Oklahoma A&M president Bradford Knapp attended the Missouri Valley Conference’s annual meeting in 1925 and wired back to his school the news:
“We win great victory; future of A&M athletics assured; Aggies voted in Valley.”
Great victory? Absolutely. Oklahoma A&M athletics assured? Not at all.
Oklahoma State has a fabulous tradition of athletic success, but the Cowboys would have been in even better shape, especially in all-important football, had their conference history not been gutted by a three-decade odyssey.
A 1926 flap in the Missouri Valley led to six schools leaving the conference to form what became known as the Big Six.