Per Berry Tramel:
The college football season opens this month – doesn’t that sound good to say? – and one of the first kickoffs is Tulsa at OSU, on Aug. 31. And that venerable series now has a title sponsor.
The series between the Cowboys and the Golden Hurricane will be named the Bank of Oklahoma Turnpike Classic.
As series names go, it’s not at the top of the list. But it’s not awful. The Civil War (Oregon State-Oregon) or the Holy War (Utah-Brigham Young) or the Bedlam Series are juicier. The Egg Bowl (Ole Miss-Mississippi State) is more eclectic. The Territorial Cup (Arizona State-Arizona), the Iron Bowl (Alabama-Auburn), the Rocky Mountain Showdown (Colorado State-Colorado). There are lots of names out there.
The Cimarron Turnpike runs from west Tulsa to I-35 north of Perry, with a short spur on the western edge that goes to north Stillwater. So Turnpike Classic is an OK name for OSU-Tulsa. Seems like we used to call Oklahoma City-Tulsa minor league games in baseball and hockey the Turnpike Series; now that’s possible only in soccer.
I would prefer the word Cimarron in the name, because I love the word Cimarron. Sounds cool, and has an old-Oklahoma statehood ring to it. But Turnpike Classic is a decent name for the OSU-TU series. Now if only the schools will keep the series going.
OSU and Tulsa have met 71 times in football, dating back to 1914 and not counting a 1922 forfeit. OSU-Tulsa was played every year from 1926-65, then every year from 1981-96.
OSU’s only more common rival has been OU. Tulsa’s only more common rival has been Arkansas, and that series spans 72 games.
But OSU-Tulsa has been staged just four times in the 2000s – 2000 and 2011 in Tulsa; 2004 and 2010 in Stillwater.
The series continues with three games scheduled in 2019, 2020 and 2021. But after that, nothing is contracted.
When the series was annual, it alternated between Tulsa and Stillwater. That’s not feasible in the contemporary financial makeup of major college athletics. OSU would need a 2-for-1 setup. That’s hard for an in-state school like Tulsa to accept. But accept it Tulsa might.
“I’m open to it and we’ve had discussions about it,” TU athletic director Derrick Gragg told the Tulsa World last summer. “But at the end of the day, we’re always going to do what’s best for TU. As you can imagine, we’re talking to a lot of institutions about playing football and basketball in the future.”
Yes, there’s a basketball component. The OSU-Tulsa hoops series wavered over the years, too, though the schools have played in recent seasons.
“We like the idea of playing Tulsa in football and basketball on an annual basis,” said OSU athletic director Mike Holder. “This matchup brings a lot of passion on both sides. I’ve visited about this multiple times with Derrick Gragg, and I believe that he is open-minded about the concept.”
In the crazy world of college scheduling, where teams are crisscrossing the nation for games, you’d think an in-state series would be ideal. OSU is in a conference with West Virginia. Tulsa is in a conference with Connecticut, Temple and two Florida schools. Financially, the cost of purchasing home games is skyrocketing. Some schools are paying more than $1 million for an opponent to make an appearance.
OSU has scheduled recent 2-for-1 deals with South Alabama, Central Michigan, Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana-Lafayette.
Seems like something could be worked out with an OSU-Tulsa series. Sure, it’s hard for a school like Tulsa, which once had the Cowboys on the TU campus every other year, to accept a one-sided rotation system. But maybe compromise is possible. Maybe OSU-Tulsa could rotate between 2-for-1 and 3-for-2 models. That means over a 24-year period, Tulsa would play in Stillwater 15 times and host the Cowboys nine times. In a 2-for-1 setup, the breakdown would be 16 games in Stillwater and eight in Tulsa, over 24 years. One game difference. That seems like a small price to pay for the convenience, the stability and the history that an OSU-Tulsa series provides.
As Holder himself has admitted, the Cowboys playing in Tulsa has residual benefits for their massive alumni base in Green Country.
OSU-Tulsa is a series that needs an anchor. Heck, maybe Bank of Oklahoma can be that anchor.
“We’re thrilled to support this historic and exciting series between two of the state’s top college football programs,” said Pat Piper, executive vice president of Consumer Banking Services for BOK Financial. “Bank of Oklahoma’s beginnings go back to 1910 just before the start of this series, so it’s with particular pride that we partner on an event with such rich history and which brings together fans from across the state.”
