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An OU-Texas title game possibility makes the Oct game slightly less important
The Oklahoman
July 28, 2019
Berry Tramel

Sooners and Longhorns invaded the Dallas Metroplex, put on the pads, walked onto the field of an iconic stadium doused in crimson and burnt orange, and entered an alternate universe.

They were in Arlington, not Dallas. In JerryWorld, not the Cotton Bowl. In the shadow of Six Flags, not the State Fair of Texas. In December, not October.

Strange. Very strange.

“Did feel a little weird,” Lincoln Riley said. “The game felt different, the atmosphere, the vibe, everything around it was a little different.”

That’s the opposite of OU-Texas in October. That game FEELS the same every year. No matter the records. No matter the rankings. No matter the coaches. No matter the quarterbacks. The Red River Rivalry is unassailable. The same yesterday, today and forever.

But now comes a fraternal twin. OU-Texas in December, in the Big 12 Championship Game. We had it last season. We’re projected to have it this season, with the Sooners picked first and the Longhorns second. And the championship game was different.

“It wasn’t so much OU-Texas,” Riley said. “We were both playing for a championship. We were playing for a playoff berth, too. Kyler (Murray) was probably playing for a Heisman Trophy. There was a lot of different … it is weird to say, but a lot of bigger storylines than the fact that it was OU-Texas.”

All parties are quick to say a rematch didn’t detract from the October classic.

OU nose guard Neville Gallimore: “It’s a game you’re playing for pride, playing for the Golden Hat. We know how we feel about them. We know how they feel about us.”

Sooner receiver CeeDee Lamb: “It was a fight. It's like, man, it was a blow-for-blow two times in one year. I tip my hat off to them guys. They come out every year with their best foot forward and they fight. And so do we.”

But still. The truth of the 2018 OU-Texas game in the Cotton Bowl was that it was not even the biggest OU-Texas game of the season. The Sooners lost in Dallas (a 48-45 thriller) yet still won the Big 12 (a 39-27 thriller) and made the national semifinal Orange Bowl.

The Red River game remains glorious. But its impact has lessened, just a tad. Even to this extent. In my annual rankings of every upcoming Big 12 game, from most important to least important, I don’t have OU-Texas No. 1. Iowa State-Texas gets that slot.

I know, that sounds counter-intuitive. But remember what we just talked about. OU-Texas last October did NOT determine a spot in the conference title game. When the Big 12 had divisions, OU-Texas usually was a division title game. When the Big 12 had no championship game, OU-Texas could be a title elimination affair.

But now, OU-Texas can be like the insufferable title to the CBS pregame show before the NCAA basketball finals – Prelude to a Championship.

Meanwhile, other games could hold greater consequences. Iowa State-Texas, for instance. The ‘Horns are picked second, the Cyclones third. If the preseason Big 12 poll holds form, ISU-Texas will determine a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game. Iowa State making the Big 12 title game, at Texas’ expense or otherwise, would be a historic achievement for the Cyclones and a great thing for the conference, in terms of parity.

So I put Iowa State-Texas No. 1. OU-Texas is No. 2, because even a prelude to a championship is a big deal when it’s an ancient holy war.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby made the case that the October game is bigger now than ever before.

“I think it can't do anything but enhance the rivalry, although it's fair to argue that that rivalry couldn't be enhanced any more than it already is,” Bowlsby said. “It's pretty highly anticipated. I think this year's game with OU and Texas picked one and two in the league probably has more anticipation to it than what we may have had before, and of course that is multiplied by the fact that they played in the championship game last year.”

It’s certainly possible that the “weirdness” of December, playing a high-stakes game but in a more sterile environment than the pandemonium of the State Fair, will make OU-Texas fans appreciate the October game even more. Will help fans realize what they have.

OU-Texas is a game that inflames passion whether it’s a battle of unbeatens or a repeat of 1997, when the Sooners entered 2-3 and the Longhorns 2-2, having beaten only Rutgers and Rice.

But in 2019, with the addition of a fraternal twin, OU-Texas stakes have dipped ever so slightly.

Berry Tramel

You know how it goes, CD.  You've got UGA-UF and the WLOCP.

Before the downsized Big 12 created a CCG, OU-Texas was for--among other things--a year's worth of bragging rights.  If your team won, it was sweet to savor the victory for 12 months.  If your team lost, that loss stung for 12 months.  And it had been that way since 1929.

Now there is the possibility that fans can only savor the win, or suffer from the loss, for 2 months.

After OU lost to Texas in the RRS last year, most OU fans believed that the Sooners still had a great shot at making the CCG.  But we especially wanted to meet Texas there.  I imagine that, had it been the other way around, Texas fans would have felt the same way.

that's why the first game is equally important

if ya drop the RRS ya might not make the CCG

True.

But the RRS goes from the most emotionally important game to tied with the potential CCG rematch for that honor.  By the logic of that, the RRS is slightly less important.

UGA can't play UF twice of course (barring both get picked for the playoff).

Imagine UT beats OU who then runs the rest of the table and OU beats UT in the CG.  Both are 12-1 and likely in the playoff (in many years) with a chance to play again.

Imagine those two in an NC game.

Crazy world we live in.  It could definitely happen, and even more likely after the playoff expands to 8 teams.

At large and at small sound awfully sizist, to me.  Definitely not PC.

For an 8-team playoff I'd expect a no-4-team-from-any-conference rule, and likely a no-3-team rule.  One of the main points of the expansion-- at least politically-- would be to avoid antitrust/collusion cases from popping up from the G5.  So allowing in 3-4 teams from one P5 conference wouldn't gain you any political leverage.

What I see as the most likely 8-team pool gives you the P5 champs as auto-bids, and then 3 more so you could wedge in Notre Dame and a couple of G5 teams.

I understand, it's most likely, and I think a G5 team would often be selected, perhaps by force.  If you pick the P5 champs plus three others, meaning the three "best", you COULD still have 4 teams from one conference in the playoff.  It would have to be a year with ND being mediocre and the second team in every other conference being pretty bad, along with the G5s.

There is a chance that two teams would play three times in a season, even with the current system.

UGA could play Auburn thrice obviously.  

Imagine UT beats OU who then runs the rest of the table and OU beats UT in the CG.  Both are 12-1 and THE BOOMER SOONERS are in the playoff

fixed it