College football personality Josh Pate, like many, took the time to create what he believed would be the perfect conference alignment for college football, and although there are flaws, Pate actually might have solved the Oklahoma Sooners' biggest problem created from conference realignment: the death of traditional rivals.
Between OU's move from the Big 12 to the SEC in 2024 and Nebraska heading to the Big Ten nearly 15 years ago, the Sooners lost their annual rivalries with the Cornhuskers and in-state Oklahoma State on the gridiron. Pate, though, in his proposed conference realignment, sent the Sooners back to the good ole' days in a revised Big 8 with 10 teams, including OU, OSU, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, BYU, Missouri, Colorado and Utah.
Josh Pate puts Sooners back in Big 8 with Nebraska and Oklahoma State
When I am CFB Commissioner these are your new conferences via day one executive order pic.twitter.com/8PaBLkoUBp
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) March 2, 2026
Since this version of the Big 8 has 10 members, every team would play each other every season with a nine-game conference schedule, which would put OSU and Nebraska back on the Sooners' slate annually. It's been just two seasons without Bedlam, which OU leads the all-time series 91-20-7, but the storied OU-Nebraska rivalry has been extinct annually since 2011.
The Sooners will (hopefully) host Nebraska at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in 2029, then head to Lincoln the next year. The two also met for a home-and-home nonconference series in 2021 and 2022, with the Sooners winning both games. OU fans, though, want the rivalry back on an annual basis even more so than Bedlam because of the big-time historical matchups Oklahoma and Nebraska had in the past.
Pate's suggested conference realignment would give Sooner Nation its wish with OU and Nebraska meeting annually again, and also gift the state of Oklahoma its biggest in-state rivalry back. Missouri could also keep OU on its schedule for what Mizzou fans want so bad to be a rivalry.
There's also no doubt the Sooners would rule this Big 8 even more than they did the Big 12 the decades before leaving for the SEC. Nebraska and OSU have fallen since erasing OU off their schedules, and none of the other programs pose a threat either, especially not long term.
The downfall to the Sooners dominating a conference again, though, is no highly anticipated conference matchups. The likes of Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida and more wouldn't be visiting Norman anymore to attract ESPN College GameDay, earn primetime TV slots and create unbelievable environments. Trips to places like Lawrence, Kansas, or Ames, Iowa, also aren't worth the time for OU fans.
The group is also notably missing Texas, which would erase the Red River Rivalry as a conference clash. However, the Red River Rivalry would not suffer the same fate as Bedlam or OU-Nebraska. There's no way OU or Texas would want the other off its schedule, so both sides would make sure the Red River Rivalry remained an annual event, even as a nonconference matchup. That would give the Sooners for sure three rivalry games for fans to enjoy every single year.
No matter what, though, Pate will likely never live his dream as commissioner of college football to make all this happen, and those in charge of the sport will never value rivalries and geography over money. That has actually worked in the Sooners' favor, too, because even without rivals like OSU and Nebraska on the schedule, OU has replaced those matchups with even better ones in the SEC.