The Stakes

• Big 12 title game: The Sooners received a blessed gift from Texas A&M, which upset Texas 12-7 Friday. Now the Sooners, if they survive Bedlam, can make it a Big Red showdown against Nebraska next week in Kansas City.

• Bowl hopes: If the Cowboys win, they need not check the Kansas-Missouri score. OSU would be 7-5 and be quite appetizing to the Independence or Texas or Insight or even Sun bowls. Cowboy fans have responded in December, and it would pay off. But lose, and OSU is staying home unless Missouri beats Kansas.

• BCS hopes: If the Sooners lose today, they drop out of BCS contention. Texas' loss to A&M means the Sooners won't be an at-large BCS selection. It's the Fiesta Bowl, as Big 12 champion, or bust.

• Keeping Bedlam Bedlam: OSU won five of eight Bedlams from 1995-2002. But the Sooners have won three in a row, including two by rout. This rivalry needs a close game; OSU needs a victory.

• Bedlam domination: You can make figures do many things. If OU wins today, the Sooners will have their longest Bedlam winning streak, four, since 1988-91 and can accurately say that Oklahoma has lost in Stillwater twice in the past 40 years, thrice in the past 60 years.

• Ticket sales: OSU AD Mike Holder jacked up ticket prices; revenue rose, attendance declined. Holder says there's no going back, so the only way to boost attendance is boost excitement. A Bedlam victory is the perfect tonic.

• Momentum: On Oct. 7, the Sooners suffered their seventh loss in 18 games, after going 60-6 their previous 66 games. But win Bedlam, beat Nebraska and win a likely Fiesta Bowl against Boise State, and the Sooners take a nine-game winning streak into 2007.

• Gundy credibility: Mike Gundy has no job-security issues. Boone Pickens and Mike Holder swear by Gundy. But a Bedlam victory would raise Gundy's stock with the Cowboy masses. Gundy already has taken down Nebraska; two Big Reds in the same year would elevate him mightily.

• Happy New Year: Win today, and the Sooners likely wrap up a January bowl slot. Even with a loss to Nebraska in the Big 12 title game, a 10-3 OU would be attractive to possibly the Gator or most likely the Cotton. Both are Jan. 1. Not a bad consolation prize for a team that in early October seemed capable of slipping into Insight territory.

• Recruiting: Big for the Cowboys, and probably more so in Texas than in Oklahoma. In-state, most players have their minds made up. They're going to OU if they get a chance or they're going to OSU if they get a chance. But a Bedlam victory would raise OSU's already-rising profile south of the Red River.

• Last place: Lose, and the Cowboys finish 3-5 in the Big 12, tied with Baylor at the bottom of the South. Yes, OSU beat Baylor. But we're not breaking ties here. Tying Baylor for anything in football is bad news.

By Berry Tramel

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