Oklahoma Sooners Football

The Bedlam series between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will come to an end in 2025.

Athletic directors Chad Weiberg of Oklahoma State and Joe Castiglione of Oklahoma told Brett McMurphy of The Action Network there are no plans to continue the rivalry when the Sooners leave the Big 12 for the SEC.

"It (playing Oklahoma) presents logistical issues under our current (scheduling) structure," Weiberg said. "We don’t have any openings to play them. We’re full. Unless there are significant undertakings to make the game happen, it can’t happen."

According to Castiglione, Oklahoma State "has shown no interest to schedule any future games in football" and his program is "moving on" to other potential opponents.

Conference realignment has upended several rivalry games that took place annually across college football. Oklahoma and Nebraska went 11 years between games from 2010 to 2021 after the Cornhuskers left the Big 12 for the Big Ten. The two teams did reunite for a home-and-home series in 2021 and 2022.

The Backyard Brawl between West Virginia and Pittsburgh was on ice for 11 years after the Mountaineers left the Big East for the Big 12. They played their first game against each other since 2011 on Sept. 1, with Pitt getting a 38-31 win.

The Lone Star Showdown featuring Texas and Texas A&M hasn't been played since 2011, though it will likely make a comeback when the Longhorns join their in-state rivals in the SEC in 2025.

Per McMurphy, the biggest reason Bedlam won't continue is because the schools share similar scheduling philosophies, with Oklahoma State expected to maintain a nine-game Big 12 schedule and the SEC expected to implement a nine-game conference schedule when Oklahoma and Texas join.

The board of regents at Oklahoma and Texas unanimously voted to accept an invitation to the SEC in July 2021. The move is expected to happen on July 1, 2025, after the Big 12's current media rights deal expires.

The Sooners and Cowboys have a rivalry that dates back to 1900 if you include track and field. Their football series began in 1904 with a total of 116 games played. The only years they haven't met on the gridiron were 1905 and 1909.

Oklahoma has dominated Bedlam on the football field. The Sooners have a 90-19-7 edge in the series, but Oklahoma State won last year's game 37-33. This year's matchup will be played on Nov. 19 at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman.

Oklahoma will no longer play Georgia in football in 2023 and 2031 with the team set to join the SEC, per ESPN's Pete Thamel.

The Sooners will instead host SMU in 2023, with the return game scheduled for 2027, per Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic.

OU's planned game against Tennessee in 2024 will also be canceled.

Both UGA and UT were previously scheduled as highly anticipated nonconference games, but these opponents will now become regularly part of its conference schedule.

Oklahoma and Texas were voted into the SEC in 2021 and are expected to join the conference in 2025.

In both cases, one of the games would have been played before Oklahoma joins the SEC, but the return game would take place after 2025.

Oklahoma initially scheduled its series against Tennessee in 2017, planning games in 2020 and 2024. The 2020 version ended up being canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the SEC moving to a conference-only schedule that year.

The teams planned to reschedule, but it will now come too late.

Oklahoma and Georgia announced their home-and-home series in 2019, with the 2023 version likely to become one of the bigger nonconference matchups in the country. Unfortunately, the return game would be well into the Sooners' time in the SEC and that was enough to cancel the series.

The Sooners also have future matchups against Alabama and LSU that will likely need to be adjusted.

The squad still has several quality nonconference games on its slate, with matchups against Michigan scheduled for 2025 and 2026 and a future home-and-home against Clemson.

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy didn't have much to say about his brother, Cale, in the wake of his resignation from the University of Oklahoma earlier this week for using what he described as a "shameful and hurtful" word during a position meeting.

Speaking to reporters Saturday, Mike joked the situation "gave me enough information for a good chapter in my book whenever I retire."

Specific details about the word Cale used have not been made public. He said in his resignation statement on Twitter that he "read aloud the words" written on a player's iPad screen and one of them he "should never—under any circumstance—have uttered" the word that was displayed.

