I think OU has a good athletics program with an enormous fan base that focuses on football only. This board being an exception. That is why OU does not have the perception as a bball school despite some success with the program. It's overshadowed.
OU is perceived as a very strong basketball program everywhere but the minds of aggie fans and in the Oklahoma media (and, sadly, by some of our own fans). OU is consistently rated higher than oswho as a hoops program, and we've had more successful coaches than has oswho, which has had just two (unless one wishes to count Ford, which at this point in time seems premature, but whatever).
OU has a huge Bedlam series lead and more overall success than oswho, while the aggies can point to two national titles that I'm willing to bet no one on this board witnessed (at least I don't think we have any 80-year-old posters here), and those occurred at a time when a team had to win all of three games to earn the title (and when the NIT was the preferred tourney).
And the idea that the only reason oswho didn't match OU win for gridiron win was just that they didn't throw enough money at the football program is beyond specious. Because if that's the case, then dozens upon dozens of other football programs merely came up short on the monetary front, because OU is indisputably top five all time in that sport, and most informed observers (that leaves you out, bballfan) would place us in the top two or three.
But yeah, all oswho needed to match OU's historically great achievements in football was a few more dollars. Keep telling yourself that.
I'm not into making predictions, but we've been assured that oswho was a team on the rise since at least the mid-'70s, and yet our record against them over that span is not much less dominant than our overall Bedlam record.
Even since Stoops' arrival in 1999 (a span that includes most of oswho's best teams), our Bedlam record is 10-3 (77%), which is, yes, a small drop compared to our overall Bedlam mark (81%), but it's hardly anything to get too excited about. Are the individual games more competitive these days? Often, yes, but I wouldn't bet the rent, if I were you, on going even 10-10 over the next twenty seasons, much less 15-5.
And football is not just the "money maker" in the state of Oklahoma, it's the average Oklahoma sports fan's burning passion, the collegiate sport the state cares most about. I think WaymanFan understated. Not only do I think that, in their heart of hearts, most oswho fans would swap national championships with OU, I'm convinced that many, if not most, oswho fans would trade all 51 of their titles for a single football championship. It's not a theory that's provable, but I'm convinced it's the case.
The fact of the matter is that OU has had success in every sport that oswho has done well in except cross country. We have our own national championships in golf (1) and wrestling (7), and we've been to the national title game in hoops twice (falling short both times, alas). We have two titles in baseball to oswho's one (and one of ours occurred in our lifetimes).
So what oswho has done well, so has OU (cross country aside), but the same can't be said for oswho matching OU's achievements. The Sooners have excelled in football and men's gymnastics, and oswho has had just one season in either sport that saw them even flirt with a national title (trying to give credit where it's due here).
What's more, OU has two women's national titles, and our women's basketball team has experienced significantly more success than yours.
You can tout the total titles if you like, but the fact is, wrestling is oswho's claim to fame -- a full 2/3rds of your titles are in that one sport. No shame there -- I like wrestling, and I'm frustrated that OU is not better in that sport right now than we are -- but it is the very definition of a minor sport, and getting smaller all the time. Which means the sport upon which your primary bragging rights are based is fading further and further from public consciousness.
Maybe oswho should commission John Irving to write another novel that features a protagonist who was a wrestler. If it proved to be a best-seller, perhaps that would revive wrestling's profile.
