Bowl Projections: Now That the Cowboys Are Bowl Eligible, Here’s Where Major Outlets Predict Them to Go

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The Cowboys still have a path, albeit rather narrow, to the College Football Playoff, but with three losses this season, the major outlets are predicting the Cowboys to miss out on the 12-team tournament.

However, after two years away from the bowl scene, Oklahoma State became bowl eligible this past week. With postseason football officially locked up, here’s a look at where some of the major outlets predict the Cowboys to go bowling:

ESPN (Kyle Bonagura): Pop-Tarts Bowl vs. Wake Forest
ESPN (Mark Schlabach): Liberty Bowl vs. Auburn
The Athletic (Scott Dochterman): Pop-Tars Bowl vs. Virginia Tech
CBS Sports: Texas Bowl vs. Missouri
Sports Illustrated (Bryan Fischer): Texas Bowl vs. Oklahoma

One of these certainly stands out more than the other: Bedlam in Houston.

In a lot of ways, a Bedlam game being played outside of Oklahoma’s borders feels sacrilegious, but it’s a bowl that would certainly attract a lot of eyeballs.

The Sooners are 5-4 this season, still needing to beat at least one of Ole Miss, Texas A&M or Missouri to get to the six-win threshold. The Sooners have a stout defense under Brent Venables, but their offense has been woeful, leading to the firing of OC Ben Arbuckle. But a matchup of OSU’s high-powered offense vs. the Sooners’ defense would be worth the price of admission.

The Texas Bowl was the last bowl game the Cowboys played in, as after the 2023 season OSU went down to Houston and beat Texas A&M 31-23.

Bedlam was one of two predictions that had the Cowboys in the Texas Bowl, with the other being CBS Sports projecting the Cowboys to meet Missouri in Houston.

The Cowboys and Tigers haven’t played since the 2018 Liberty Bowl, a game OSU won 38-33 that saw Taylor Cornelius quarterback the Pokes and Drew Lock quarterback the Tigers.

Mizzou is 6-3 this season and came in at No. 22 in the updated CFP Rankings on Tuesday.

Speaking of the Liberty Bowl, the Cowboys could make a return to Memphis for the first time since that game against Missouri in 2018, as Mark Schlabach predicted the Cowboys to face Auburn in the Liberty Bowl.

This would be a battle of first-year coaches, as Auburn hired Alex Golesh, who was also reported to be a candidate for the OSU job, in the offseason.

Auburn is 5-4 this season, but the Tigers have a game against Samford coming up which should push them into bowl eligibility even if they lose to Mississippi State and Alabama to close their SEC slate.

OSU and Auburn have never met on the gridiron.

Lastly, there are two projections that see the Cowboys playing in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando.

OSU hasn’t been to this bowl since it was redubbed the Pop-Tarts Bowl, but the Cowboys went to it in 2020 when it was the Cheez-It Bowl and in 2017 when it was the Camping World Bowl.

That trip to the Camping World Bowl was against Virginia Tech, the team The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman predicts the Cowboys to meet in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

The Hokies are 6-3 in Year 1 of the James Franklin Era. Franklin was previously the longtime coach at Penn State.

The programs last played in that game in Orlando — Mason Rudolph’s last game as a Cowboy — where OSU won 30-21.

Wake Forest has been a bit of a Cinderalla story of college football this season. The Demon Deacons are 8-1 and at No. 13 in the CFP Rankings as things stand. OSU and Wake have never met in a football game.