Happy New Year!
The Heart of Dallas Bowl pits the Oklahoma State Cowboys from the Big 12 Conference against the Purdue Boilermakers out of the Big 10 Conference. Here's the tale of the tape in terms from the NCAA production model for these two teams.
The Oklahoma State Cowboys finished the regular season at 7-5 playing an average strength of schedule. The Cowboys most impressive win was 65-24 stomping over currently ranked #42 Louisiana-Layfatte, and their most disappointing performance was a 34-41 loss to #?73 Baylor at the end of the season. The Oklahoma State Cowboys are currently the #49 team overall in the league with the #16 ranked offense and the #86 ranked defense.
The Purdue Boilermakers finished the regular season at 6-6 also playing an average strength of schedule. The Boilermakers have recently fired their head football coach Danny Hope and replaced him with Darrell Hazell (former head football coach at Kent State). In terms of on field production, the Boilermakers most impressive win this season was against currently ranked #78 Iowa followed by a win over currently #87 ranked Marshall. In fact the other four Boilermaker victories this season were against team ranked in the top 100. Purdue currently is the #58 team overall with the #57 offense and the #58 ranked defense. Thus they are about as average a team as there is in the football bowl subdivision.
Given the model has Oklahoma State ranked slightly higher than Purdue, look for Oklahoma State to be victorious today in the Heart of Dallas Bowl.