never happened and a loss that shouldn't have been, than for a rivalry called "Bedlam" to serve as the de-facto title game?
"It really is kind of hilarious that this Oklahoma team that disappointed so badly in nonconference will be heavily favored to go undefeated in Big 12 play," said Sports On Earth's David Ubben, who's covered the conference for several years.
"Same with Oklahoma State. Everybody wrote off both of these teams early in the season. For all of the controversy surrounding the Cowboys' 'loss' to Central Michigan, nobody thought it was going to matter because you're talking about a team that came down to a Hail Mary against an average MAC team."
Since the early struggles, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield has tossed 28 touchdown passes over the last two months, wide receiver Dede Westbrook has all 15 of his touchdown catches and running backs Samaje Perine (leg injury) and Joe Mixon (suspension) have navigated through some turbulent times to help lead the Sooners to eight straight wins.
Across the state, Oklahoma State has followed a similar path.
Winners of seven straight following a loss to Baylor on Sept. 24, the Cowboys have one of the nation's most reliable quarterbacks in Mason Rudolph (25 touchdowns, four interceptions), a dynamic deep threat in James Washington (1,159 yards, nine touchdowns) and Justice Hill is just 57 yards away from breaking the 1,000-yard mark.
Yet the success of these two teams gets overshadowed by the playoff and a big-market team such as USC—which has no shot at the playoff—getting hot down the stretch.
"It's branding," said Fox Sports play-by-play broadcaster Tim Brando, who will call Bedlam on Saturday afternoon in Norman. "All you have to do is look at the new AP poll as an example. Both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State had a week off; Oklahoma didn't move, Oklahoma State moved down a spot. USC is No. 10. Three-loss USC is No. 10. Tell me that's not branding."
If mass chaos ensues, Oklahoma could get into the College Football Playoff with a win Saturday. The one massive brick wall in its way is the home loss to Ohio State that will be chilling in the living room watching the action unfold.
For Oklahoma State, it's a bit more complicated since it doesn't have the national power of its in-state "big brother." It has the added wrinkle of a loss that shouldn't be complicating matters for the committee.
"Oklahoma State's record is 9-2," playoff chairman and Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt said. "However, the selection committee is aware of what transpired in the Oklahoma State-Central Michigan football game."
Being aware isn't the same as factoring it into the decision-making process, which is par for the course for the consistently indecisive Big 12.
"It's been a weird year," Ubben said. "Expansion sort of hung over the conference for the first month of the season, especially with Houston being as successful as it was during that time. The Big 12 probably would have appreciated Houston having a slide in September rather than October and November."
The Big 12 only has itself to blame for taking the focus early in the season off the field.
"You can poke holes in a lot of what the Big 12 did this year—the charade of expansion that cast a long shadow on the first half of the season. I've been openly critical of that," Brando said. "That was brought on by the presidents, not really the commissioner. You know, [Oklahoma president] David Boren and his colleagues decided to do. It was really unfortunate."
Yet, here the Big 12 is, with Bedlam serving as the conference's championship game for the second straight season and fourth in six seasons, while most of the national focus is directed toward conference title games in the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Pac-12.
"The league, more than expanding, needed to have a title game," Brando said. "That's what cost TCU and Baylor two years ago."
Yet it's the title game itself that further encapsulates the dysfunction that exists within the 10-team Big 12.
Deregulation of title-game rules allow the conference to restart its championship from 2017 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. But one stipulation in the agreement announced in January is that a conference with fewer than 12 teams must play a round-robin schedule in order to hold a title game.
As a result, the current nine-game conference schedule that pits every team against each other every year will remain intact, and a rematch in the conference championship game will be unavoidable.
"The bigger issue is that you can protect yourself from this," Ubben said. "Even if you move Bedlam to earlier in the year knowing that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are two of the better programs in the league, you can't predict how it's going to play out. You can jimmy the schedule all you want, but you don't know how the schedule is going to play out. Kansas can't play everybody on the final week of the season."
Instead, we're getting Bedlam—the Big 12 Championship Game that isn't for the fourth time in six years. This one's between a team that dominated the league but tanked outside of it and another that lost a game it shouldn't have on a play that should never have happened.
It's the most Big 12 conclusion to the season possible.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of CFBStats unless otherwise noted.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter: @BarrettSallee.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
