An SEC vs. Big 12 challenge for OSU

STILLWATER – At the time that Oklahoma State had a 2-2 football team and no offensive identity, Mike Gundy says he would have made the Cowboys a 5,000-to-1 long shot to qualify for the Big 12 Championship game.

Gundy’s 19th Cowboy team seems to have 5,000 different personalities, and during the course of this crazy season there were at least 5,000 panic attacks for the OSU fans.

Ultimately, there was a double-overtime victory over BYU on Saturday – a 40-34 Cowboy success witnessed by a rain-soaked and chilled-to-the-bone crowd at Boone Pickens Stadium.

After having rallied from a 24-6 halftime deficit, the Cowboys danced back to their warm locker room with a 9-3 record and a spot in next weekend’s Big 12 Championship game.

In effect, the Big 12 Championship game is football’s version of the SEC-Big 12 Challenge.

Representing the SEC: The 11-1 Texas Longhorns, who are a better version of Texas than any of the nine Longhorn teams defeated by Oklahoma State in 2010-22. In their final Big 12 regular-season game before they move to the Southeastern Conference next year, the Longhorns punished Texas Tech 57-7.

Representing the Big 12: The Oklahoma State Cowboys, who, in spite of a 26-point home loss to South Alabama and a 42-point setback at UCF, are Big 12 Championship participants for the second time in three seasons.

Gundy says he was oblivious to Big 12 tiebreaker scenarios that involved Texas, OU, OSU and Kansas State. When Texas prevailed so emphatically on Friday, the tiebreaker formula was simplified.

If OSU were to beat BYU, the Cowboys would be Texas’ opponent at AT&T Stadium.

If OSU were to lose to BYU, the OU Sooners would be Texas’ opponent at AT&T Stadium.

As Ollie Gordon rushed for 166 yards and five touchdowns for OSU, the Cowboys finally did overcome a BYU team that had been brilliant and clever during the first half. For the 22nd time during the Gundy era, the Cowboys prevailed after having been dealt a double-digit deficit.

There was a double-edged sense of satisfaction as the Cowboys also eliminated the rival Sooners from the Big 12 Championship picture.

Because there was a one-year total of 14 Big 12 football teams, the conference scheduling was funky. While the Cowboys faced conference newcomers Cincinnati, UCF, Houston and BYU, there was for the first time since 1995 no Texas game on the OSU schedule.

“Obviously, Texas is playing at a very high level right now,” Gundy said. “Texas has great players. They’ve always had them. But I like my team.”

One of the highlights in Gundy’s overall body of work is his record against the Longhorns. In 2010-22, Cowboy teams won in nine of their 13 meetings with the Longhorns. With victories in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015, Oklahoma State became the only program in college football to win in four consecutive games played on Texas’ home field.

The 2023 Longhorns, however, are clearly better than any of the nine Texas teams beaten by OSU in 2010-22. Each of those nine Texas squads finished with at least four losses.

The 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2021 Cowboy teams each recorded at least 10 wins. For the 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2021 Longhorn teams, there was a final record of 5-7.

For the sake of enhancing the Oklahoma State brand, those conquests of Texas were important. Truthfully, however, those outcomes were not upsets.

While Texas had four head coaches in 2010-22 (Mack Brown, Charlie Strong, Tom Herman, Steve Sarkisian), OSU had stability, better quarterbacks and better teams.

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark and committed-to-the-Big 12 schools like K-State, Texas Tech, Baylor and Iowa State will be rooting unabashedly for Oklahoma State to humble the SEC-bound Longhorns.

The match-up does not seem favorable for OSU. I haven’t yet seen an actual betting line, but I did see a projected line that had the Longhorns as 14½-point favorites.

Think about it: Alabama’s only loss was delivered by Texas in September. If not for OU’s final-minute-of-the-game touchdown drive in the Cotton Bowl, Texas would be 12-0.

That Texas team is matched with an Oklahoma State team that got trucked by South Alabama and UCF, had a 23-9 deficit late in the first half at Houston, and had an 18-point halftime deficit against BYU.

What would be more on-brand for the 2023 Cowboys?

To play shockingly well and bump Texas from the College Football Playoff picture?

Or for OSU to get rocked by the Longhorns?

For the most unpredictable of Mike Gundy’s OSU teams – the 5,000-to-1 Cowboys – every imaginable possibility is on the table.