Sooners head coach Brent Venables said in a statement that he accepted Cale's resignation for reading aloud "not once but multiple times, a racially charged word that is objectionable to everyone, and does not reflect the attitude and values of our university or our football program."

When Venables took over as head coach in December following Lincoln Riley's surprise move to USC, Gundy was named wide receivers coach.

Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon, who played for the Sooners from 2014 to 2016, issued a statement of support for Gundy on Twitter:

Mike was asked on Saturday about the possibility of adding his brother to Oklahoma State's coaching staff.

"We hadn't even talked about that," Mike said. "He's got several other options right now that he's looking at. I haven't talked to him about that."

Cale has spent most of his life at the University of Oklahoma. He played quarterback for the Sooners from 1990 to 1993 and remained with the program as a graduate assistant in 1994.

After spending four seasons as an assistant coach at UAB, Cale returned to his alma mater in 1999 when Bob Stoops hired him as running backs coach. He has also coached wide receivers and was the team's recruiting coordinator from 2015 to 2021.

Mike is entering his 18th season as Oklahoma State head coach. The 55-year-old began his coaching career with the Cowboys in 1990 as wide receivers coach on head coach Pat Jones' staff.

Before entering the coaching ranks, Mike played quarterback at Oklahoma State from 1986 to 1989.

Oklahoma wide receivers coach Cale Gundy announced his resignation after reading a "shameful and hurtful" word displayed on a player's iPad during a team meeting last week.

Gundy, who had served as an assistant coach at his alma mater since 1999, released a statement detailing the incident late Sunday night:

"It's with sadness that I accept Coach Gundy's resignation. He's dedicated more than half his life to Oklahoma Football and has served our program and university well," coach Brent Venables said in a statement. "We're thankful for that commitment. We also acknowledge that in stepping aside he's placed the program and the welfare of our student-athletes first. In coaching and in life, we're all accountable for our actions and the resulting outcomes."

Venables said in a subsequent statement on Monday that Gundy read a "racially charged word that is objectionable to everyone" out loud multiple times:

Venables announced L'Damian Washington will replace Gundy as wide receivers coach on an interim basis.

According to the statement released by Gundy, he picked up the player's iPad after noticing he was distracted in the film session and then read a message aloud to the room. The message included an undisclosed word, which he read verbatim.

Gundy said he "did not even realize" what he was reading until the words came out of his mouth.

Joe Mixon, who played under Gundy during his time at Oklahoma, released a lengthy statement defending the coach early Monday morning. The now-Cincinnati Bengals running back said Gundy never displayed any form of racism during his time in Norman.

“I know racists,” Mixon said in the statement. “I have witnessed both obvious and discreet forms of racism and have known and detested even more actual racist. Coach Gundy is the farthest thing from this type of person. I spent every day for the 1,000 days I was in Norman with him. And I never saw anything that would lead anyone to believe this or think this."

Gabe Ikard of SiriusXM reported speaking to multiple Oklahoma players who said a "vast majority" of the team wanted Gundy to stay on. However, in the aftermath, Gundy felt it was best for him to walk away from the program.

USC commit Malachi Nelson, a 5-star quarterback in the 2023 recruiting class, is reportedly going to visit Texas A&M over the weekend.

ESPN's Paolo Uggetti reported Friday that Nelson, who previously flipped his commitment from Oklahoma to USC after head coach Lincoln Riley moved from the Sooners to Trojans, informed Riley of his decision to visit the Aggies.

Nelson is the No. 2 overall prospect in next year's class based on 247Sports' composite rankings behind only fellow quarterback Arch Manning, who committed to Texas.

An interesting aspect of the signal-caller considering another school is the fact he's already agreed to a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal related to his choice of the Trojans.

Jeremy Crabtree of On3 reported Nelson reached an agreement to promote SLAB, a Texas-style barbecue restaurant in Los Angeles, and host a few USC tailgating events during the 2022 season before officially becoming a college player next year.

It's another unique situation as teams, players and companies continue to learn how to navigate the NIL era of college sports.

