Oklahoma State Makes Top 5 in Sports Illustrated Preseason Ranking, Rudolph Graces the Cover

Wednesday, Oklahoma State made the top 5 in a preseason poll that you might not have expected...Sports Illustrated. Yep, the magazine that put out the notorious "The Dirty Game", a supposed expose on the dark secrets of the Oklahoma State football program in 2013. Now, SI has named OSU in their top 5 at No. 4 (its highest ranking so far) for the preseason.

Joining Oklahoma State in the top 5 is No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Florida State, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 5 University of Southern California. Oklahoma, Clemson, Penn State, Washington and Auburn (in that order) round out the top 10. Texas A&M ends the list at No.25.

Here’s what they had to say about the Cowboys:

Path to the playoff: A good-but-not-great Pitt (Sept. 16) is the Cowboys’ most challenging non–Big 12 matchup. That’s not to say Oklahoma State needs to be perfect; a loss to a ranked conference foe might not doom the Pokes, should they go on to win the title showdown.

This is pretty close to other preseason polls that are out and I agree with them on most fronts.

They also released their preseason covers and there’s a player you might recognize:

Oklahoma State’s own Mason Rudolph graces one of the covers. While the headlines might have left a bit to desired, these are pretty cool. Rudolph is joined by Alabama’s Jalen Hurts, Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett and USC’s Sam Darnold. This is a big a accomplishment and it’s great to see Oklahoma State being represented.