They've played the red river showdown one hundred and eight times. It's played on a neutral site (cotton bowl), and the crowd is as close to 50/50 as you will ever see in any stadium. Both teams are more closely tied to that game than they are to any of their "traditional" in-conference rivalries (see NU, ATM).
108 times. We haven't played ANY team that many times. Hell, Michigan and tOSU have only played 2 more times than that, and Army - Navy has been played a grand total of 6 more times.
They may go back to separate conferences if the B12 has more upheaval, but, yeah they're tied together.
I get that, and it's kind of my point - they've kept it together out of conference for so long that it seems like they don't NEED to be in the same conference. So when everyone says that OU and UT MUST stay together, that's crap...they'll keep scheduling each other (or they just won't care a la aTm).