No. 18 Oklahoma State and No. 20 Houston are set for a ranked-on-ranked matchup on Saturday night, but this series has been producing notable games long before the Cougars joined the Big 12 three years ago.
Houston holds the edge all-time, leading the series 11-10-1. The Cowboys are 6-4 over the last 10 meetings, though the most recent one went Houston’s way. The Cougars beat Oklahoma State 39-17 in 2025.
The split by venue has stayed tight, too. Houston leads 6-5 in Stillwater, while the teams are dead even in Houston at 5-5-1. Their first meeting came in 1951, when Houston beat Oklahoma State 31-7.
These two were also conference partners in the Missouri Valley from 1951-56, and Houston controlled that stretch with a 5-1 record against the Cowboys. The schools kept seeing each other on a semi-regular basis after that, meeting nine times from 1957-70.
Oklahoma State went 6-2-1 in those games. They later split a home-and-home series in 1986 and 1987, then played again in 2006, 2008 and 2009 before Houston entered the Big 12 in 2023.
That conference debut brought one of the more memorable recent meetings in the series. Oklahoma State beat Houston 43-30 in 2023 after falling behind 23-9 in the second quarter, then leaning on Brennan Presley and Ollie Gordon to flip the game.
Presley caught 15 passes for 189 yards, both career highs, while Gordon ran for 164 yards and three touchdowns. The Cowboys outscored Houston 24-7 in the second half and left with a road win that helped position them for a Big 12 Championship appearance against Texas.
One of the flashiest chapters in the series came in 2008, when Dez Bryant announced himself in a big way against the Cougars. Oklahoma State had already handled Washington State in Week 1 before opening its home schedule against Houston, and the Cowboys delivered an offensive avalanche.
Zac Robinson threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns, and all three scoring throws - along with most of his yardage - went to Dez. Bryant finished with 236 receiving yards, which still ranks No. 4 all-time for a Cowboy in a single game.
He also returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown and piled up 311 all-purpose yards, which sits ninth in school history. Kendall Hunter added 210 rushing yards and two scores.
Oklahoma State scored 56 points and rolled up 699 total yards, but Houston still led 16-14 at halftime thanks to big plays from Case Keenum, then a future All-American and still a current NFL player. Keenum threw for 387 yards and four touchdowns and added 81 rushing yards of his own.
After Robinson threw an interception in the second quarter, he responded by guiding Oklahoma State on seven straight touchdown drives to close the game.
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For Oregon State, that adds another layer to a season that already asks plenty of every opponent on the schedule. The Beavers are trying to navigate a landscape where national attention can shift quickly, and Mestemakers rise is one more reminder that the teams they face may be built around players with very different stakes and futures. However long he stays in college, he now enters each game with a spotlight that reaches well beyond the present week. [Read more 🡒]