It's going to be a special Week 7 home game for the Houston Cougars on Saturday night. No. 20 Houston will be hosting No. 18 Oklahoma State in a top-20 showdown at TDECU Stadium.
This will be one of the biggest games in the Big 12 conference this year, and it's officially the highlight of the home schedule for Houston. A matchup like this has been a long time coming for the Cougars and is something this program hasn't seen in a long time.
Ultimately, this game is why it was a big deal that Houston moved into the Big 12. These kinds of opportunities haven't come very frequently to TDECU Stadium. A good Houston team in a Power Four conference can change that.
Although Houston joined the Big 12 in 2023, this is likely the most impactful home game that it has played since then. The Cougars are a Big 12 title game contender at the halfway point of the season. Houston hasn't started a season ranked for the first seven weeks for the first time since 2016.
Houston will be playing in its first ranked matchup at TDECU Stadium, where both teams are in the AP Top 25 since the 2015 American Athletic Conference Championship back on Dec. 5 against No. 20 Temple. The Cougars were ranked No. 16 in that game and won it 24-13. It's been almost 11 years.
This is as good as it gets for Houston in the regular season facing off against a fellow ranked Big 12 team from the neighboring state. In fact, you have to go way back to have two ranked Power Conference schools play in Houston, with one of them being the Cougars.
Historic Matchup at Houston
It was just over 36 years ago when Houston, then in the famous Southwest Conference, hosted the Texas A&M Aggies at the Houston Astrodome. The Cougars were ranked No. 12 and beat the No. 20-ranked Aggies 36-31. This was on Oct. 13, 1990. That was the last time Houston faced a fellow ranked Power Conference team at home.
Houston featured quarterback David Klingler in his third season, and he finished third in Heisman Trophy voting that season. It was a record-breaking year for Klingler, as he threw for 5140 yards and 54 touchdowns as part of Houston's historic run-and-shoot offense that coach John Jenkins continued at the time.
That just puts into perspective what is set to happen on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Houston had some poor seasons from 1991-95 that wrapped up its time in the SWC. The Cougars then moved to Conference USA and the AAC before finally rejoining a Power Conference in 2023.
Houston played a ranked home game for the first time since 1990, back in 2011 in the C-USA Championship. No. 7 Houston lost to No. 24 Southern Mississippi. The Cougars had two ranked home games in 2015 prior to the AAC Championship as well. This is only the fifth ranked home matchup for Houston since 1990.
Coach Willie Fritz has brought this program to life in the Big 12, and it will show up in a big way on a national TV game on Saturday.
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