OSU’s Bowl Streak in Jeopardy with Two Games Remaining

Oklahoma State is one of three teams with their Top 10 active bowl streak in jeopardy.

OSU, Florida State and Virginia Tech all grace the Top 10 of the NCAA’s active bowl streak list but have yet to get the six wins necessary for bowl eligibility. Times are more dire for Florida State and Virginia Tech who each have only four wins with two games left. Those two teams also carry the two longest active streaks in the country.

Here are the Top 10 active bowl streaks entering this season:

With bowl games’ dwindling notoriety, more players are declining to participate in them, but bowl games still have importance.

The extra practice stand out as the most important benefit, especially for a team like OSU that has 34 true freshmen on its roster. Here’s an explanation from the NCAA on bowl practices from a release in January 2017.

“If more than two weeks elapse between the final regular-season or conference championship game and a bowl or postseason game, then allow up to three practices per week of live contact (including two thud); add three days of noncontact or minimal contact practices per week; and ensure the day preceding and after live contact tackling practices should be noncontact or minimal contact.”

It’s practices like this where either Spencer Sanders or Dru Brown would get a head start to 2018 season. Where young receivers such as C.J. Moore would get extra reps heading into spring, and where linemen such as Hunter Anthony and Jacob Farrell get to continue to build their knowledge of the intricacies of the college football trenches.

Along with the practice, making bowl games (i.e. winning games) helps in recruiting. Six teams of the Top 10 active bowl streaks also have Top 10 recruiting classes in the 2019 cycle. That brings a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario. Are those teams winning because they are recruiting or are they recruiting because they are winning?

Of those 10 schools, OSU is ninth in 247Sports’ 2019 rankings, leading only Boise State. The Cowboys have the 47th-ranked class nationally, so you could argue its bowl streak hasn’t helped too much in that department. But take Florida State for example: despite having only four wins this season, the Seminoles have the No. 10 recruiting class in the country. Apart from OSU and Boise State, the other eight schools on that active bowl streak list have Top-30 classes.

The Cowboys’ bowl streak started in 2006 when OSU topped Alabama 34-31 in the Independence Bowl. Bobby Reid quarterbacked the Cowboys that season. He threw for 2,266 yards and 24 touchdowns in 2006.

The Cowboys are 8-4 in bowl games during the streak and have won two in a row. OSU coach Mike Gundy didn’t seem too worried about bowl streaks Monday at his weekly news conference.

“I’m sure (the players) think about it some,” Gundy said. “People bring that up. They need to be motivated about playing a team that’s whatever they are in the country and go out and play two games back-to-back. That’d be nice. It’d be nice to have two good coaching plans back-to-back and kids play hard for two games and play smart, disciplined football with great effort and be a tough football team. That’d fire me up.”