Joel Klatt calls for return of Bedlam, annual matchup between Oklahoma, Oklahoma State

It’s been one season without the Bedlam rivalry between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, but that’s already too many for Joel Klatt. The FOX Sports analyst called on his podcast for the game to return on an annual basis.

Sooners and Cowboys fans alike are sure to agree with him, as the game was a staple in Oklahoma for more than a century. Klatt argued that not playing it is not only a disservice to those fans, but college football as a whole.

“You talk about no love lost in particular after the conference realignment, I want Bedlam,” he said. “I want Bedlam every year. Nothing is scheduled right now. In December, Joe Castiglione, the athletic director at Oklahoma, said it wouldn’t be until well into the 2030s that we’re gonna get this matchup. We should be better than that in college football. Don’t we want to see all of these games? These games are a part of the fabric of the sport.”

Bedlam is just the latest example of an annual rivalry that has been lost to conference realignment. Oklahoma also lost Nebraska as a rival when the Cornhuskers left the Big 12 for the Big Ten ahead of 2011. The schools have met twice since then in 2021 and 2022.

One would imagine that OU and OSU will play each other again eventually too, but exactly when and whether that’s on a year-to-year basis rather than a home-and-home series is unclear. As Klatt mentined, Sooners AD Joe Castiglione already said the rivalry will likely not return for another decade.

Although the football version of Bedlam is gone for now, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State played against each other in a handful of other sports this past season. That includes men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball.

Cowboys football coach Mike Gundy suggested that the rivals play each other in an annual spring game. However, the NCAA later denied Colorado and Syracuse the opportunity to do the same thing after coaches Deion Sanders and Fran Brown agreed to it.

Oklahoma owns a 91-20-7 all-time advantage in the Bedlam series. However, it was OSU who won the most recent meeting in the 2023 season by a score of 27-24 in Stillwater. That was just one of the many classic games played between these two rivals and hopefully we can get more sooner rather than later.