If you were born in the mid-1990s or later, you've never known a time when Oklahoma and Texas were not part of the same conference. But for more than 75 years, the two teams met in the annual Red River Showdown rivalry game as members of different conferences.
On Saturday, Oklahoma and Texas will square off for the 121st time in their historic gridiron rivalry. It is not the longest college football rivalry, but it is clearly one of the most-anticipated and tradition-bound rivalries in the sport. Since 1932, the game has been held at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, and a contract extension agreed to in 2023 ensures that the historic venue will continue to host the game through 2036.
Throw out records and rankings, it's OU-Texas rivalry weekend
This will be the second time the Sooners and Longhorns have met as members of the SEC, which both schools joined last year.
For 28 years (1996-2023) they were co-inhabitants of the Big 12. Oklahoma and Texas were also founding members of the original Southwest Conference in 1915. Oklahoma left the Southwest Conference after the 1919 season to become a member of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which later morphed into the Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight and Big 12 conferences.
The overall record of the two teams in the 93 games that have been played at the Cotton Bowl in this classic rivalry is representative of how highly contested the games have been. Texas has 47 wins over that time, Oklahoma 42 and there have been four ties.
Texas leads the overall series, which dates back to 1900, 64-51-5. The Longhorns won the first game, played in Austin, 28-2 and went on to win eight of the first 10 games in the series with one game ending in a tie. Texas was dominant in those first 10 meetings, outscoring the Sooners 171-55. OU was held to 10 or fewer points in all 10 games.
There are some unique features that make this nearly 125-year-old rivalry series truly one of a kind. For one, it is held on the grounds of and during the State Fair of Texas. Cotton Bowl Stadium itself is divided in half. The North half of the stadium features Texas fans decked out in the school colors of burnt orange, while the south half of the stadium is filled to capacity with the crimson-clad Sooner faithful. It is a stadium atmosphere like no other.
It is a rivalry series that is characterized by multi-game win streaks featuring both sides. Texas has had winning streaks of four or more games six different times in the series with a high of eight twice (1940-47 and 1958-65). Oklahoma has put together win streaks of four or more games five times with a high of six (1952-57). The Sooners also had a couple five-game winning streaks.
Texas dominated the first 40 years of the rivalry, compiling a 29-13 record against the Sooners. Since 1950, however, Oklahoma leads the series 38-35, with three games ending in a tie, including the controversial 1984 game between No. 1 Texas and No. 3 Oklahoma that ended in a 15-15 draw.
Eleven times in the rivalry, both Oklahoma and Texas have come into the game ranked in the top five of the Associated Press Top 25. The most recent one was in 2008 between the top-ranked Sooners, quarterbacked by Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford, and the No. 5 Longhorns, quarterbacked by Colt McCoy. Texas prevailed in that game in a 45-35 shootout. Oklahoma is 6-4-1 in those top-5 matchups.
At the beginning of the 2025 season, there appeared to be a good chance that this Saturday's showdown at the State Fair of Texas would be yet another matchup of ranked teams. Records show that in 75 of the games in the OU-Texas rivalry that have been played in the AP poll era (since 1936), one of both teams have been ranked and 43 times both teams have come into the game ranked among the nation's top-25 teams.
Another OU-Texas matchup of ranked teams was in the cards until last weekend, when the Longhorns fell out of the rankings after the loss to Florida. Ironically, the Horns had begun the season as the top-ranked team in the AP poll, the first time in their history that has happened. Oklahoma, however, began the season ranked 18th, but enters the game on Saturday as the No. 6 team in the AP Top 25.
Of the 32 Red River Rivalry games in which only one team was ranked, as is the case this year, Oklahoma has won 17, Texas 15.
Despite Oklahoma's unbeaten record at 5-0 and top-10 ranking, the Las Vegas oddsmakers have established Texas as the early favorite in Saturday's game. In the AP poll era, Oklahoma has come into its annual rivalry game with Texas as the higher-ranked team a total of 46 times. The Sooners have won 33 of those games, lost 11 and two have ended in a tie. In most of those contests, the higher-ranked team was favored, as well, based on the betting line, but not in all, especially in those instances when the difference was relatively close together.
The only thing that seems certain about this historic rivalry series is its unpredictability. There's no reason to believe that the reunion on Saturday will be any different.