KTUL.com - Tulsa's Channel 8 - News, Weather & SportsFans Mourning "What Could Have Been" For Bedlam 2011

It was supposed to be the biggest game in the history of the heated rivalry. It was supposed to launch the winner into the national championship game. Instead, Saturday's Bedlam game is ONLY for the Big 12 championship.

Fans had been anticipating this game all season. Heck, the Big 12 moved the game back a week since there was no Big 12 championship game, expecting the hype for the rivalry game to be huge.

By mid-October, we were all talking about the distractions of looking ahead to Bedlam when the Sooners were ranked No. 3 and the Cowboys No. 4 in the BCS standings.

Then, the unthinkable happened. The Sooners lost at home for the first time in more than six years to Texas Tech -- a team that went on to get humiliated in their last five games.

Even then, when the Sooners beat K-State and Texas A&M and moved back into the top five of the BCS and OSU was No. 2, it happened again -- this time Oklahoma State AND OU lost on the same weekend.

End of the BCS National Championship hopes for both teams. End of the "Biggest Bedlam Ever". It's now just Bedlam. But, isn't that enough? Even when the national championship hasn't been on the line, Bedlam has always been big.

When OU was in the middle of its 18-game win streak in the series during the 70s, 80s and 90s, the game was what it is today -- two teams that hate each other and the week leading up to the game was filled with fan fights over who was better, who was going to win the game.

And, the games themselves have been legendary. Last year's 47-41 game was incredible. A year earlier, the two teams put up a combined 102 points. Ice Bowl anyone? And who can forget the 16-13 upset in Norman or the 38-35 shootout in 2004? Brent Parker dropping a pass that could have given the Cowboys the win in 1988? The majority of them have been incredible games.

This year, Oklahoma State likely has more at stake than the Sooners. The Cowboys have never been to a BCS bowl game and a win Saturday would give them that. It would also be OSU's first outright Big 12 conference championship.

So, when you head out for the game Saturday or sit down in front of your television to watch the game on Tulsa's Channel 8 -- remember this. While the spoils of the victory may be less, the game is not. It's still Bedlam.