CFP National Championship Serves as Important Reminder for Oklahoma State
In this story:
Oklahoma State and the rest of the college football world saw its dream unfold on the biggest stage.
On Monday night, Indiana completed its dream season with a tight win over Miami in the national title game. After a 16-0 year, the Hoosiers are undeniably the best team in college football, and it all came together incredibly fast under Curt Cignetti, who has turned into a college football legend since making his way to Indiana.
While the Hoosiers’ win will be talked about for years to come for a variety of reasons, the most important might be what it means for programs like OSU. Coming into this season, the Cowboys had hopes of at least competing in the Big 12 and getting back to a bowl game.
Instead, OSU ended up 1-11 and fired Mike Gundy after just three games. With this new era of the transfer portal and NIL leading to some seemingly insurmountable obstacles for mid-level power four programs like OSU, Indiana’s dream season was a reminder that this era can also empower those smaller teams and not just make the Alabamas and Georgias of college football unbeatable.
With Eric Morris coming into Stillwater looking to revive the OSU program, he’s brought in a number of potential contributors for next season who will be looking to change the fate of football in Boone Pickens Stadium. After OSU had found unfathomable success under Gundy over the past two decades, stories like Indiana should only make Cowboy fans even more hopeful that Morris will be able to take the school to another level on the football field.
Of course, none of this will be easy. Simply making it to the 12-team playoff is a massive accomplishment, and it’s far from guaranteed in the Big 12, which has only seen one team get in each year in this 12-team era.
Perhaps Miami is also a great tale of what could happen in this era. After some losses during the regular season that would’ve undeniably kept the Hurricanes out of the playoff in the four-team era, they were allowed the opportunity to get hot at the right time and make an unforgettable run that ended one drive short of a national championship.
With an offensive-minded coach in Morris, OSU’s hopes of becoming the next Indiana or Miami might be within reach, but even if everything looks good on paper, the Cowboys will need to find ways to thrive on the field starting in 2026.
Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.