Big 12 Football: Oklahoma State's Updated Odds to Win Conference Championship
The college football season is six games in, and teams have had an opportunity to either continue declaring themselves, turn things around or completely fall off. Of those, the Oklahoma State Cowboys have absolutely turned things around.
Starting the season off 2-0, the Cowboys were far from impressive, and that led to a 33-7 fallout against South Alabama. From there, it was undetermined what the Cowboys season could look like.
In retrospect, the loss to Iowa State wasn't all that bad, though it felt much bigger at the time. Now, after two straight upset wins, the Cowboys are back on track to be the team they were expected to be preseason. Taking down Kansas State followed by Kansas was huge for Oklahoma State and how their season has gone.
After the big wins, the Cowboys now hold the fourth-best odds to win the Big 12 Conference championship, according to Covers. This is a huge turnaround from where they were just a couple of weeks back.
Taking down West Virginia this weekend could be huge for Oklahoma State. Their remaining schedule would be the final bedlam, which is in Stillwater this season, and matchups against the four newcomers to the Big 12, which have each been quite underwhelming this season.
Needless to say, the Cowboys control their Big 12 destiny. A win over Oklahoma could do wonders as the rest of the games on their schedule are quite winnable, and that's their biggest obstacle remaining.
Still, what the Cowboys are doing this season is huge for reasons beyond the remaining six games. With Oklahoma and Texas on their way to the SEC next season, an opportunity arises for each of the other teams in the league. Oklahoma State could take momentum into a season where the conference is wide open, and a third-place finish behind the two teams departing would do just that.
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Kade has been covering a wide variety of teams ranging from the NFL to the NBA and college athletics since joining Sports Illustrated's On SI in 2022