Oklahoma State continues to deny losing to CMU, seven months later

Well, here we are again.

It’s April 20, 2017, and the propaganda campaign to deny Central Michigan its win against Oklahoma State back on Sept. 10, 2016, continues.

Yep, that reads 11-2, rather than the 10-3 record the team ended up with. This is a rather obvious action. The CMU game is an area of much controversy for OK State football fans, who believe (perhaps rightly) that the Untimed Down was unfairly awarded, costing the Cowboys the game.

We all know what happened next.

Gundy was initially contrite in the post-game presser, acknowledging his mistakes.

"That's a tough one. Just so everyone knows, I was the one who called the passing play," Gundy said on Sept. 10. "To be honest with you, I never even thought of intentional grounding being called at that point in the game. As much time as we put into end of game situations that never really crossed my mind. Unfortunately, that's a difficult way to learn a hard lesson."

But that all quickly changed once OK State realized they had inadvertently gotten themselves into a fight for the College Football Playoff.

Throughout the season, Gundy passive-aggressively attempted to build the narrative that the Central Michigan loss never happened. Gundy has also been advocating for multiple rules changes since the game, including wanting Power Five Confernece refs only at all non-conference home games and keeping a rules official on the sideline.

And that’s only what Gundy has done.

Let’s not forget that the O’Colly, the Oklahoma State student newspaper, called the integrity of CMU as an institution into question in an editorial for not giving the game back. Or Berry Trammel putting CMU in the same moral category as scandal-ridden garbage fires Penn State and Baylor in his own editorial. Both Trammel and the O’Colly suggested CMU had no honor. All over a damn football game.

And the rings appeared in the most cowardly way, too. They tried to do it in stealth.

The rings are not mentioned on the official Twitter accounts of Oklahoma State Athletics or Oklahoma State Football. It’s also very hard to track down who took the original photos, and where the original photos were taken.

Tony Paul, who writes for The Detroit News, chased down someone from the OK State athletic department and confirmed that the rings were indeed real, and that yes, it was totally intentional to omit the CMU loss.

The person that confirmed it? Not the athletic director, not the coach. The student information director.

Ugh.

I’ve written about all this before and thought this was all over, but damn it, I’m going to have to bring out the blowtorch again.

Let’s talk about Oklahoma State and Stillwater real fast:

• The Untimed Down only came about because of Gundy and quarterback Mason Rudolph not knowing the penalty they committed was in the rulebook. So yeah, go ahead and blame the refs for the loss, like every irrational spots fan ever. You’re a man, you’re 49. Be a good man and take some damn responsibility. (Oh, and let’s not forget that rant was began after a local beat writer questioned the motivation behind Gundy sitting his starting QB.)
• Oklahoma State has never really held any particular greatness outside of the Barry Sanders era and World War II. The university’s only claimed national title is in 1945. And the university was awarded it retroactively over 70 years later after appealing to take the title away from... the 1945 Army Cadets, one of the best teams to ever play college football. That’s right, they DON’T SUPPORT THE TROOPS.
• Since 1953, OK State has won just two conference championships (1976 and 2011.) In that same span, CMU has won 14 conference championships (1953-1956, 1962, 1966-1968, 1979-1980, 1990, 1994, 2006-2007 and 2009) and an (earned) national title in 1974.
• The OK State mascot, Pistol Pete, isn’t even original. Currently, three schools use “Pistol Pete” as a mascot, with Wyoming being the original school to apply for the patent. In a stroke of terrific luck, Oklahoma State’s trademark was approved first and OK State eventually sued Wyoming, leading to years of legal battles. OK State would also go on to sue New Mexico State, the other Pistol Pete school, in a move NMSU called “surprising.”
• In terms of integrity, it’s funny that we’ve all largely forgotten about OK State’s massive investigations in to various improprieties during Les Miles and Gundy’s tenure. Players were asserted to be using and selling drugs, the university was accused of rampant academic fraud and the football program’s spirit team was allegedly encouraged to have sex with players. The NCAA instituted a five-figure fine and put them on one year’s probation. OK State did not lose any scholarships or postseason eligibility.
• Oh and there’s this: OK State has had the chance to win the Big 12 the last two years in Bedlam against hated rival Oklahoma... and hasn’t done so. OK State is 18-86-7 overall in the series. Just do your job and you wouldn’t have to worry about trying to make up excuses for your own inadequacies.

All I have left to say is that I’m fired up for the rematch in 2022. We’ve got bragging rights on you for the next five years, and I’ll let you know about it every Sept. 10 from now until then.