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Big 12 Baseball Championship  •  May 21-24  •  Arlington, Texas  •  Globe Life Field

TV: ESPN+ (Clay Matvick & Mike Rooney)  
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network & The Varsity App    KSPI 93.7 FM / KSPI 780 AM    okla.state/GetVarsity    (Rex Holt & Matt Davis)
Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
X: @osubaseball (in-game scoreboard/updates)
Series: Cowboys lead, 59-45
Last: 5/11/25 in Waco; Bears won, 5-4, in 10 inn.

• Oklahoma State is 27-22 and closed the regular season by winning nine of its last 10 games with series wins over UCF, Baylor and Arizona State.
• OSU finished seventh in the Big 12 standings with a 15-12 conference record.
• Up next, the Cowboys open play at the Big 12 Championship with a first-round matchup against Baylor Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
• The Pokes own a .256 team batting average and .466 slugging percentage and are averaging 6.6 runs per game. Brayden Smith leads OSU with a .313 batting average and 14 doubles, while Nolan Schubart paces the Cowboys with 17 homers and 53 RBIs.
• OSU’s pitching staff sports a 4.34 ERA; the Cowboys rank among the nation’s best in shutouts (5), strikeouts per nine innings (9.9) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.65).
• Baylor is 33-21 and completed the regular season by winning 2-of-3 games at UCF.
• At 13-17 in Big 12 play, the Bears finished tied for ninth in the conference standings.  
• The Bears are hitting .288 as a team and averaging nearly seven runs per game. Tyriq Kemp is hitting a team-high .364, while Wesley Jordan leads BU with 10 homers and 41 RBIs.
• BU’s pitching staff sports a 4.56 ERA and has 433 strikeouts and 171 walks in 474 innings.
• OSU owns a 59-45 advantage in the all-time series and won this year’s regular season series by taking the first two games in Waco earlier this month. OSU is 21-12 against the Bears under head coach Josh Holliday. 

Cowboys At The Big 12 Championship

• OSU is making its 26th appearance at the Big 12 Baseball Championship. The Cowboys own a 43-43 all-time record in the tournament, including a 30-17 mark under Josh Holliday.
• The Cowboys are the No. 7 seed in this year’s 12-team, single-elimination tourney.
• OSU has advanced to the tournament final seven times under Holliday — 2014, ’15, ’17, ’19, ’21, ’23 and ’25.
• OSU has won four Big 12 Championship titles.

  • In 2004, the Cowboys defeated Missouri, 10-9, in 13 innings in Arlington, Texas.
  • The 2017 tourney saw the Pokes knock off Texas in the title game in Oklahoma City, as OSU became the first No. 8 seed in tourney history to claim the crown.
  • In 2019, the Cowboys returned to the winner’s circle, defeating West Virginia, 5-2, in the final.
  • Last season, OSU knocked off Bedlam-rival Oklahoma, 9-3, to take the trophy.

Home Away From Home

• Over the last four seasons, OSU has played 32 games at Globe Life Field. The Pokes are 18-14 all time at the home of the Texas Rangers, going 5-5 in 2022, 5-4 in 2023, 7-2 in 2024 and 1-3 this season.

Change has been inevitable in college athletics since 2021 with the arrival of the transfer portal and name, image, and likeness (NIL). How everything was done for decades almost immediately changed over night. That quickly turned into a bunch of lawsuits against the NCAA that are still ongoing.

College sports administrators are now trying to put a stop to the lawsuits once and for all.

On July 1, revenue-sharing is set to arrive in college athletics as long as Judge Claudia Wilken passes the NCAA v. House settlement (which is expected). That means power conferences can share up to $20.5 million with student-athletes. That also means the arrival of an NIL clearinghouse called “NIL Go” that will be run by accounting firm Deloitte. Any deal over $600 must be submitted and approved moving forward. This was a move to stop pay-for-play via NIL collectives from happening. But many were skeptical because antitrust lawsuits could still be used for schools and players to fight back against the NCAA.

Well, college leaders have a plan.

Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reported on Monday night that officials from the power conferences (Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC) are circulating a document intended to prevent universities from using their own state laws to violate new enforcement rules. This would requires schools to waive their right to pursue legal challenges against the College Sports Commission (CSC). The CSC is serving as the new enforcement arm in college athletics.

“The CSC, soon to hire an executive director, board and enforcement staff, is expected to manage the enforcement and infractions of the new athlete revenue-share era, in a way replacing a much-maligned NCAA-controlled process of lengthy investigations, controversial enforcement decisions and what some believe to be unnecessary committee hearings,” writes Dellenger.

Three weeks ago, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that would allow Memphis, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt — in the simplest terms possible — to break the new rules established by the settlement and continue pay-for-play. That was setting those schools up for the future in a post-settlement world where lawsuits were expected to continue.

The revenue-sharing settlement gives college sports a structure but some in the NCAA membership didn’t seem ready to buy-in completely. This contract now floating around as conferences host spring meetings is a step by leaders to prevent more lawsuits. Dellenger reports that schools that do not comply could face conference expulsion. You know what that could bring? You guessed it. More lawsuits.

Nothing can happen until the settlement passes. Everyone is still waiting on that, but there is going to be a fight over the summer when the settlement arrives. College Commissioners and their offices have a plan in place. Some members might not be willing to play ball. That could create more chaos.

SEC spring meetings run from May 27-29 in Destin. Those just got a lot more interesting.