Decision time for DB Broyles
Norman star choosing between OSU, OU

This morning, Ryan Broyles plans to sign a national letter of intent to play football.

Which one is not entirely certain.

He has letters of intent from Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, and even though he reaffirmed his commitment to the Cowboys last week, he admits that signing with the Sooners remains a thought.

"That's still in the mind,” Broyles said Tuesday afternoon, "but yeah, I'm planning to sign (with OSU).”

He'll be trading Norman High orange for Cowboy orange.

Rare are the Norman kids who go to OSU and the Stillwater kids who go to OU. Over the years, less than two dozen have been raised around one side of Bedlam, then played for the other. Should Broyles stay true to his word, he'll be the first high-profile crossover since Stillwater product Jackie Shipp chose Oklahoma almost 30 years ago.

So, what's it like for the players who do cross?

Broyles is finding out. Ranked 11th nationally at cornerback by rivals.com, the four-star recruit made a highly publicized flip-flop-flip after committing to the Cowboys in mid-January. Last week, he switched to the Sooners, only to switch back to the Cowboys a few days later.

It's been crazy, insane, bedlam even.

"I don't think there's any question that there has not been a large number of athletes grow up in Norman who ended up at Oklahoma State, and vice versa,” said David Gore, a longtime athletic administrator and former coach in Norman. "But I'm not sure that's necessarily a situation that's because of the Bedlam thing.”

Gore's own children grew up in Norman but went to school at OSU.

"I think more often than not, kids are looking at things other than, ‘I grew up in Norman and want to go to Oklahoma' or ‘I grew up in Stillwater and want to go to Oklahoma State,'” Gore said. "They're looking at other factors.”

Still, a recruiting raid behind enemy lines adds another juicy layer to the in-state rivalry.

So it was in 1980 with Shipp.

One of the nation's best linebackers, he drew recruiters to Stillwater from near and far. None battled harder for him than OSU and OU.

Shipp's father, Howard, was an OSU employee. He worked at the University Counseling Center, and then-Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson and his assistants dealt with him from time to time. The family's OSU ties were strong.

OU knew as much, too. Then-Sooners coach Barry Switzer decided that a player of Shipp's magnitude was worth the effort.

"He was the best player to come out of there,” Switzer said. "Made every tackle on the field.”

And even though the Sooners had won a pair of national titles in the '70s — with defenses that featured standout linebackers — convincing Shipp to leave Stillwater for Norman was a tough task.

"Hell yeah, it was,” Switzer said. "I spent the night in Stillwater the night before.”

Then an assistant on Johnson's staff, Pat Jones said: "It was a loss for us not to get him. Jimmy stayed irritated at Jackie for awhile simply because it was a competitive deal.”

The two schools went head-to-head for in-state recruits, and yet it was different when the kid lived across town.

"Oh, heavens yes,” Jones said. "Very much so.”

After Johnson left and Jones became the head coach, Shipp approached Jones and asked if he could work out in the Cowboys' weight room. Shipp was playing for the Miami Dolphins at the time but living in Stillwater during the off-season.

Hard feelings had softened.

"Jackie ended up buying and putting a sound system in the weight room,” Jones said.

One of the few other Stillwater and Norman players to be offered scholarships by both Bedlam brothers was Sim Drain.

The linebacker was a Stillwater High standout who thought seriously about leaving the state entirely. Schools on both coasts were interested, but after his mother died before his junior year of high school and his father fell into poor health, Drain decided to stay close to home.

His decision came down to the Cowboys and Sooners.

"I was a little bit torn initially about which to pick,” Drain said via telephone from his home in suburban Dallas. "I really didn't have any reservations picking a school like OU being from Stillwater.”

Drain picked OSU for the same reason Shipp picked OU almost a decade earlier — because it was the best choice for him.

"And I knew all the shortcuts,” he joked.

Broyles hardly seems so happy-go-lucky about his decision, saying last week that he felt pressure from fans and media after making his initial commitment to OSU. It caused him to question that decision, then change it. He recommitted to the Cowboys after cutting himself off from recruiters and reporters.

Broyles says he's firm in that commitment but still left a toe on the fence.

"He's got both sets of papers, and honestly right now, I don't know which way he's going to go,” Norman coach Butch Peters said. "You never know with Ryan.”

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