Oklahoma State Just Outside NCAA Tournament Picture After Stunning BYU at Midway Point

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State seemingly went from NCAA Tournament longshot to well, it’s hard to sum up the Cowboys’ postseason chances better than CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein did following Wednesday night’s 99-92 win over No. 16 BYU.

Oklahoma State is all of a sudden “in position to be in position”. Cowboys get a massive win at home against BYU. Have also beaten Texas A&M and UCF. Could be an interesting month ahead in Stillwater.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 5, 2026

To show how close this could be, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had the Cowboys as the fourth team miss the field of 68 in his latest bracketology report released on Friday morning. Notably, fellow Big 12 teams TCU and Baylor were the seventh and eighth teams out.

Record: 16-6 (4-5)

NET: 61

If the season ended today, Oklahoma State would likely be discussed, but the Cowboys are almost certainly still on the wrong side of the bubble. Still, there are plenty of opportunities to change that.

The Cowboys have five remaining Quad 1 games left on the schedule, starting with Saturday’s trip to No. 1 Arizona.

Best Wins

Home vs BYU: 17 (Quadrant 1)

Home vs. Texas A&M: 36 (Q2)

Home vs. UCF: 42 (Q2)

One could say the Cougars are in free fall after losing four of the last five, but considering BYU’s other four losses this season come against top 13 teams in the latest AP Poll, that’s probably just life in the Big 12.

Texas A&M is knocking on the door of the top 25 and Q1 status. However, the Aggies’ loss at Alabama on Wednesday likely means they’ll need to upset either Florida or Vanderbilt in the coming week to have a chance of moving the needle for either the poll or the NET ranks.

UCF has a pretty easy schedule (for a Big 12 team), so the Knights are a good bet to stay put in the NET ranks. Oklahoma State’s visit on March 3rd should count as a Q1 game and could also decide whether UCF finishes the regular season ranked inside the top 25 (the Knights were the unofficial 29th team this week). That also happens to be Oklahoma State’s most winnable Q1 game left on the schedule based on current NET rankings.

Worst Losses

Neutral vs. Oklahoma: 85 (Q2)

Home vs. Baylor: 48 (Q2)

At TCU: 53 (Q1)

The Cowboys made it to February without a bad loss, and things will likely stay that way. The rest of OSU’s slate should fall safely into the top two quadrants.

The only real chance for a stain on Oklahoma State’s resume would require the Sooners to continue their free-fall. Oklahoma currently ranks 85th in the NET and would count as a Q3 loss if the Sooners tumble outside the top 100.

Three teams ranked less than 10 spots ahead of OSU in the NET have multiple losses across Q3 and Q4 games. As do six of the 10 teams ranked right behind the Cowboys. In theory, many of these are teams that would be fighting for some of the final at-large berths come March. Oklahoma State is currently winning the “beats who they should beat” argument. If the Cowboys can close the gap a little more in signature wins, then they have a great case for the selection committee.