10 reasons to watch Bama take on a dominant Oklahoma State team for the NCAA men’s golf title

Oklahoma State has been hailed as arguably the greatest college golf team ever and now they get perennial contender Bama on their home course. You may not know it yet but we’re set up for an awesome NCAA title.

College golf probably does not jump to the top of your mind as a thing you should watch, but I’m here to tell you otherwise and I’ve never tried to lead you astray on these matters. I will never argue that NCAA golf is going to be more compelling for you, general sports fan, than March Madness, the CFP, or any other handful of NCAA championships. But it is a Wednesday afternoon, the NBA Playoffs have quieted down into the predictable Finals matchup, and the Stanley Cup Final does not start until sometime in the eight o’clock hour after the Vegas Knights have concluded the latest iteration of their lengthy and insane pre-game arrangement.

The NCAA championships, on both the men’s and women’s sides, have delivered consistently in recent years and I am a convert. Titles have often come down to the fifth and final match or needed extra holes. For whatever reason — the format, the teams involved, the venues — it’s just been a great streak of titles that paid off to watch. Golf Channel will have the men’s title again this afternoon, beginning at 4 p.m. ET.

The matchup is the kind you want if you’re an unbiased observer hoping for Wednesday afternoon entertainment. We get two of the game’s great programs, one of which has arguably its best team ever and another that’s been arguably the greatest program this decade. It’s Oklahoma State vs. Alabama and here’s why you, curious sports fan, should watch.

Match play

This is an old refrain here: match play golf is the best golf, especially if you care little about golf. The adversarial tinge that’s so often absent in this game is in full view. A blowup hole can be cast aside. A lost hole is a lost hole whether you made a 5 on it or made a 10. It promotes ridiculous, daring shot attempts that could go spectacularly bad.

The format overhaul to match play is one of the few things the NCAA has done right over the last decade and it’s one that we should incorporate into other golf events at every level, as my colleague Kyle Robbins outlined last year. There’s a the potential for an uninteresting blowout, but that also exists in boring old stroke play too (hello Webb Simpson!). When match play delivers, there’s nothing like it and we’ve seen it happen repeatedly at the NCAAs at both the men’s and women’s championships. This is your best five against the other team’s best five and there’s a clear best five this week...

The greatest team of all time

Golf Channel came on the air on Tuesday stating that Oklahoma State is not only the best team in the country this year but maybe the best team of all time. The Cowboys are a blue blood golf program and have been for decades. Their alums dot the professional tours around the world.

It seems like hyperbole and being a prisoner of recency but the run this year’s Cowboys team went on is rare. They won seven events in a row at one point, which seems impossible in the fickle world of college golf. They have three players in the top 15 in the country, while no other school even has two. This is not the first time this program has provoked “best team of all team” headlines. The 1986 team, among others, was also considered the greatest of all time as they cruised through the regular season. