A State of Chaos

It's anarchy. Chaos at its finest, and only someone who's experienced it understands.

In a game like this, nothing matters.

Rankings, statistics, and the past are out the door. All that matters is right now.

As a kid who grew up in Texas watching the Aggies and the Longhorns on Thanksgiving night, I didn't understand what to expect.

I knew the faces of Vince Young, Reggie McNeal, Dat Nguyen and Ricky Williams. I didn't know what happened in the north.

That game was a nasty rivalry between the maroon and burnt orange, but it's nothing like what I've experienced in the last two years.

See, in Texas, the Ags and Longhorns hate each other, but they also have a lot in common. They're Spurs fans, Cowboys fans, and Astros fans together outside of that game that was always on Thanksgiving.

In Oklahoma, it's completely different. Up until a few years ago, the two sides had nothing in common. Now, the Oklahoma City Thunder is here, but that isn't even going to do it.

The two sides hate each other. And hate is putting it lightly.

"I watched A&M vs. Texas too," Arlington, Texas native Lane Taylor said. "That and the rivalry between Texas and OU. I didn't know much about the Bedlam game because OSU wasn't really on the map then, but once I started liking Oklahoma State I began to understand what this game is.

"It's exactly what the name says it is. It's Bedlam."

Taylor is right. When I set foot on Oklahoma State's campus, the first thing I heard was that I needed to change out of my red shirt I was wearing. That was in the summer, way outside of football or basketball or baseball season, yet they still hated them.

The same thing happens in Norman from what I've heard. Any shade of orange isn't received well, whether it's the burnt orange of Texas, or the bright orange of State-Take it the hell off and throw it on the fire.

"At the end of the day, we're Oklahoma State and we hate them, they're OU and they hate us," defensive end Cooper Bassett said. "That's the only way to explain it."

In the past, the rivalry has been more crimson than not. The Sooners hold an 82-17-7 advantage since the series started in 1904, but the Pokes have turned it on in the last two years. They've given the Sooners hell on their visits to Stillwater, narrowly allowing them to escape with a win in 2010 before demolishing them in 2011.

But as I said before, none of that matters today.

Today, an orange team will run out onto Owen Field while cuss words rain down on them from the stands. On the other end, a crimson team will come out with a vengeance, looking to flatten those damn Pokes.

Around them will be tens of thousands screaming Sooner fans who want nothing more than their Oklahoma team to win by a million points, while uneasy Cowboy faithful will be watching a hundred miles north.

When the clock hits zero, one side will break out into chaos while the other hangs their head, swearing that next year will be different.

It's indescribable. It's incomparable.

It's anarchy. Chaos at its finest, and only someone who's experienced it understands.

It's Bedlam.