WHO: No. 25 Oklahoma State (8-4) vs. Texas A&M (7-5)
WHAT: The 14th Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl
WHEN: 6:45 p.m. ET on ESPN
WHERE: NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas
THE SKINNY: The Texas Bowl became a Big 12-SEC affair in 2014; the SEC took the first two, but Oklahoma State will now look to extend the Big 12’s winning streak to four on Friday night.
Similarly, Texas A&M once owned this series of former Big 12 South bunk mates, taking 10 of the first 12 upon the creation of the conference, but Oklahoma State won the last four.
It’ll be a struggle to get to five, though.
With quarterback Spencer Sanders and receiver Tylan Wallace to take some of the defense’s 22 eyeballs off of Chuba Hubbard, Oklahoma State would walk into the game with a healthy expectation to move the ball. Alas, Sanders and Wallace are out, and Hubbard was limited to right around four yards a pop in two games sans Sanders, while replacement Dru Brown needed around 30 throws to get to 200 yards.
With a healthy Kellen Mond, a young defense, and a red-faced coaching staff angered by a blowout loss to LSU in their finale, expect Texas A&M to use another bowl win as a springboard to “Hey, this could be the year Jimbo wins the SEC” takes again in 2020.
THE PICK: Texas A&M 31, Oklahoma State 17