The Oklahoma State Cowboys have an 18-game Big 12 losing streak and a two-year streak with no bowl game. The two things go hand in hand.

The Cowboys must win at least six games to get to a bowl game. That means winning, at minimum, three conference games, assuming OSU wins all three non-conference games. Lose a non-league game and the Cowboys must win four.

Oklahoma State is 4-20 since reaching the Big 12 Championship game, losing to Texas and then going to the Fiesta Bowl. If the Cowboys want to turn things around under first-year head coach Eric Morris, getting to a bowl game is a good first step.

This bowl projection should make the Cowboys feel good.

Oklahoma State’s Optimistic Bowl Projection

Athlon Sports’ 2026 football annual is on newsstands and in its Big 12 preview the publication picked the Cowboys to finish in eighth place. The publication didn’t provide a projected record. But the teams in the eighth-place range in the Big 12 last year all won at least six games, meaning they went to a bowl game.

So that meant Athlon’s is projecting the Cowboys are good enough to go bowling this year, which means they’re going to end their Big 12 losing streak and get out of the conference’s cellar. Good news. But where?

The publication has the Cowboys meeting former Big 8 rival Missouri in the Texas Bowl in Houston. If that’s the case it would be Oklahoma State’s fourth trip to a bowl game in Houston, including the 1983 Bluebonnet Bowl at the Astrodome. It would also say something about where OSU stands in the conference.

Recently, the full bowl game schedule was released and the Big 12’s bowl game pecking order was also announced. Of the league’s non-playoff bowl tie-ins, the Texas Bowl is No. 3 on the list behind the Alamo Bowl and Pop Tarts Bowl. These tie-ins would apply to Big 12 teams after the College Football Playoff participants are decided.

The Cowboys would go third in this scenario. BYU, the team picked second, would go to the Alamo Bowl, while Houston, which is projected to finish third, would go to the Pop Tarts Bowl.  

Why take OSU if you’re the Texas Bowl? That bowl committee may be banking on the infusion of offense making the Cowboys an exciting team to watch this season, which would be enticing to any bowl game committee. Morris runs the Air Raid offense and imported the key players from his former job, North Texas, where they went 12-2. That includes quarterback Drew Mestemaker.  

But by taking OSU, that committee would be taking the Cowboys over Utah, Kansas, Arizona and Arizona State, all teams projected to finish better than Oklahoma State. The Texas Bowl would be banking that the Cowboys would be a better draw.

For context, Houston played in the Texas Bowl last season, won the game and wrapped up a 10-win season, if Cowboys fans need another reason to feel optimistic.

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