Oklahoma State Gave Its Football Players A Participation Trophy In The Form Of Rings For Losing The Cotton Bowl

Rob Fox11 years ago

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