Oklahoma State Set to Face Second Ranked Opponent This Season
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Oklahoma State has another tough opponent on the slate coming up.
After falling to the now 5-1 Houston Cougars on Saturday, OSU will be welcoming another 5-1 team into Stillwater in Week 8. Cincinnati is coming off a 20-11 over UCF on Saturday to extend its winning streak to five and will hope to extend that to six, now as a top 25 squad.
In Sunday’s AP poll, Cincinnati earned its first ranking since moving to the Big 12 in 2023, coming in at No. 24. The Bearcats are now one of four ranked teams in the Big 12, joining No. 7 Texas Tech, No. 15 BYU and No. 23 Utah.
After Scott Satterfield combined for only eight wins in his first two seasons as Cincinnati’s head coach, his Bearcats are a legitimate contender in the Big 12, remaining unbeaten in conference play ahead of their matchup against OSU. After knocking off conference title contender Iowa State a couple of weeks ago, Cincinnati established itself as more than just a fun, early-season story.
While the Bearcats have a long road ahead to make the Big 12 Championship or College Football Playoff, they should have no problem giving OSU all it can handle and more. The Bearcats will be only the second ranked team OSU has faced this season and could be one of only three that OSU faces all year.
Of course, the first ranked opponent OSU faced was Oregon in Week 2. In what would be the final power conference game of Mike Gundy’s Cowboy career, OSU lost 69-3, narrowly avoiding the worst loss in program history.
While playing on the road against a national title contender certainly made for a more difficult setting than OSU will see next weekend, the Cowboys could still be in for a rough game. With so many departures through the portal and multiple coaching changes in the past month, the Cowboys have no positive momentum to carry into this game against a Cincinnati team that is clearly figuring things out.
While Cincinnati’s defense hasn’t been all that impressive this season and could give some hope to OSU, the Bearcats also have a top-30 offense, averaging nearly 450 yards a game, which will cause significant problems for the OSU defense. If the Cowboys could do the unthinkable and pull the upset as three-score underdogs, it would be their signature win of 2025, but the Bearcats are as dangerous as they’ve been all season and finally have the ranking to show for it.
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.