Five Thoughts on OKC Dave’s 2025 OSU Fan Survey Results

With all the moving parts college athletics entails plus the fact that the Cowboys are coming off a football season the likes the university hasn’t seen in a long time, this was one of the more interesting Dave Hudson OSU Fan Surveys in recent memory.

It was Dave’s 18th annual OSU fan survey, meaning the survey might be starting its freshman year in Stillwater today along with the rest of the Class of 2029 (we’re all so old). Dave released his findings from the survey this weekend. You should definitely read his full 40-page report filled with graphs and tables that help put everything into perspective. But here are five takeaways that I had from this year’s survey.

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1. Last Season Predictably Dropped Football Interest Levels

Forty-one percent of people who took the survey stated they were either “a little less interested” or “much less interested” in the days and weeks leading up to the 2025 OSU football season. Although those numbers are the highest they’ve ever been, that still means that 59% of people voted “no change,” “a little more interested” or “much more interested.”

OSU fans predicted the Cowboys to finished seventh in the Big 12 — up three spots from where ESPN’s SP+ had OSU. Fans also predict the Cowboys to win 6.4 regular season games. That’s the lowest fans have predicted for an OSU football team since the survey started, but it is worth noting that it’s still higher than Vegas’ line.

Eighteen percent of respondents answered yes that OSU would play in the national championship game within the next 10 years — which is a survey-low. Mike Gundy’s approval rating is also at a survey-low of 62%, but it’s worth noting that just a year ago, it was at 95% — the roller coaster of competitive sports.

My big takeaway from all the football data was that, yes, people are down about the Cowboys after the 3-9 season, which makes sense. But there is still that little glimmer of optimism that the fanbase has that this team will outperform the more national predictions for it.

2. Polls on Players Were Chaotic

The questions that unexpectedly stumped me on the survey this year were about favorite football players. By the results, those questions did a lot of stumping this year.

The offensive favorite went to sophomore tight end Josh Ford, who captured 24% of the vote (edging out Rodney Fields Jr. by one vote). The defensive favorite went to Cameron Epps with 15% of the vote. Those are the two of the lowest percentages for winners of the vote since Dave incorporated the question in 2009. Ford only beat out Desmond Roland’s 22% in 2014, while Epps had the lowest percentage of any defensive favorite.

For reference, Justice Hill had the highest percentage of favorite votes in 2018 at 67%. Calvin Bundage got 61% of defensive votes that same season.

It’s obviously a sign of the heavy amount of turnover OSU’s roster experienced this offseason. No one knows hardly anything about the players on the team enough to have a favorite.

This isn’t the first time the OSU fanbase showed some love to Epps. He was tied for second in the breakout player vote last year and stood alone in second in that vote this season to go with his title of favorite defensive player. What’s not to love? Epps is a big-bodied defensive back at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds. An injury ended his season early last year, but his pick-six against Will Howard in 2023 was a big highlight in the turnaround of that season.

3. Fans Split on Quarterbacks

This is the most in-the-dark quarterback battle the Cowboys have had in some time given neither Zane Flores or Hauss Hejny have thrown a pass in a college game.

That lack of concrete knowledge on either guy made for some interesting results in the survey. One of the prompts was “This QB will get the most snaps this year,” where Hejny edged Flores out with 54% of the vote to Flores’ 46%. However, Flores actually edged Hejny out in the breakout player vote — even more narrowly — with both getting 15% of the vote. Flores also finished third in the favorite players vote behind Ford and Fields.

I’ve already expressed my feelings on how I’m cool with this quarterback battle taking time to work itself out. I think it’s also for the best that neither guy is the runaway fan-favorite so that whatever happens on the field doesn’t grind up against expectations based off high school recruiting rankings.

4. A Wrestling and Golf School

The more things change, the more they stay the same. OSU fans are very fired up about their wrestling and golf programs.

For starters, David Taylor and Alan Bratton went No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the coaches/administrators rankings. After his Cowboys finished third at NCAAs with two individual national champs, David Taylor had a 4.7 rating out of five. That’s among the highest ratings since the survey started including them in 2014. There have been only two other 4.7s given — Kenny Gajewski in 2024 and Josh Holliday in 2014. There have been two 4.8s awarded — Mike Gundy in 2017 and Holliday in 2016.

Fresh off winning a national title, Bratton’s 4.4 was near a survey-best for him, trailing only his 4.5 after winning the 2018 national title.

OSU fans also voted wrestling and golf, in that order, as the programs they’re most-excited for the future of. The only time a sport has gotten a higher vote than that were two 4.8s in football — 2015 and 2017.

Golf’s 4.3 is the highest it has been since 2019.

Wrestling also jumped up to 9% in the “I would rather OSU win a national championships in ___” category. That’s the highest percentage any non-football or basketball team has had by four percentage points.

5. Cautious Optimism Surrounding Cowboy Basketball

There once was a time OSU fans weren’t cautiously optimistic about OSU basketball; they were full-blown optimistic.

The stretch from 2019 to 2021 saw the highest ratings for how excited the fans were for the future of the program. Those same three surveys saw at least 80% of fans vote that OSU would win a conference title within the next five seasons.

OSU went a combined 54-38 in those three seasons — closing with a 15-15 2021-22 season. That seemed to bring the hype back down to reality, but things are trending back up — though less radically — in Year 2 under Steve Lutz.

Seventy-two percent of fans voted that OSU would make the NCAA Tournament this year. That’s double what the vote was last year. The conference title question also started going back up, hitting a 40% vote after two seasons in the 30s.

Lutz also went from a 3.3 fan rating in his first year to a 3.6 in Year 2. That moved him from No. 9 to No. 6 in the coaches and administrators rankings.

So, while basketball fever isn’t all the way back, things are trending up. Perhaps that cautious optimism will provide more realistic expectations within the fanbase as the Cowboys continue their attempted climb back to national relevancy.