The Big 12 has lucked into an almost ideal situation this year. As the only Power Five conference without a college football title game, the Big 12 usually has to sit around and twiddle its thumbs while schools in the other four major conferences elevate their resumes and make a last minute push for inclusion into the College Football Playoff. As the Big 12 schedules regular season games on championship weekend, it is incredibly fortunate that one such game features its two best schools in a de facto championship game that will stand shoulder to shoulder with the offerings of the Big Ten and so on.
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The game in question is the Bedlam encounter between No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 10 Oklahoma State in Norman. Ironically the Big 12 has realized that the lack of a true championship game can only hurt the conference regarding playoff inclusion, so from next year onward the league will go back to having a title game on the final weekend of the season. That would mean that if everything were to repeat next year then the Bedlam game would be taking place twice in consecutive weeks to end the year. This is because the Big 12 will not be going to a divisional format like all other conferences because (among other reasons) of a competitive imbalance between the schools in the north and the south of the geographical area.
This is one of those hype videos produced by the conference so you know that as these things go it will be fairly neutral in its bias. The favorite in this one is the Sooners, and their quarterback Baker Mayfield may still be within reach of the Heisman Trophy with a monster performance here, but the most interesting story by far is the Cowboys. Oklahoma State is 9-2, but their first loss of the season was the game against Central Michigan that was only lost due to an extreme bout of refereeing incompetence. CMU was given an extra untimed down that should never have occurred and to this day the Oklahoma State camp is campaigning to get the loss removed when the committee evaluates the Cowboys.
All the ingredients are there for this to be one of the best Bedlam games in recent memory.
Check out more videos like this on the Big 12 Digital Network YouTube Channel