The college football season opens this month – doesn’t that sound good to say? – and one of the first kickoffs is Tulsa at OSU, on Aug. 31. And that venerable series now has a title sponsor.
The series between the Cowboys and the Golden Hurricane will be named the Bank of Oklahoma Turnpike Classic.
As series names go, it’s not at the top of the list. But it’s not awful. The Civil War (Oregon State-Oregon) or the Holy War (Utah-Brigham Young) or the Bedlam Series are juicier. The Egg Bowl (Ole Miss-Mississippi State) is more eclectic. The Territorial Cup (Arizona State-Arizona), the Iron Bowl (Alabama-Auburn), the Rocky Mountain Showdown (Colorado State-Colorado). There are lots of names out there.
The Cimarron Turnpike runs from west Tulsa to I-35 north of Perry, with a short spur on the western edge that goes to north Stillwater. So Turnpike Classic is an OK name for OSU-Tulsa. Seems like we used to call Oklahoma City-Tulsa minor league games in baseball and hockey the Turnpike Series; now that’s possible only in soccer.
I would prefer the word Cimarron in the name, because I love the word Cimarron. Sounds cool, and has an old-Oklahoma statehood ring to it. But Turnpike Classic is a decent name for the OSU-TU series. Now if only the schools will keep the series going.
OSU and Tulsa have met 71 times in football, dating back to 1914 and not counting a 1922 forfeit. OSU-Tulsa was played every year from 1926-65, then every year from 1981-96.
OSU’s only more common rival has been OU. Tulsa’s only more common rival has been Arkansas, and that series spans 72 games.
But OSU-Tulsa has been staged just four times in the 2000s – 2000 and 2011 in Tulsa; 2004 and 2010 in Stillwater.
The series continues with three games scheduled in 2019, 2020 and 2021. But after that, nothing is contracted.
When the series was annual, it alternated between Tulsa and Stillwater. That’s not feasible in the contemporary financial makeup of major college athletics. OSU would need a 2-for-1 setup. That’s hard for an in-state school like Tulsa to accept. But accept it Tulsa might.
“I’m open to it and we’ve had discussions about it,” TU athletic director Derrick Gragg told the Tulsa World last summer. “But at the end of the day, we’re always going to do what’s best for TU. As you can imagine, we’re talking to a lot of institutions about playing football and basketball in the future.”
Yes, there’s a basketball component. The OSU-Tulsa hoops series wavered over the years, too, though the schools have played in recent seasons.
“We like the idea of playing Tulsa in football and basketball on an annual basis,” said OSU athletic director Mike Holder. “This matchup brings a lot of passion on both sides. I’ve visited about this multiple times with Derrick Gragg, and I believe that he is open-minded about the concept.”
In the crazy world of college scheduling, where teams are crisscrossing the nation for games, you’d think an in-state series would be ideal. OSU is in a conference with West Virginia. Tulsa is in a conference with Connecticut, Temple and two Florida schools. Financially, the cost of purchasing home games is skyrocketing. Some schools are paying more than $1 million for an opponent to make an appearance.
OSU has scheduled recent 2-for-1 deals with South Alabama, Central Michigan, Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana-Lafayette.
Seems like something could be worked out with an OSU-Tulsa series. Sure, it’s hard for a school like Tulsa, which once had the Cowboys on the TU campus every other year, to accept a one-sided rotation system. But maybe compromise is possible. Maybe OSU-Tulsa could rotate between 2-for-1 and 3-for-2 models. That means over a 24-year period, Tulsa would play in Stillwater 15 times and host the Cowboys nine times. In a 2-for-1 setup, the breakdown would be 16 games in Stillwater and eight in Tulsa, over 24 years. One game difference. That seems like a small price to pay for the convenience, the stability and the history that an OSU-Tulsa series provides.
As Holder himself has admitted, the Cowboys playing in Tulsa has residual benefits for their massive alumni base in Green Country.
OSU-Tulsa is a series that needs an anchor. Heck, maybe Bank of Oklahoma can be that anchor.
“We’re thrilled to support this historic and exciting series between two of the state’s top college football programs,” said Pat Piper, executive vice president of Consumer Banking Services for BOK Financial. “Bank of Oklahoma’s beginnings go back to 1910 just before the start of this series, so it’s with particular pride that we partner on an event with such rich history and which brings together fans from across the state.”
