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

1. Arkansas

OSU and Arkansas just make sense together. You can shoot east across on U.S. Route 412 from Stillwater and make it to Fayetteville within three hours, and some areas of eastern Oklahoma may find themselves more under the sway of the Natural State than they do by the Capitol complex in Oklahoma City.

On the football field, too, it’s a good pairing: the Razorbacks have notably struggled in the loaded SEC West, yes, but they’ve also had eight seasons with eight or more victories (including three times with 10 or 11 wins) in the past two decades. The talent cupboard isn’t completely bare.

More importantly, the two schools have a shared history together with 46 meetings on the gridiron — and Arkansas owns a 30-15-1 edge. Amazingly, the two programs met for every year between 1950 and 1980 save two occasions. They have not played each other at all in the last 41 years.

Cowboys brass should make scheduling Arkansas a priority. Arkansas is a regional rival, a power conference school that often will provide a less talented squad than the Cowboys, and on top of that, it would like nice for the Big 12 to (hopefully) score some wins over an SEC foe. Thankfully, the two schools will meet in 2024 and 2027 to end the four decades-long drought.

Additionally, the Razorbacks have won the last five games in a row against the Cowboys — isn’t it time for some payback?