Bedlam Series The Bedlam Series ( officially known for sponsorship purposes as The Oklahoma Farm Bureau Bedlam Series ) refers to the athletics rivalry between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State University Cowboys of the Big 12 Conference . Both schools were also members of the Big 8 Conference before the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1996 , and both were divisional rivals in the Big 12 South Division prior to 2011 . History . The Bedlam Series is , like most other intrastate rivalries , a rivalry that goes beyond one or two sports . Both schools also have rivalries with other schools , though most of those rivalries are limited to one or two sports at the most . The rivalry is all the more intense since their games often decide the conference championship . While the football and basketball games stand today as the marquee events in the Bedlam Series , the term " Bedlam " actually began with the rivalry between the schools ' prestigious wrestling programs , more particularly the raucous crowds that attended the matches held at Oklahoma State ' s Gallagher - Iba Arena . When the Bedlam Series gained Ford and the Bank of Oklahoma as corporate sponsors , the series became much more formalized . A points system was adopted in order to award a winner of the all athletic competitions combined between the two schools . A crystal bell trophy is awarded to individual Bedlam game winners ( such as football ) , in addition to a trophy for the overall series champion for that year . The " Bedlam Bell " is modeled after the bell clapper in Old Central , the oldest building on Oklahoma State ' s campus . For a time , the actual bell clapper was a traveling trophy for the two schools , until the popularity of this tradition waned . Football . The first Bedlam football game was held at Island Park , now known as Mineral Wells Park , in Guthrie , Oklahoma . It was a cold , and very windy day with the temperatures well below the freezing mark . At one moment in the game when the Oklahoma A & M Aggies were punting , the wind carried the ball backwards behind the kicker . If the Oklahoma A & M squad recovered the ball it would be a touchback and if the University of Oklahoma squad recovered it , it would be a touchdown . The ball kept going backwards and rolled down a hill into the half - frozen creek . Since a touchdown was at stake , members of both teams dove into the icy waters to recover the ball . A member of the OU team came out with the ball and downed it for a touchdown , eventually winning the game 75 – 0 . Though this was not the source of the name " Bedlam " , the scene was clearly an apt beginning for the Bedlam Series in football . Author Steve Budin , whose father was a New York bookie , has recently publicized the claim that the 1954 Bedlam Game was fixed by mobsters in his book Bets , Drugs , and Rock & Roll ( ISBN 1 - 60239 - 099 - 1 ) . Allegedly , the mobsters threatened and paid off a cook to slip laxatives into a soup eaten by many OU Sooner starting players , causing them to fall violently ill in the days leading up to the game . OU was victorious in the end , but their 14 – 0 win did not cover the 20 - point spread they had in their favor . However , many people involved in the 1954 contest do not recall any incident like the one purported by Bodin to have occurred . Oklahoma currently leads the series 83 – 17 – 7 . Game results . ██ University of Oklahoma win ██ Oklahoma State win ██ Tie Basketball . Oklahoma owns the all - time series record in basketball , 129 - 95 . Wrestling . Oklahoma State holds a large advantage in the schools ' wrestling rivalry , the original " Bedlam Series " . The Cowboy wrestling program currently holds a 128 – 27 – 9 record against the Sooners , which is all the more remarkable considering that both schools have long been national powers in wrestling . Oklahoma has won seven team national championships in its history , while Oklahoma State ' s wrestling program has a record thirty - four team national titles .