Oklahoma State football: Cowboys to face Purdue in Heart of Dallas Bowl

Tumble tremendously.

OSU on Sunday accepted an invitation to the Heart of Dallas Bowl, formerly the TicketCity Bowl, on Jan. 1 at the Cotton Bowl, where it will match up against Purdue.

The game will kick off at 11 a.m. and will be televised by ESPNU.

The Cowboys, who a little more than a week ago were still in the discussion for a BCS at-large berth, finished the regular season 7-5 (5-4 Big 12), including back-to-back losses at Oklahoma and Baylor in their final two games. Though OSU finished tied with Texas for third in the Big 12 standings, the Cowboys were part of the logjam of five conference teams with 7-5 records. The pecking order eventually fell like this: TCU to the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, Baylor to the Holiday Bowl, Texas Tech to the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Houston and West Virginia to the Pinstripe Bowl.

OSU went 3-1 against those teams, but bowl selections are often about politics, taking into account expected fan travel, geography, a marketable matchup and other factors.