College Football

2024 Oklahoma State football predictions: Ranked No. 15 by RJ Young

Updated Aug. 12, 2024 10:27 a.m. ET

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Oklahoma State Cowboys ranking: 15/134

[Check out RJ Young's ultimate 134 college football rankings here]

Conference ranking: 2nd in Big 12 (+750 to win conference)
Teams ahead of them: Penn State (14), Tennessee (13), Utah (12), Oklahoma (11), Missouri (10)
Teams behind them: Notre Dame (16), USC (17), Kansas State (18), Clemson (19), Kansas (20)

[Oklahoma State 2024 schedule]

RJ's take: Casuals see OSU here and think they don't belong, like a steel guitar in a rap song. They'd be wrong. I thought this was a top 10 team before the star running back got stopped while swerving in his vehicle at high speed, was found to have half-empty bottles of tequila and finally was found to have registered blood alcohol levels exceeding the legal limit.

Oklahoma State, you ought to be on the warpath this season. You're the most experienced team in the entire country.

The Cowboys finished ranked No. 16 in the final AP ranking. Yes, they got destroyed in the Big 12 title game by Texas 49-21 in Arlington, Texas, but they beat the same Oklahoma team that beat that Texas team earlier in the season. But even if you weren’t willing to call that a wash — win against OU, lose to Texas — neither of those teams is on the Pokes’ schedule for the first time since 1905.

The toughest opponent on OSU’s schedule will be Stillwater Self-Sabotage — like their inexplicable 33-7 loss to South Alabama at home. Barring that, they’ll be as talented as any team they face all year — including Arkansas and Utah. They return the best tailback on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line in Ollie Gordon (1,732 rush yards) all five starters on that 2023 offensive line with 214 combined starts, a seventh-year QB who threw for 3,460 yards, a receiver who fell just nine yards short of 1,000 yards receiving in Brennan Presley and three 100-tackle performers, including Nick Martin who notched 140. Martin is one of nine returning starters on a defense that coordinator Bryan Nardo ought to be able to make into one of the nation’s best.

Handle your Big 12 business and then, maybe, start talking about winning the national title instead of having to point toward Army’s 1945 national title banner you chose to erect at Boone Pickens Stadium.

Oklahoma State Cowboys' Win Total Odds: Over 8 (-130) Under 8 (+110)

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