Bedlam Football Game Moved To Thanksgiving Weekend

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) This year's football game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will be played on Nov. 24, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Big 12 Conference said Monday. The game, which will

Monday, March 26th 2007, 1:53 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) This year's football game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will be played on Nov. 24, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Big 12 Conference said Monday. The game, which will be in Norman, had been scheduled for Oct. 27. The change was requested for television coverage reasons.

It will be the third straight year, and the seventh time in the last nine years, that the Bedlam game will be played on the holiday weekend. The last two years, the game also was scheduled for earlier in the season before being moved to Thanksgiving weekend. The Bedlam game will continue in that spot on the schedule for the foreseeable future, as Big 12 schedules released last December have the game set for the holiday weekend through the 2015 season.

In a release, the Irving, Texas-based Big 12 called the date change "a cooperative effort between the two institutions, the conference office and the league's television partners." The league said the game would be one of four Big 12 games to be televised that weekend, along with Missouri-Kansas, Texas-Texas A&M and Nebraska-Colorado.

Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said that a request from the league's television partners was the primary reason the league asked Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to change the date of the game.

"There is obviously a lot of interest in this game," Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. "We're happy to work with our Big 12 television partners in making the move."

Burda said that the Sooners and Cowboys now will each have an open date on Oct. 27.

Oklahoma State has consistently supported playing the Bedlam game on Thanksgiving weekend, while Oklahoma generally has preferred to have an open date, citing a desire to keep the holiday weekend open for athletes and fans and also to have an extra week to prepare if the Sooners competed in the Big 12 Championship game the following week.

"I like playing our instate rival the final weekend of the season," Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder said. "The game is always well attended but this particular date gives us a better opportunity for national television coverage."

Oklahoma athletic department spokesman Kenny Mossman said the Sooners' coach, Bob Stoops, was not available for comment Monday.