Here at Dank News, I’ve tried lambasting the SEC for their scheduling cowardice. They have shown a propensity to simply lean into the notion they schedule soft, informing their schools to cancel games against non-conference opponents, relying on an inflated sense of conference superiority in the college football landscape.
We in Big Ten country know this game all too well, but there has been a greater victim of the SEC’s scheduling games that has gone relatively silent until recently. With the move of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, traditional rivalries have been put at risk, with decades of bouts between schools in the old Big Eight & Big XII footprint seemingly morphed or erased altogether.
Now, the SEC has gone a step further, showing the depths of their depravity and disrespect for the things that make college football great. According to the Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, the SEC will discontinue the Bedlam rivalry between Oklahoma & Oklahoma State when the Sooners move to the SEC. Below is the tweet with further details:
https://twitter.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1572209209382346752?s=20&t=2BM3FsqQYDVO73ZvtDOcIQ
The SEC is truly an embarrassment and a cruel actor in the sport of College Football. How dare they decide to cancel yet another storied rivalry. This adds to their body count after already ending the Border War (Kansas-Missouri, the Lone Star Showdown (Texas-Texas A&M), the Battle of the Brazos (Texas A&M-Baylor), the Victory Bell (Nebraska-Missouri), and now other Big XII rivalries that have come up like Texas against Jayhawk fullbacks.
Killing Bedlam is the height of the SEC’s crimes, destroying a rivalry that dates back to 1904 across 116 games. The game between the Cowboys and Sooners has been a staple of the last weekends of college football before championship week, highlighting bitterness between the in-state rivals that has culminated in epic clashes in 2021, 2018, 2017, 2014, 2012, and 2010.
http://gty.im/1243314221
Big Ten fans should be able to sympathize greatly with the predicament, especially on the side of the Cowpokes. Imagine Michigan State having Michigan ripped away, having those late October clashes erased due to greed and a conference’s superiority complex. Notre Dame already has done a bevy of this type of action to all of our schools, opting for a loose agreement with the lowly ACC rather than uphold rivalries with the Spartans and Wolverines. These choices are ugly, they’re despicable, and they ruin one of the greatest draws the sport of college football has left.
Without rivalry in college football, the entire sport turns into a glorified semi-pro farm system for the NFL not dissimilar to a G-League or Triple-A. That’s not why we came to and stay with this sport we love. We didn’t sign up for having our hearts ripped out and our blood pumping just to have Greg Sankey screw over one of the sport’s top ten rivalries.
http://gty.im/1361626854
Seriously, this guy’s the worst.
I’ll leave you with further info from McMurphy’s piece to let the reality sit in for all of us. This is the future the SEC has chosen for our sport, and we should never forget or forgive them for it.
“It’s very difficult to predict the future of college athletics right now,” Weiberg said. “Would we have interest? Yes, when the logistics work out, but that appears to be well into the future.”
“It is disappointing (the series is ending). This is a part of the history of this state, is Bedlam. To think about that coming to an end or some lengthy pause, up until a year ago was almost unfathomable.”
With the Bedlam Series ending, it becomes the latest longtime rivalry impacted by conference realignment. Other impacted games include Oklahoma-Nebraska, Texas-Texas A&M, Missouri-Kansas, Pitt-West Virginia, Nebraska-Missouri, Arkansas-Texas and Nebraska-Kansas.
Castiglione said he has had productive conversations with Weiberg, and both ADs are confident the schools will continue playing the Bedlam Series in all other sports except football.
But it’s the end of the Bedlam on the gridiron that will have the greatest impact on both schools.
“(Bedlam ending) is one of the consequences of OU’s decision (to join the SEC),” Weiberg said. “It’s disappointing for the people of the state of Oklahoma.”
