Series History: Oklahoma State Looks to Break Two-Game Skid to Iowa State

Support PFB with a PFB+ membership — $8 a month or $50 for a year.

The Cowboys are back on the road this weekend, making the trek up to Ames to try to break a two-game skid to the Cyclones. Let’s take a look at the long history between Oklahoma State and Iowa State as well as couple of memorable matchups.

Capsule

Overall record: OSU leads 34-22-3
Neutral site meetings: N/A
Meetings in Stillwater: OSU leads 19-8-2
Meetings in Ames: OSU leads 15-14-1
Past 10 meetings: OSU leads 6-4
First meeting (1926): OSU defeated ISU 13-0 (Ames)
Most recent meeting (2025): ISU defeated OSU 20-13 (Stillwater)

The Cowboys had a stranglehold on this series about 10 years ago, but things have been a lot more even of late. Iowa State has won three of the last four over the Pokes. Before that the Cowboys had won eight of nine games in the series, including winning six straight from 2012 to 2017.

Oklahoma State has dropped the last two games with Iowa State, a 20-13 loss in Stillwater last year and 34-27 loss in Ames back in 2023.

OSU’s last win against Iowa State came back in 2022 when Spencer Sanders came off the bench to help lead the Pokes to a comeback victory. It was the Cowboys’ only win over the last half of the season.

In 2021, a Brock Purdy-led Cyclones squad handed OSU it first loss of the season, upsetting the No. 7 Cowboys 24-21. The Cowboys would finish 12-2 with its only other L coming to Baylor in the Big 12 Championship.

Purdy was already a proven Cowboy killer. He upset the 25th-ranked Cowboys 48-42 as a true freshman in 2018. If you took Purdy out of the mix on those two, there’s a chance the Pokes would have extended their win streak against Iowa State to 10 leading into these last two meetings.

Of course, there was the infamous heartbreak in Ames back in 2011. A Quinn Sharp missed kick paved the way for the Cyclones to complete their 17-point comeback and end the Pokes’ BCS title hopes in a double-overtime win. Finally, enough time has passed that this game we don’t speak of can be referenced.

This iteration of the Cowboys and Cyclones kicks off at 6 p.m. Saturday in Ames.