Three Significant Points About Oklahoma State’s 14-Year Bowl Streak

Oklahoma State will win the Camping World Bowl or lose the Alamo Bowl or blast somebody in the Liberty Bowl later this year, and we will all tune in and pay attention and act like an exhibition game means something more than what it actually means, which is not really all that much at all.

The path to get to that exhibition game, however, is not meaningless whatsoever. It signifies a decade and a half of consistency at a level other programs aren’t performing at. And while it’s easy to make fun of the fact that some bowl projections have OSU in the Houston Bowl against Liberty (?), we shouldn’t miss these three things when we talk about OSU becoming bowl eligible for the 14th consecutive trip around the sun.

1. Few teams do it: Not nobody, but few programs have been to more consecutive bowl games than OSU’s 14. Here’s the full list.

• Virginia Tech: 26 (not yet eligible this year)
• Georgia: 23
• OU: 21
• LSU: 20
• Boise State and Wisconsin: 18
• Alabama: 16
• Clemson: 15
• Oklahoma State: 14
• Texas A&M: 11
• Stanford: 10 (not yet eligible this year)

So that’s a group you definitely want to be a part of. And sure, you would rather be Ohio State (currently at seven in a row) having been banned for a year but playing for titles in every other, but I don’t think it’s insignificant that it goes Bama-Clemson-OSU on the bowl eligibility streak list here.

2. It represents a healthy program: I’ll let the head ball coach take the floor for this one.

“The bowl eligibility is special for the university,” said Mike Gundy on Saturday after OSU beat TCU. “It’s special for our organization, the players, the families and everybody to get that. That is a big deal.

“[The end of the game on Saturday is] the first time I’ve lost my composure in a long time as a head coach and I apologized to everybody, but I wanted it so bad because I wanted them to learn that life lesson, that it’s OK to face adversity and find a way to be successful. The bowl just makes it that much better. I didn’t even remember that until somebody told me afterwards. I should’ve, but that’s not where my mind was at that time.”

Nebraska hasn’t been to a bowl since 2016. Ole Miss since 2015. Oregon State since 2013. Kansas since 2008 (!). These are unhealthy programs. OSU has — for the most part — been a healthy program in this span of time. That doesn’t mean that all trajectories currently are good trajectories, but it does say something about your overall health over the last decade plus.

Related!

3. Closing on history: In the B.G. era, OSU went to 16 bowls. In the A.G. era, this will be No. 14. Two seasons from matching the number of bowls OSU went to in the previous 102 years combined. Again, not the most important stat but not a stat we should ignore either.

I am not your local bowl game hype man. I do not want to cover OSU-Liberty in the Houston Bowl. Do not want to cover it at all. But so often we can get lost in the playoff and conference championship takes — and those things are quite important and we should talk about them — but too often what you could have accomplished veils what you’ve actually accomplished. And what OSU has actually accomplished since Gundy took over has been pretty impressive for a long time.