Oklahoma State Gave Its Football Players A Participation Trophy In The Form Of Rings For Losing The Cotton Bowl
Apparently the “participation trophy generation” is starting to find its way into college athletics.
In 2013 the Oklahoma State Cowboys had what most programs would consider a very good year. The team finished 10-3 overall, and flirted with both a Big 12 championship and a BCS bowl before eventually playing in, and losing, one of the most prestigious non-BCS bowl games in the Cotton Bowl. In fact, Oklahoma State has been an elite program for the better part of the last six or seven years. It’s my belief they were robbed of a chance to play for the BCS National Championship for the 2011 season. Their presence certainly would have made for a more entertaining game than the LSU-Alabama matchup provided.
Regardless, in 2013 Oklahoma State did not win the Big 12, nor did they play in a BCS bowl, or win the bowl game they did play in. Despite that, and for reasons I’m having a tough time identifying, literally aside from the participation trophy-esque reasoning of “Yay! Sports!”, Oklahoma State University is giving its players and coaches rings commemorating the good, but not actually all that commemorable, 2013 season.
Oklahoma State’s web developer posted pictures of the ring to Instagram.
Uh, what? Did I miss the trend where teams just start giving out rings for seasons that were over .500? The only thing that makes ANY sense about these rings is that this team helped finish the accomplishment of 50 wins in 5 seasons. Other than that, Oklahoma State, despite having a very good year, didn’t actually win or accomplish anything, within the 2013 season itself, that was what you could call ring-worthy. They didn’t even win Bedlam.
These words aren’t uttered often, but here goes: you’re better than that, Oklahoma State.
h/t College Spun
Fuckin’ liberals want everyone to get a trophy.
11 years ago at 3:58 pmWell now they can’t buy players anymore so the booster money has gotta go somewhere. Regardless this is incredibly gay.
11 years ago at 3:59 pmThanks Obama
11 years ago at 3:59 pm“You didn’t lose, you were the first loser out there!”
11 years ago at 4:02 pmAnd the pussification of America continues.
11 years ago at 4:19 pmI know this has been done in previous years including this one, and with other bowl games. The school probably isn’t giving the rings to them, the bowl sponsors are. It’s usually because the ring is part of the gift package given to the teams.
Nice non-story though, Bacon. It’s nice to know that you pay attention to what you write: https://totalfratmove.wpengine.com/heres-a-list-of-all-the-bowl-game-gift-packages-and-as-always-theyre-ridiculous/
11 years ago at 4:21 pm1) A grand total of 2 bowl games out of that entire list gave rings (or at the very least, listed rings) as gifts. So it’s not common.
2) YOU should probably pay attention to what I write, considering that the Cotton Bowl did not list their gifts on that article. The information was not made available. Nice try though, you fucking idiot.
11 years ago at 4:35 pmI noticed that, moron. My point was that other bowl games had a ring listed, and I never claimed for it to be “common”, just that it did in fact occur. Nice try though, you fucking idiot. You clowns are so defensive.
11 years ago at 4:46 pmStand down Virginia Gentleman and take the L.
11 years ago at 10:05 pmsooner or later they will be handing out “Participant” rings.
11 years ago at 4:22 pmBacon’s way of subtlety reminding us that Mizzou won
11 years ago at 4:25 pmIt’s the equivalent to an 8th place ribbon, congratulations OSU.
11 years ago at 4:35 pmPrograms do commemorative rings all the time…
11 years ago at 4:45 pmThat doesn’t make it any less wrong.
11 years ago at 8:16 pm