I fully realize the extent of UM's reputation. The truth is, everyone hates a winner. Miami built their mystique on the pretense of being the badboys of college football. Those days, however, are long gone. Everyone loves to cast stones at Willie Williams, but the fact is that he's been in zero trouble since stepping foot on campus at Coral Gables. Coker and company took a big risk of damaging the school's reputation that Butch worked years to rebuild by signing Williams. It was a leap of faith, but the kid (so far) has done nothing to prove they made a bad decision.
Anyway, the point of the original post was to point out that OU was as renegade as ANYONE (if not moreso) during the '80's. Steroids, guns, drugs, you name it and it was happening in Norman. In fact, OU AND UM were generally grouped together as the "black hats" of college football in those days. OU got a small head start on UM in cleaning up their act, but they were no less "thuggish" in the heyday.
The biggest difference in the two programs (image-wise) was the scheduling. As an upstart (independent at that), Miami had to schedule a very national group of opponents to build their lore. OU was an established powerhouse who played in a power conference. Miami built legions of anti-fans through their games with the likes of ND, PSU, OU, Alababa, etc. People didn't want to see these "thugs" taking it to the traditional powers-that-be. The 8 year span between '83 and '91 (UM won 4 national championships) saw the national hatred for UM skyrocket. College football traditionalists hated them as much for the winning as the thuggery, and it was a lasting hate. The proof is in the pudding. People still hate Miami and refer to them as thugs, even though they've been as clean as any top notch program for 10 years now.
I know you're a young dude, but you seem pretty knowledgeable. Sorry for being long-winded, but I live in OKC and deal with uninformed Sooner fans on a daily basis, so I get a bit defensive about the subject. Also, I'm not inferring that you're uninformed, just that there is a cross section of Sooner fans (as there is with every fan base) who are, and live in close proximity to me.
Hope some of that made some sense to you.