For his part, the coveted quarterback prospect told Crabtree he's trying to make smart decisions about how to handle those offers based on what he witnessed during the first year of implementation last season.

"You want to put yourself in the right position to not look like you're just doing it for the money," Nelson said. "Last year there were some college guys that had a bad game and then they had to wake up the next morning and post this endorsement deal. It doesn't look very good. So, my team has put me in a good position to avoid that from happening."

Meanwhile, the Los Alamitos High School standout is one of two 5-star prospects committed to the Trojans for 2023 alongside wide receiver Zachariah Branch. USC ranks 13th in the early recruiting ranking for next year, per 247Sports.

Texas A&M is a distant 60th at this stage of the 2023 process, but the Aggies are coming off the No. 1-ranked class in 2022.

Getting Nelson to flip would be another massive recruiting victory for head coach Jimbo Fisher and his staff, and it could spark another surge toward the top of the rankings for A&M.

For now, however, the quarterback remains committed to Riley and the Trojans.

USC head coach Lincoln Riley denied the speculation that he left Oklahoma because he was scared of the move to the SEC.

"I heard the whole SEC narrative," Riley told Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. "To me, the SEC has nothing to do with it. It's all about the program that you're at and the position you think you can get to."

Oklahoma and Texas announced ahead of the 2021 season that they would leave for the SEC starting in 2025. In February, Riley stunned the college football world by leaving Oklahoma—where he won four Big 12 titles in five years—for USC and the Pac-12.

It represents an easier path during the conference season, but Riley simply saw the chance at a fresh start.

"I'm 38. I want to experience different things," Riley said. "I want to win. This opportunity is so good, how can you not do it?"

A reported 10-year, $110 million contract likely helped make the decision, but Riley also said he enjoyed watching USC games when he was younger.

"It felt different when you watched it," the coach said. "The energy behind it was different."

Perhaps most importantly, Riley seemed to indicate that he couldn't win a championship with Oklahoma.

The Sooners have reached the College Football Playoffs four times—three with Riley as head coach and once when he was an offensive coordinator under Bob Stoops—and they lost in the semifinals each time. Only once was the final margin within single digits.

"I've walked into four playoffs, and I've never had better than maybe the third-best roster [of the four teams]," Riley said. "Every other year, we were four of four. We had really good rosters, but they weren't the same. … I can't imagine that there could be a setting that we could build a better roster than we can here."

USC is coming off a 4-8 season under Clay Helton and interim coach Donte Williams, but Riley has rebuilt the roster using the transfer portal and could turn the team into a contender in 2022.

Don't worry, Oklahoma fans.

It may seem like former head coach Lincoln Riley has convinced plenty of players to join him in departing the Sooners for USC, but that's not actually the case according to him. Instead, he has simply taken the players from the transfer portal.

"We didn't take players from Oklahoma," he said during an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. "We took players from the transfer portal."

He continued, saying, "Once a player gets into a portal where they are open to any school in the country, we would be crazy not to take a look at that and try to help our football team."

Many Oklahoma fans won't necessarily lend Riley the benefit of the doubt when it comes to those comments considering he was under contract with the Sooners when he decided to leave for the Trojans.

Still, it should be noted he landed 13 players from the portal this offseason, 10 of whom did not come from Oklahoma. USC was just 4-8 last season and nowhere near ready to compete for a Pac-12 title, so Riley has wasted little time dramatically altering the roster as he looks to return the powerhouse back to its former glory.

That three of those transfers were high-profile players from Oklahoma added to the narrative Riley was taking players from the Sooners.

Quarterback Caleb Williams, wide receiver Mario Williams and cornerback Latrell McCutchin joined him with Williams potentially in position to compete for the Heisman Trophy during his first season in the Pac-12.

Williams took over the starting quarterback job from Spencer Rattler—who transferred to South Carolina this offseason—and finished the 2021 campaign by completing 64.5 percent of his passes for 1,912 yards, 21 touchdowns and four interceptions to go with 442 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.

Unfortunately for Oklahoma, he will now build on those numbers for the same coach but a different school.