Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are only scheduled to play this season and next with the Sooners departure for the SEC coming after the 2024 softball season. That move has left the Bedlam in doubt across all sports, not just softball or football.
With Bedlam beginning on the diamond on Friday evening, there are questions about the future of Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State.
Oklahoma State head coach, Kenny Gajewski, was asked about the series potentially coming to an end after next season.
“I’ve tried to tell them (Oklahoma) that we want to play, but I don’t have very good luck getting responses,” Gajewski said Tuesday. “I’m pretty open that we want to play. I don’t know how that looks. I don’t know if we could play three games and it’s one [in Stillwater], one [in Norman] and one [in Oklahoma City], or if it’s a weekend. I think it would be good for both teams. I know that they’re going into the No. 1 conference. But it would shock me if they didn’t want to play, to be honest.”
Gajewski continued, “… I ought to think that we’ll play, but I don’t have any kind of clarification. I don’t have any communication.”
Why wouldn’t Patty Gasso want to keep Oklahoma State on the schedule in the future in a nonconference capacity? At the moment, it’s not even something that’s on her mind.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Patty Gasso described that she’s not even through making her 2024 schedule yet.
“It’s really interesting because I haven’t even gotten halfway through my 2024 schedule. So, it’s not on my mind whatsoever,” Gasso said. “I’m assuming that our athletic director (Joe Castiglione) will have some input on it. I’ve never been called and asked to play. It’s never even been discussed.”
“So, I’m not worried about it. When there’s a right time to even think about it, I will. No one’s afraid to play anyone else, anything like that. I have to understand the dynamics of what we’re walking into and what makes sense. So, first and foremost, I’m going to take care of my team and what’s best for us… We’ll come to that road when it’s time, but it’s not even close to being time.”
Gasso wants to get a feel for what SEC scheduling looks like ahead of their first season in 2025 before making any grand statements about what their nonconference schedule will look like.
The Sooners haven’t been shy about scheduling top teams from around the country in their nonconference schedule. They’ve played UCLA, Florida State, LSU, and Auburn in 2023 alone. Each a top-25 team, each a win for the Oklahoma Sooners. They’ve scheduled like that over the years because Patty Gasso wants her team tested as much as possible.
The SEC getting both Texas and Oklahoma makes it the best softball conference in the country. Those two are joining a conference that has six teams currently in the top 20 of the RPI.
Softball generates a ton of buzz in the state of Oklahoma, second only to football. Though the Oklahoma Sooners have been a large part of that, Oklahoma State’s rise to national prominence is a key factor in the continued growth of the sport in the state.
When the time is right, cooler heads will prevail. The series means too much to the state and to the two programs for it not to continue in a nonconference setting.
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