Oklahoma State Cowgirls Well Positioned for Big 12 Title Chase After 2027 Pairings Announced

STILLWATER — After wrapping up the nation’s best portal class, Oklahoma State seemed to catch a few breaks when the Big 12 pairings came out on Thursday morning.

TCU has been the class of Big 12 women’s basketball for the last two seasons, going 1-1 in Big 12 Championship games and winning both regular season titles. The Cowgirls will face the Horned Frogs once this season in Stillwater on a yet-to-be-announced date. Here’s the Cowgirls’ full matrix:

Both: Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas
Home: Arizona, Arizona State, Kansas State, TCU, Cincinnati, West Virginia
Away: BYU, Utah, Texas Tech, Baylor, Houston, UCF

Although it’s difficult to predict how many teams will do year-to-year, ESPN ranked the Horned Frogs portal class fourth and CBS Sports ranked the Horned Frogs 15th in their way-too-early list (Oklahoma State topped the Big 12 at 12th).

The pairing with the Cyclones will draw headlines since that was previously the home for new Cowgirl Audi Crooks. Based solely on recent history, which included some incredible play from Crooks, that’s the toughest draw among the trio.

Meanwhile Colorado and Kansas rank eighth and ninth in conference wins over the last two seasons.

It wouldn’t be shocking to see Baylor emerge as the toughest road assignment for the Cowgirls, as the Bears have finished third or higher in the conference during each of the last two seasons.

Here is where all the Cowgirls’ road opponents ranked in Big 12 wins over the last two seasons with ties broken in favor of last season’s standings:

Baylor- 2nd
Utah- 5th
Iowa State- 6th
Colorado- 8th
Texas Tech- 9th
Kansas- 10th
BYU- 11th
UCF- 15th
Houston- 16th

No West Virginia on the road sounds like another favorable draw, as the Mountaineers have been incredibly consistent the last two seasons (third in Big 12 wins) and won the conference championship last season. They also rank 26th on the CBS Sports way-too-early list.

Arizona State, which ranked 14th in conference wins since 2025, also visits Stillwater this season, which could be noteworthy considering ESPN had their portal class ranked in the honorable mention category which seemingly puts them in the top 10 after the site only ranked five total teams.