Big 12 Football: Oklahoma-Oklahoma State Should Replace the Lonestar Showdown

With Texas A&M leaving for the Southeastern Conference, there is the undeniable Big 12 television time left vacant on the calendar. In nearly every theoretical game that has been imagined to replace the third-oldest rivalry in college football the University of Texas constantly comes up.

I am not here to say that Texas should not be considered for that time slot, but if putting Texas in that time slot limits the possible scheduling opportunities, it shouldn't be done. Let’s be honest, as college football fans and spectators, Texas should not play Baylor or Kansas State.

I am here to propose a different solution that involves another major rivalry in the conference that is played near the end of the season: Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

In any ideal matchup it should be an in conference game and a heated rivalry that could fill the hole of Texas and A&M. The Bedlam game accomplishes that because those two schools have been playing for an extremely long time and are rivals. As it currently stands in the new-look Big 12, it is the second biggest rivalry on the schedule.  

However, there is a possible downside—it's in the state of Oklahoma. I am not trying to in any ways say that Oklahoma is bad, but it is a much smaller audience.  It would also not make that much sense to try to force the two teams to play in Jerry’s world—Arlington, Texas—either.

The only way that I could see that being overcome is by trying to promote the game much more heavily than in years past.

By hyping up the game it will probably attract more viewers outside of the state of Oklahoma and truly promote the game as one of the premier rivalries in the nation. Currently, it doesn't rank as high as other rivalries in the nation's collective conscience.

The Big 12 needs a major rivalry game during Thanksgiving because it is a great ratings and recruitment booster. Many people across the nation are glued to the television set watching football that day.

By having a game on Thanksgiving it can ensure better future television deals, but also keep the Big 12 relevant across the nation television-wise where the Big 12 and the Big East are the only AQ conferences without a championship game. 

Would I like Texas to play a team during Thanksgiving, because I am originally from the state of Texas? I would give the biased answer of yes. However, would moving the Bedlam game be a valid replacement and better than trying to force an intense rivalry between say Texas and TCU, who haven’t really played each other since the mid-90s. Yes.

Besides, if that does occur and OSU is as good as it is currently and OU doesn’t lose to Baylor and Tech, then that game would be the highest rated college football game during Thanksgiving.  

I think we can all agree that Bedlam would be better to watch than Baylor-TCU or Texas-Texas Tech.