The most telling assessment of OU is in Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. He quotes of former president of the University of Oklahoma as saying he hoped to build a university of which the football team could be proud.
Kinda says it all...
That was President George L. Cross, who was an excellent university president. The time was approximately 1949. I heard Pres. Cross say that very thing.
President Cross had the great good sense to hire Bud Wilkinson as football coach, and Bud built a team which had winning streaks of 31 and 47 games.
That was then. This is now. And President David Boren and his predecessors have presided over the building of an university whose academics make us indeed proud.
And Prexy Boren also had the great good sense to hire Bob Stoops as head football coach. Bob has built a football team of which the University can again be very proud.