Oklahoma Football: Sooners, Cowboys Square Off in Biggest Bedlam Game Ever

This past Saturday, Oklahoma finally broke through for its first true road game victory since a win in Lawrence last fall.

Oklahoma moved to 9-2 on the year and shares second place with Texas A&M in the Big 12 South at 5-2.

Oklahoma State came away with its own road win at Kansas over the weekend. The Cowboys improved to 10-1 and sit in the pole position of the South standings at 6-1.

That's not a misprint; the Cowboys really are alone in first place with only one regular season game remaining. The Bedlam game against the hated Sooners is the only obstacle left to prevent the program's first ever trip to the Big 12 Championship Game. Who'd a thunk it?

However, a Sooner victory on the road in Stillwater in the annual grudge match could bring about the dreaded three-way tie, much like the 2008 season. As you may recall, in this type of scenario, when all three teams have beaten each other, the Big 12 uses the BCS standings to decide the divisional representative in the championship.

In 2008, Texas first beat Oklahoma, then Texas Tech beat Texas and finally Oklahoma beat Texas Tech, leaving all three teams at 7-1 in the conference and 11-1 overall for the year.

The Sooners were chosen to represent the South in that game by virtue of a minuscule lead over Texas in the BCS standings, achieved in large part due to their overall superior strength of schedule.

Longhorn fans screamed foul. After all, the Burned Orange had beaten OU earlier in Dallas and were the obvious choice to play for the Big 12 Championship. They even hired planes towing banners and sent Mack Brown out on his annual whining-for-bowls tour.

Red Raider fans asked why their own South co-championship team was left out of the discussion for the Big 12 Championship when they were virtually ignored in the raging national debate. Tech was like a lonely tree falling in an empty forest. Nobody heard or cared.

In 2010, Texas A&M is this year's version of Texas Tech. They do not have a realistic shot at the South's title game spot despite beating the Sooners a few short weeks ago.

Technically speaking, they can grab a share of a tie in the South division for themselves with a regular season ending victory over arch-rival Texas, but we all know the big enchilada is the trip to the championship game itself. The best they can hope to finish the regular season is 9-3, and that, ladies and gentleman, is not going to cut it.

If Oklahoma were to go on the road into Stillwater and upset the favored Cowboys, both schools would finish the year at 6-2 in conference and 10-2 overall. With OSU losing so late in the season, this would all but guarantee that Oklahoma would finish as the BCS' higher-ranked team.

This sets up arguably the biggest Bedlam game ever for these in-state rivals.

A victory at home and the Cowboys could grab that BCS bowl game they were denied by Oklahoma last year in Norman.

Who knows—if things got really crazy, they still could end up in the BCS National Championship Game. This is a very long shot but not out of the realm of possibility. Seriously, nobody expected the Cowboys to contend for anything but the South's basement, so apparently this year anything is possible for the Pokes.

A Big 12 title might finally silence the critics of "He's the Man" Mike Gundy, though it will make living around OSU fans even more unbearable.

It would bring the validation T. Boone Pickens has desperately sought for his team over the years after untold millions of dollars in donations to bring the football facilities up to par. It would prove once and for all that the money was not just wasted on thousands of gallons of Rustoleum paint for the stadium.

On the other hand, an Oklahoma victory puts them in the Big 12 title game with a shot at yet another BCS game. This could salve the wounds of Sooner fans who have been baffled by this team all season. If they were to actually win the bowl game, of course.

Fans of the Team in Crimson and Cream have seen what this team is capable of and are often left wondering what could have been. After being ranked No. 1 in the initial BCS standings of the season, they currently hover in the mid-teens.

OU's season has been like the Clint Eastwood movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The good included games against FSU, TTech, Iowa State and Baylor.

The bad was Utah State and Cincinnati.

The ugly—well, no need to mention road games at Missouri and Texas A&M. Oops, my bad.

Can either team's defense stop the other offense? Will it be a fast break type of game with the last team to have the ball winning the game?

Maybe it will be a totally unexpected defensive slugfest that seems to occur quite frequently when everyone expects a shootout. Again, not likely but still possible.

Whatever does happen, this version of Bedlam could go down as the greatest in the history of the rivalry. The winner will have earned a trip to the Big 12 title game.