Oklahoma football general manager Jim Nagy knew what the people wanted to hear.
During the Q&A session of Thursday’s “Night with Nagy” event, the first question Nagy got asked was how he would change college football if he had a magic wand to do what he wanted and his answer prompted an applause.
We’d play Oklahoma State and Nebraska every year,” Nagy said.
Nagy wants Bedlam, Nebraska back on Sooners' schedule
Rivalries are a dying tradition in the new era of college football that fans are desperately missing. The Sooners’ annual rivalry games against Oklahoma State and Nebraska were pried away because of conference realignment.
Bedlam on the football field ended in 2023 during OU’s last year in the Big 12. With OU joining the SEC, the two in-state rivals didn’t meet last season for the first time since 1905, before Oklahoma was even actually a state.
The annual meeting was a good game to have on the schedule for the Sooners. OU leads the all-time series 91-20-7. If the rivals still met in a nonconference matchup, it would make for a good resume booster against a Power Four opponent for the Sooners.
The annual OU-Nebraska rivalry has been on hold for even longer since the Cornhuskers left the Big 12 for the Big Ten in 2010. However, there has at least been an effort to renew the rivalry enough to give fans a taste.
OU and Nebraska had a home-and-home series in 2021 and 2022, with the Sooners winning both meetings. OU will then host Nebraska in 2029 before traveling to Lincoln in 2030. As long as Matt Rhule doesn’t get those dates removed from the schedule first.
Once again, it’s not only a good game on the schedule for fans, but also because OU holds a 47-38-3 all-time series lead. Even after two losing seasons in the last three years, the Sooners are still in a better state than Nebraska to continue that dominance.
There are plenty of reasons to dream of the Sooners playing the Cowboys and Cornhuskers every year. But even though the pros outweigh the cons, in today’s ever-changing college football landscape, Nagy actually would need a magic wand to make it happen.
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