WE ALL KNOW enough quantity in regards to the sport now titled the Pink River Showdown. And we must.

There may not be some other school soccer match that does a greater activity of wrapping its gloves round the whole lot we like in regards to the game than when Texas and Oklahoma sq. off on the second one weekend of October. On Saturday, they’re going to meet at prime midday on ABC, a top-12 matchup with a Weighty 12 within lane at the form.

You need custom? How about Bevo’s 1,800-pound self, sauntering onto the sideline to observe the 1,020-pound Quicker Schooner wagon come barreling into the Tale Bowl, pulled via land-grabbing ponies and lined in RUF/NEKS.

You need historical past? How a few sport that Saturday will likely be performed for the 119th life, a line that began seven years ahead of the Oklahoma Dimension accomplished statehood. It’s been performed for 94 consecutive years, relationship again to Oct. 19, 1929. Since 1948, it has offered out 75 occasions, together with this date.

You need pageant? How a few line this is led via Texas 63-50-5 however for the reason that finish of Global Warfare II has been break just about exactly ailing the center with 39 wins for the Sooners, 37 wins for the Longhorns and 3 ties. In reality, what is thought of as most likely probably the most epic sport in Pink River Contention historical past used to be a type of ties. The 6-6 stalemate of 1976 ignited wild conspiracy claims of spying. It used to be becoming, making an allowance for President Gerald Ford, he of the Warren Fee and the pardoning of Richard Nixon, used to be in attendance.

You need symmetry? How about all of that you simply learn, plus a sport location of Dallas as a result of Weighty D used to be unmistakable as the very best Pink River DMZ, situated nearly precisely midway between the 2 campuses in Austin, Texas, and Norman, Oklahoma. And next there may be that seating configuration. The Tale Bowl is break precisely ailing the center, the 50-yard form performing as a Bowie knife, lightly dividing the 92,100-seat oval into equivalent halves of UT burnt orange and OU purple and cream. That leaves whole categories of loads of lovers left sitting with their shoulders mashed and hues clashed for 4 hours within the Texas warmth. As former Horns head schoolteacher Mack Brown as soon as defined: “It’s not like your home crowd or your away crowd, where it’s loud for you and quiet for the opponent. In this game, somebody is screaming every play.”

You need a heart-stopper? Simply progress again and monitor the highlights of this sport over the age decade unwanted. From 2014 via 2021, the biggest margin of victory used to be 8 issues and the typical rating over 8 contests used to be Oklahoma 36, Texas 32. Heck, simply monitor that eight-point sport. The 2020 match used to be an anti-’76 affair that stretched into 4 overtimes and used to be performed for just about 5 hours ahead of former Sooners QB Spencer Rattler — who have been benched previous within the sport for fumbling — threw a TD move to Drake Stoops, son of former Sooners head schoolteacher Bob Stoops, to win the sport 53-45. Or, if you wish to rush that query actually, it is advisable step outdoor the stadium gates and without delay into the Texas Situation Truthful, the development that envelopes the Tale Bowl and this sport, and choke ailing a basket of deep-fried tacky crab tater bites or a plate of deep-fried honey butter brisket swirls. My Crestor bottle began vibrating simply by me typing that.

From Darrell Royal and Bud Wilkinson to Billy Sims and Earl Campbell to Ricky Williams and Baker Mayfield and, sure, this weekend with Quinn Ewers as opposed to Dillon Gabriel in a struggle of undefeated Faculty Soccer Playoff hopefuls, each unmarried life those two groups have met, the stakes — and steaks — had been sizzling scorching.

However this date, the professional framing of the sport comes with some unhappiness. As though a well-known western put on pack used to be last store. The tip of an date. Texas and Oklahoma’s latter cleated steps in a protracted march in combination as participants and co-anchors of the Weighty 12 Convention.

ONE YEAR FROM now, this sport will likely be performed once more, simply as it’s been each autumn for the reason that flip of the former century. Best from 2024 and past, it is going to be an SEC matchup. Ever since July 21, 2021, when the inside track unpriviledged of the colleges’ joint choice to crack ranks with the Weighty 12 and achieve out to the SEC, collegiate athletics has been a unending Jenga puzzle, items pulled from meetings coast-to-coast and next jammed again into any to be had opening in any and each way important to book all of the tower from crumbling ailing. Such a lot of of the ones strikes don’t produce sense. What they generate in money they appear to similarly lose relating to the valuation of regional relevance and custom.

The banks of the Pink River are indisputably some distance from The Swamp of Florida or the Congaree River that flows via South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium on its approach right down to Charleston. However the two states whose shared border is drawn alongside that Pink River additionally snap properly into the left facet of the continual jigsaw map that represents the footprint of the Southeastern Convention. There are not any gaps, from the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico all of the approach into the Stunning Plains as they roll up into central Oklahoma.

Alternatively, a lot more a very powerful than cartography is the calendar. The Pink River Contention’s streak of video games performed may not be blocked, not like such a lot of alternative rivalries that experience at worst been totally sunk or a minimum of been placed on prolonged hiatus via the chilly spreadsheets and shredded maps of realignment (*clears throat* ahem, Texas-Texas A&M).

This isn’t the primary life this sport has gone through an utmost matchup makeover. Sure, it has served as the center-piece match of the Weighty 12, however handiest since 1996, when the convention used to be shaped out of necessity all through the primary actual lineup shakeup of faculty soccer’s fashionable future. Previous to that, Oklahoma-Texas used to be now not an in-conference matchup.

From 1920 via ’95, the Sooners weren’t a member of the Southwest Convention, a reality that may refuse dubiousness stump any younger-generation soccer lovers at their native sports activities bar’s minutiae night time. They have been within the Weighty 8, which have been the Weighty Seven, the Weighty Six and, to start with, the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Affiliation.

Texas used to be a creation member of the Southwest Convention in 1915 and remained there till it collapsed in 1995 to provide option to the Weighty 12. OU used to be additionally an OG Southwest member however left on the finish of the 1919 season.

So, when you’re scoring at house, and enough quantity of Sooners and Horns indisputably are, next via Saturday, over 119 video games performed, the Pink River Contention has been a convention showdown 33 occasions, 5 within the Southwest and 28 within the Weighty 12. That’s handiest 28% of the video games. The alternative editions of the sport had been the whole lot from a crash of independents to Southwest vs. Weighty 8 to SWC vs. MVIAA.

IN OTHER WORDS, when one backs up and appears on the larger image, whether or not or not it’s in black-and-white silver emulsion or gigapixel prime solution, the idea that of OU and UT within the SEC doesn’t appear all that extraordinary, indisputably when in comparison to the alternative incongruous school sports activities chess strikes that will likely be taking playground on the similar life as theirs nearest fall.

The remaining? This sport — within the minds of such a lot of, the sport — isn’t going anyplace.

“I don’t need but maybe one or two of things in my life to still be there all the time so that I know it is still my life,” defined Barry Switzer, who coached in 22 Pink River Contention video games, six as an Oklahoma associate and 16 as head schoolteacher. His feedback got here in past due summer time 2021, now not lengthy later the inside track of the journey to the SEC had damaged.

“As long as that game is on that weekend in that place, I suppose I can make the rest of it work.”