Oklahoma State, Kansas State Reminded of Downfalls Ahead of Late-Season Matchup
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This weekend’s battle was supposed to be a battle between some of the Big 12’s rising forces, but not much has gone according to plan since conference realignment.
Over the past couple of seasons, the Big 12 has been turned upside down entirely. After over a decade of the 10-team league featuring a round-robin schedule and constant competition, the Big 12 began to change in 2023 before arriving in its latest form in 2024.
With Oklahoma and Texas departing the conference after 2023, there were some clear candidates for which programs would take over as the Big 12’s new forces. While there were some intriguing programs joining the conference in 2023 and 2024, Oklahoma State and Kansas State looked to be the clear-cut candidates to become the successors to the thrones of Oklahoma and Texas.
On Saturday, OSU and Kansas State will meet in a mid-November showdown in Stillwater, one that would have seemed guaranteed to be at the forefront of the national landscape if you had told someone about it a couple of years ago. Instead, these teams are struggling to find any sort of footing in the new-look Big 12.
While the Wildcats had a typical “down year” for a preseason contender last year, finishing 9-4, the Cowboys have amassed only four wins total since the start of the 2024 season. And now, Kansas State’s status has only dropped, entering this weekend’s matchup at 4-5.
While OSU has a healthy lead in the all-time series, things had been relatively even between the programs in recent history as both began to rise in the national and Big 12 landscapes. With such a clear opportunity for an emerging rivalry between perennial conference contenders, OSU and Kansas State appeared poised to take over as the Big 12’s new top dogs.
Yet, this weekend will be a stark reminder that neither program was able to take advantage of the opportunity it was given. As Texas Tech ascends into the College Football Playoff picture, and programs such as BYU, Utah and Arizona State find instant success in their Big 12 tenures, the Cowboys and Wildcats are left on the outside of the conference’s contender conversation.
Of course, there’s always a chance that things will turn around for both teams after such successful runs over the past couple of decades, and that vision of the Cowboys and Wildcats running the Big 12 could be realized in the future. However, this Saturday will simply be another example of the drop both programs have seen.
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.