Series History: Can Oklahoma State Bookend the Dark Days with Another Win in Tulsa?

If the Cowboys are able to reclaim their mojo, maybe it’s fitting that it happens in Tulsa.

The last time the Cowboys played at H.A. Chapman Stadium, they beat the Golden Hurricane 45-10. Alan Bowman threw for 396 yards and five touchdowns and the Pokes looked set to build off what was (amazingly) a 10-win season in 2023. That was also the last time the Cowboys won an FBS contest.

When the Cowboys return to Tulsa on Saturday, it will have been 721 days since that win. In that span the Pokes have gone 0-20 against FBS football teams. It still doesn’t even seem real.

Let’s take a look at the series between the Cowboys and their other in-state rivals followed by a couple of thoughts.

Capsule

Overall record: OSU leads 44-28-5
Neutral site meetings: N/A
Meetings in Stillwater: OSU leads 28-7-3
Meetings in Tulsa: Tulsa leads 21-16-2
Past 10 meetings: OSU leads 10-1
First meeting (1914): OSU won 13-6 in Stillwater
Most recent meeting (2025): Tulsa won 19-12 in Stillwater

Can OSU Turn a Fitting Page?

If we could somehow erase the events of the two teams’ last meeting (plenty of people in Stillwater would love that), this would be a much less compelling series, but let’s start with that elephant in the room.

The Cowboys were 1-1 (a win over FCS opponent Murray State and a walloping at Oregon) and were in desperate need of a bounce back. What they got was a program-altering loss.

After trading field goals, the Golden Hurricane took a 10-3 in the first quarter. After the offense remained stagnant, OSU found itself down 19-3 in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys showed a little life with a couple quick scores in garbage time but fell to Tulsa for the first time since before Y2K and for the first time at home since 1951.

Four days later, Mike Gundy was out, ending a 21-year tenure and the search that would eventually lead to Eric Morris’ time at the helm had begun.

Interesting Tidbits

In the opposite category of OSU-Tulsa trivia, I guess I was a little surprised to see that the Cowboys have a losing record in Tulsa.

OSU is 21-16-2 in the 918 area code, but that most recent loss was in 1998. The Cowboys also lost in 1995, 1991, 1989 and 1986. The longest losing streak in away games to the Golden Hurricane was five back in the 1930s. The Pokes have won four straight in Tulsa dating back to 2000.

OSU has ended in a draw with Tulsa five times, second only to Oklahoma (seven). Those are also the two teams OSU has played the most historically.

Get used to the Cowboys going back and forth to Tulsa. The two schools are in the midst of an eight-year scheduling agreement which will see them meet annually until 2031.