The 2011 Oklahoma State Cowboys football team represented

Oklahoma State University 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 ...

in the

2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on September 1, 2011 and ended on D ...

. The Cowboys were led by seventh year head coach

Mike Gundy Michael Ray Gundy (born August 12, 1967) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Oklahoma State University. Gundy played college football at Oklahoma State, where he played quarterback from 1986 to 1989. ...

and played their home games at

Boone Pickens Stadium Boone Pickens Stadium (previously known as Lewis Field) has been home to the Oklahoma State University Cowboys football team in rudimentary form since 1919, and as a complete stadium since 1920. Aligned in an east-west direction since 1920, th ...

. They are a member of 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 ...

. The 2011 season was arguably the best in the Cowboys' 112-year football history. They opened the season with 10 straight wins, in the process rising to #2 in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

—the school's highest-ever ranking in a major poll. After unexpectedly losing to Iowa State in Ames, they ultimately finished the regular season 11–1, including a 44–10 win over rival

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 ...

for their first win in the

Bedlam Series The Bedlam Series is the name given to the Oklahoma–Oklahoma State rivalry. It refers to the athletics rivalry between Oklahoma State University Cowboys and Cowgirls and the University of Oklahoma Sooners of the Big 12 Conference. Both school ...

since 2002. They also won their first-ever Big 12 title and their first outright conference title since winning the 1948

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

title. They were invited to the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

, their first-ever

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...

bid and the second major-bowl appearance in school history, where they defeated

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

41–38 in overtime. The

Colley Matrix The Colley Matrix is a computer-generated sports rating system designed by Dr. Wesley Colley. It is one of more than 40 polls, rankings, and formulas recognized by the NCAA in its list of College football national championships in NCAA Division I ...

, an NCAA-designated major selector, chose OSU as

national champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

Personnel

Coaching staff

Schedule

* Originally scheduled to kick off at 9:00 p.m. on 9/17 but was delayed past midnight due to lightning.

Rankings

Game summaries

Louisiana–Lafayette

Arizona

Tulsa

Texas A&M

Oklahoma State won consecutive games for the first time at

Kyle Field Kyle Field is the American football stadium located on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, United States. It has been the home to the Texas A&M Aggies football team in rudimentary form since 1904, and as a permanent con ...

as Cowboys' fans chanted "Big 12, Big 12" in the final conference matchup between the two teams.

Brandon Weeden Brandon Kyle Weeden (born October 14, 1983) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. After pursuing a baseball career from 2002 to 2006, Weeden enrolled at Oklahoma State to pla ...

threw for a school-record 483 yards.

Kansas

Texas

Missouri

Baylor

Kansas State

Texas Tech

Iowa State

Oklahoma

Fiesta Bowl vs. Stanford

References

{{Big 12 Conference football champions

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 ...

Oklahoma State Cowboys football seasons Big 12 Conference football champion seasons Fiesta Bowl champion seasons

Oklahoma State Cowboys football The Oklahoma State Cowboys football program represents Oklahoma State University–Stillwater in college football. The team is a member of the Big 12 Conference and competes at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. The Cowboys are ...