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Oklahoma St. football: The 5 best non-conference rivalries to revive

By John Scimeca

STILLWATER, OKLAHOMA - OCTOBER 16: Wide receiver D'Juan Woods #84 of the Oklahoma State Cowboys carries the ball during the game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Boone Pickens Stadium on October 16, 2004 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Texas A&M beat Oklahoma State 36-20. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
STILLWATER, OKLAHOMA - OCTOBER 16: Wide receiver D'Juan Woods #84 of the Oklahoma State Cowboys carries the ball during the game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Boone Pickens Stadium on October 16, 2004 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Texas A&M beat Oklahoma State 36-20. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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Oklahoma State’s football program has played 96 different opponents since its first season in 1914. It’s an impressive list, ranging from some really random regional schools like the Haskell Institute (Lawrence, Kan.) Indians once in 1915 to far-flung programs like Air Force, Hawaii, and Temple.

They’ve played now-defunct programs in Creighton and Wichita State many times, and they’ve of course played longtime conference foes like Kansas and Iowa State many times. By far the most common opponent is Oklahoma with 107 meetings. We don’t need to mention the overall win-loss mark there, do we?

There are several good non-conference football rivalries that the Cowboys should revive in the modern day, ranging from Wyoming to Arkansas.

Some are regional schools that provide a competitive (but not overwhelmingly dominant) counterpart, and others are former Big Eight and/or Big 12 rivals that have since moved to greener pastures in different Power Five conferences.

Honestly, it’s a shame that Texas A&M abandoned many of its annual in-state and Big 12 rivalries when it moved to the SEC. Same with Nebraska and many of its storied tussles with Big Eight programs like OU, Kansas, and OSU. It would be fun for OSU to reschedule these two opponents, among others.

Here are the five non-conference opponents that OSU needs to schedule:

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