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.

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State’s women’s tennis team has signed Olivia Lincer to its roster for the 2025-26 season, as was announced on Tuesday by head coach Chris Young.
 
A transfer from UCF, Lincer joins the Cowgirls as the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year after being named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year a season prior. The upcoming junior also earned All-Big 12 First Team honors in singles and doubles in 2025 and was named to the 2024 All-Big 12 Freshman Team.
 
Playing the majority of her matches on court one, Lincer went 15-2 in singles and 11-11 in doubles during the dual season for the Knights. She collected two ranked singles wins and four ranked doubles wins on her way to reaching No. 19 in the national doubles poll.
 
During her freshman season, Lincer went 7-10 in singles and 5-11 in doubles to earn her multiple conference honors. Five of her singles wins came in conference play, and she notched a win against Kansas at the Big 12 Championships in Stillwater.
 
Prior to entering collegiate tennis, Lincer ranked as the No. 5 recruit in her class and reached the Round of 16 at the 2022 Wimbledon Juniors. She also ranked as high as the No. 1 junior and No. 8 female player in Poland and entered college with four singles titles and two doubles titles on her resume.
 
For season-long coverage of Oklahoma State women’s tennis, follow @CowgirlTennis on social media and visit okstate.com.

Because of the current transfer portal system and the ongoing NIL landscape, athletes can now earn a healthy amount of money early by signing with a top-tier college. This has created huge problems for mid-level and smaller programs trying to acquire top-tier talent.

NFL stars Julian Edelman and Josh Duhamel recently highlighted North Dakota State University (NDSU) as one of the schools impacted badly by this shift in college football.

Why Julian Edelman and Josh Duhamel Believe NIL Is Hurting Small-School Football Programs

NFL stars Julian Edelman and Josh Duhamel are speaking up about the growing impact of NIL deals and the transfer portal on college football. During a recent episode of the “Games With Names” podcast, Duhamel opened up about how these changes are making it harder for smaller programs like North Dakota State University (NDSU) to hold on to talent.

“We’re developing a show based on all this stuff. It was called QB Gambit, focused on the quarterback position,” Duhamel said. “We could do spin-offs on the receiver position or other roles, because there’s money out there. But the way these quarterbacks move around changes the trajectory—not only for their career but for their school and conference.”

As a proud NDSU fan, Duhamel explained how one high-profile transfer can create a domino effect. He pointed to Caleb Williams transferring to Oklahoma, which forced Spencer Rattler to move to South Carolina. Then Williams left for USC, pushing Jaxson Dart to Ole Miss. One move can shake up the whole college football map.

Duhamel didn’t hold back when talking about how schools like NDSU are being hit hardest by these changes. He added, “But you know, for schools like NDSU, who really get hurt by this NIL, this transfer portal thing.. so they’re like the Alabama was for all those years. They’ve won like eight of last 10 national championships.”

He also reminded listeners of NDSU’s track record of developing quarterbacks. Their second-leading rusher, Carson Wentz, along with Trey Lance, Easton Stick, and Cam Miller, have all gone to the league in recent years. They may not be superstars, but getting there is tough.

Edelman also added that college football is starting to resemble professional football, where money plays a bigger role in player decisions. “It’s just Pro Football now. It’s crazy,” he said.

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Duhamel’s concerns reflect a growing trend: smaller programs, even dominant ones like NDSU, are struggling to compete in this new era of college football. While schools with strong NIL backing are thriving and stockpiling talent. And nobody has the answer on how to get rid of this problem.