Oklahoma State Opens Big 12 Baseball Tournament as No. 5 Seed
Oklahoma State opens the big 12 baseball tournament as the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 seed UCF at 11 a.m. Saturday in Arizona. The Cowboys are carrying updated NCAA projections into the week, with a postseason destination still tied to what they do in the bracket.
Oklahoma State and UCF
The matchup arrives with a built-in edge for UCF. The Knights swept Oklahoma State in Orlando earlier in the season, so the Cowboys walk into Saturday with a loss already on the ledger against their first opponent.
That makes the opening game more than a routine tournament start. Oklahoma State reached Arizona after winning four conference series in a row to close the regular season, which gave it the No. 5 seed and a path that begins against a team that handled it once before.
NCAA projections for the Cowboys
Nationally, Oklahoma State sits 19th in D1Baseball and 29th in RPI. Both D1Baseball and Baseball America projected the Cowboys as a No. 2 seed in an NCAA Regional, so the next few days can still move their postseason landing spot even after the regular season ended.
D1Baseball placed Oklahoma State in the Tallahassee Regional with Florida State, Kentucky and Binghamton, while Baseball America sent the Cowboys to the College Station Regional with Texas A&M, Louisiana and Saint Joseph's. Those projections show how much the bracket could shift depending on the Big 12 run.
Recent history for Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State has been here before. The Cowboys played in an NCAA Regional in Tallahassee in 2004 and went 1-2, and they have won the Big 12 Tournament three times since 2017, including 2024.
There is also an old NCAA Tournament connection tied to one of the projected regional hosts. Oklahoma State and Texas A&M have not met in NCAA Tournament play since 1987, which gives the College Station projection a deeper edge if that bracket holds. For now, the immediate task is simpler: beat UCF on Saturday morning and keep the regional case strong before Monday's selection show.
