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COWBOY FANS SPEAK: Records and Losses

When asked, OSU football fans responded overwhelmingly regarding their expectations for 2013.

By Robert Whetsell
Ronald Martinez

I have to say, I was surprised by the results of both polls.

Our first question was about fans' minimum expectation for the season. What were fans willing to accept as a "successful" regular season record?

  1. 76.2%...9-3
  2. 17.2%...8-4
  3. 5.1%..."I'm old school. Don't care what the record is as long as we beat OU."
  4. 1.5%...7-5

While I'm not shocked that "9-3" was the leading response, I was totally shocked at the landslide. That choice actually hovered between 80-90% for most of the poll's life, with "8-4" making a late push. Several respondents, via comments or Twitter, wondered why I didn't include "10-2" as an option. I just couldn't bring myself to offer the "OU" choice...that anything less than 10-2 would be a disappointment.

With almost 300 votes, this was a pretty strong statement.

The next poll dovetailed a bit with the first.

Given that so many fans would be willing to accept 3 regular season losses, what would those losses be?

OSU is almost a TD underdog at Texas, and gives the obligatory "home field advantage" 3 points to OU in Stillwater. Assuming they lose both, then they still need to lose one more, and only one of the remaining 8 opponents is less than a 10 point dog (while there is no line for Tech, I'll presume they are no less of a dog than KState at -9). Any of those would count as a decent upset.

So the question to the fans was who is the most likely underdog candidate for the upset?

1. Baylor, -11...28%

2. @Texas Tech, NL...24%

3. TCU, -10...18%

t4. Mississippi State, -14, neutral site, and @ West Virginia, -11...8%

6. Kansas State, -9...7%

7. Kansas, -29...5%

8. @Iowa State, -14...2%

I agree completely with #1, and David Ubben picked Tech as our first loss of the season.

I sooooo totally don't get #7 & #8. Apparently fans have either wiped 2011 in Ames completely from their memory, or else, like the winning the lotto, they are assuming it will likely never happen again in their lifetime. Still, picking the Jayhawks in Stillwater, well, I just don't have an explanation for that.

So in the end, over 75% of fans say anything less than 9-3 in the regular season is a downer, and over 50% agree that if we lose to someone other than OU and/or Texas, it will be either Baylor or Tech.

Excellent participation in both polls, and interesting results.

GO POKES!!!

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