The 2023 Texas Bowl was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

played on December 27, 2023, at NRG Stadium in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. The 17th annual Texas Bowl featured

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...

from the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

and Texas A&M from the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC). The game began at approximately 9:00 p.m. EST and was aired on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. The Texas Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The bowl was sponsored by tax preparation software company TaxAct and was officially named the TaxAct Texas Bowl.

Teams

Consistent with conference tie-ins, the bowl featured the Oklahoma State Cowboys of the

and the Texas A&M Aggies of the

(SEC). This was the 29th meeting between Oklahoma State and Texas A&M; entering the game, the Aggies led the Cowboys in the all-time series, 18–10. This was also the third time the two teams faced each other in a bowl game; Texas A&M won both prior meetings, the

1981 Independence Bowl The 1981 Independence Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Texas A&M Aggies. Background The Cowboys finished tied for 3rd in the Big Eight Conference in their first bowl game since 1976. Mean ...

and

2019 Texas Bowl The 2019 Texas Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 27, 2019, with kickoff at 6:45 p.m. EST (5:45 p.m. local CDT) on ESPN. It was the 14th edition of the Texas Bowl, and was one of the 2019–20 bowl games concludi ...

. On two occasions, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M were in the same conference, playing together in the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

(SWC) during 1915–1924 and in the Big 12 during 1996–2011.

Oklahoma State Cowboys

The Cowboys entered the game with a 9–4 record (7–2 in the Big 12) and ranked 20th in the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

rankings. Having defeated

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

on November 4, 27–24, the Cowboys won the tiebreaker for second place in the Big 12 and advanced to the

2023 Big 12 Championship Game The 2023 Big 12 Championship Game was a college football game played on December 2, 2023, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It was the 22nd edition of the Big 12 Championship Game, and determined the champion of the Big 12 Conference for the ...

, which they lost to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, 49–21. This was Oklahoma State's second Texas Bowl, following the aforementioned loss to Texas A&M in the 2019 game.

Texas A&M Aggies

The Aggies entered the game with a 7–5 record (4–4 in the SEC), having finished in fourth place in their conference's West Division. This was Texas A&M's fourth Texas Bowl, setting a new mark for most appearances in the game. In addition to their 2019 triumph over Oklahoma State, the Aggies won the

2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas The 2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, the sixth edition of the game, was a post-season American college football bowl game, held on December 31, 2011, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, as part of the 2011–12 NCAA Bowl season. This was ...

(when the bowl operated under than name) and lost the 2016 Texas Bowl.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Texas A&M Aggies bowl game navbox Texas Bowl Texas Bowl Texas Bowl Texas Bowl Oklahoma State Cowboys football bowl games Texas A&M Aggies football bowl games