Oklahoma football: OU officials discuss possible trade from Fiesta Bowl to Sugar Bowl

Call it desert fatigue.

The Sooners have played bowl games in Greater Phoenix four of the previous six seasons: 2006, 2007 and 2010 in the Fiesta Bowl, and 2011 in the Insight Bowl.

The only way the Sooners can earn the Fiesta Bowl automatic berth is by beating TCU on Saturday, coupled with a Kansas State loss to Texas.

If that scenario occurs, “probably a trade to the Sugar Bowl,” said an OU source.

Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said he had heard those “rumblings” too.

“As you know, there is a provision within the BCS that once the selections are made, you can trade matchups,” Burda said.

A similar switch was proposed in 2007, when the Sooners won the Big 12 title and were headed to the Fiesta Bowl for the second straight season. Kansas, 11-1 and highly ranked, was an at-large pick of the Orange Bowl.

Bowl officials discussed an OU/KU swap but ultimately stayed with the assignments.

“At that time, the (conference) commissioners didn't have an appetite to move a champion out of a contracted bowl,” Burda said. “The landscape has changed. There are new faces around the table, so it would be hard to guess what their preference would be.”