Maybe It’s Time For OU Fans To Come Over To The Orange Side

After such a wild and monumental weekend of college football, I’ve decided it’s time to make an offer to all my die-hard OU Sooner friends.

Come on over to the OSU orange side of fandom.

I know, I know. Put down the pitchforks and hear me out.

Oklahoma State just knocked off Oregon, which was an amazing way to spend a Saturday, while OU went into the weekend with all kinds of promise and came out of it with a loss to an unranked Michigan team. So naturally, as an OSU fan, I feel obligated to do what any good friend would do and rub it in... But, there's a realization that hit me while twisting the knife into my boss.

OU and OSU aren't really rivals anymore.

The End Of The Bedlam Rivalry

That feels strange to type.

For most of my life, you picked a side. You were an OU fan or you were an OSU fan, and there was a pretty good chance somebody you knew had picked the other one. Bedlam was the game. It was bragging rights, arguments, jokes, heartbreak and enough family tension to make Thanksgiving interesting.

Then Oklahoma and Oklahoma State went their separate ways.

OU is in the SEC. OSU is in the Big 12. The last Bedlam football game has already been played, which is another fun and sore subject amongst OU fans... But that's it. It's done.

A New Era For Oklahoma Football Fans

We're no longer rivals, and we have total freedom to support all of Oklahoma's teams... Except Tulsa. You'll catch me in SWOSU Bulldog gear long before you hear me root for a hurricane.

Unless OU and OSU somehow manage to find each other in the expanded College Football Playoff someday, there's no regular-season game sitting out there waiting for us.

And let's be honest, the OSU part of that sentence is doing some heavy lifting. We’ve got a little work to do before anybody needs to worry about seeing the Cowboys in the playoff, and that somehow adds to the United Oklahoma embrace.

There used to be a reason to dislike the other team beyond simply being the other team. You needed OU to lose because it helped OSU. You needed OSU to lose because it made the Sooners' weekend a little sweeter.

Now?

They can both do whatever without any effect on the other.

An OU fan can have a great Saturday and it doesn't ruin my weekend. I can celebrate an OSU win, and it doesn't affect the Sooners in the standings. I can toss that belief that I want all Oklahoma teams to do good, except during XYZ weekend... There isn't a Bedlam game coming up in the foreseeable future.

Maybe It's Time For A Truce

We're basically two Oklahoma football fan nations that have moved across the border from one another and suddenly realized we don't have to keep throwing rocks.

So, to my Sooner friends, this is your invitation.

You don't have to give up OU. You don't have to burn the crimson shirts. You don't even have to admit OSU was better last weekend.

Just come hang out on the orange side every once in a while, and I'll do the same.

We'll call a truce.

At least until we make the playoff.