Holiday Bowl Likely to Pick Oklahoma St.

Oklahoma State appears to be the choice to meet Western Athletic Conference champion Wyoming in the Holiday Bowl.

Although bowl bids cannot be offered officially until next Saturday, indications are that it will be Cowboys against Cowboys Dec. 30 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Every bowl except the Holiday Bowl has backed away from scouting Oklahoma State’s home game today against Kansas. Earlier this week, officials from 3 other bowls--the Florida Citrus, Freedom and Hall of Fame--had planned to attend the game in Stillwater, Okla.

All except the Holiday Bowl changed their plans in the past 3 days. Executive Director John Reid will represent the Holiday Bowl at the game.

Neither Oklahoma State nor Holiday Bowl officials would confirm the selection, but several sources familiar with the bowl pairings said the matchup was set.

No. 14 Oklahoma State (6-2), which has lost to No. 7 Nebraska (63-42) and No. 8 Oklahoma (31-28), would be making its sixth bowl appearance in the past 8 seasons but its first in the Holiday Bowl.

After today’s game, Oklahoma State has games remaining at Iowa State next Saturday and Texas Tech in Tokyo Dec. 5.

No. 10 Wyoming, which lost to Iowa (20-19) in last year’s Holiday Bowl, clinched the WAC title and its bowl berth with a 51-6 victory over Texas El Paso last Saturday. Wyoming (10-0) is one of five unbeaten major-college teams left and its streak of 19 regular-season victories is the longest in the country.

Oklahoma State is the last team to defeat Wyoming in a regular-season game with a 35-29 victory last year in Laramie, Wyo.

Wyoming plays at Houston tonight and finishes its regular season at Hawaii next Saturday night.