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Mussatto: Like it or not, Oklahoma State football will be flying Big 12 flag against Texas

joe mussatto, the oklahoman
·3 min read
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STILLWATER — Conference pride will be on the line Saturday when OSU plays Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Mike Gundy downplayed that idea, rejected the premise even, but Gundy and the Cowboys will be carrying the Big 12 flag whether they’re motivated by conference allegiance or not.

Count Gundy in the not camp.

“Texas and OU are going to the SEC and we’ll be in the Big 12 next year no matter what,” Gundy said Monday.

“There’s no element of Big 12 vs. SEC to this at all?” 

“No,” Gundy said.

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Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy jokingly begins to stand after no questions were initially asked of him at the NCAA college football Big 12 media days in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy jokingly begins to stand after no questions were initially asked of him at the NCAA college football Big 12 media days in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

I don’t blame Gundy and the Cowboys for seeing the game as nothing more than OSU vs. Texas for the Big 12 Championship. Those stakes are high enough. Maybe the interconference politics can serve as bulletin board material, but do players really care about which conference patch they wear on their chests?

Coaches and players aren’t loyal to their schools — and I’m not saying they should be — so why would we expect them to be prideful of a conference?

“The people that matter the most are the players that we recruit and they recruit, and I don’t think they care,” Gundy said. “I think they go to schools for whatever reason, and the SEC versus the Big 12 or Big Ten or Pac-12, I don’t think they care. I just don’t think it’s a factor.”

Gundy has a point there.

But to fans in Lubbock and Waco, Manhattan and Morgantown, they might see Saturday as the Big 12 versus the Big Bad SEC. OSU, an underdog standard bearer, versus Texas, a deep-pocketed traitor.

Do you ever hear Alabama or Georgia players chant S-E-C? Heck no. It’s an anthem for fans. And no fans are more proud of their conference than SEC fans. The OU and Texas faithfuls have already been indoctrinated.

OU fans chanted SEC late this season as a weird way to protest Big 12 officiating, because apparently SEC officials never make bad calls.

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Bi12 Commissioner Brett Yormark walks beside OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg before a Bedlam college football game between the Oklahoma State University Cowboys (OSU) and the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023.
Bi12 Commissioner Brett Yormark walks beside OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg before a Bedlam college football game between the Oklahoma State University Cowboys (OSU) and the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023.

Texas fans chanted SEC last weekend after stomping Texas Tech. The video board in Austin replayed the infamous speech Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark gave in Lubbock, when he told Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire that the Red Raiders “better take care of business” against the Longhorns.

Yormark is scheduled to address the media before the game Saturday, and while he probably won’t be wearing an Ollie Gordon II jersey or a Gundy mullet wig, we can’t rule it out. It’s no secret which shade of orange he’ll be rooting for.

Yormark is a marketing whiz. What better way to market the new-look Big 12 than for Oklahoma State to slam the door on OU and Texas on their way out?

But if Texas, in Yormark’s words, “takes care of business,” Yormark better brace himself for the chant he’ll hear when handing over the Big 12 trophy.

“S-E-C. S-E-C. S-E-C.”

Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football will be flying Big 12 flag vs. Texas Longhorns