Former Oklahoma HC Bob Stoops Speaks on End of Bedlam; 'We're Going to Be Fine'

Stoops expressed a lack of concern in the loss of Bedlam on the Oklahoma side of things, citing the number of marquee games OU will have in the SEC.

When Oklahoma officially moves to the SEC, the annual in-state Bedlam rivalry with Oklahoma State will be no more.

That’s according to both OU athletic director Joe Castiglione as well as OSU AD Chad Weiberg, who told The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy as such this week with both sides largely assigning the blame to the opposite university.

On Tuesday evening, Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy let his voice be heard, calling Oklahoma’s comments on the situation “comical” and “childish” among other things in his scathing remarks.

Now, former Sooners head coach Bob Stoops has decided to chime in on Big 12 Today on SiriusXM radio - and it’s safe to say Stoops is unconcerned with the rivalry going by the wayside.

“We’re (Oklahoma) going to be fine,” Stoops said. “You think we’re going to struggle filling the stadium with the teams we’re going to have coming in? So, there’s a whole bunch of things if we want to play tit-for-tat that we could say. But, I’m not going to be the one to say them. So, let people there working at the university do it if they feel the need to. But, bottom line is, we’re going to be in a strong position and it’s going to be exciting filling our stadium and sky suites with the teams we’re going to have coming in.”

As Stoops notes, while Oklahoma will lose the annual Bedlam game with Oklahoma State, the Sooners are gaining several high-profile games per year by making the move to the SEC.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, will lose certainly two of their marquee games they can count on in a given season with the Sooners and Texas leaving the league and being replaced by Houston, Cincinnati, BYU and UCF.

Time will tell if the two in-state rivals can work out their differences to keep the game alive in the years ahead, but for now the two sides look to be very far apart in coming to a resolution to keep the game a yearly event on the schedule.

As for this year, the Sooners and Cowboys are set to meet on Saturday, Nov. 19 in Norman.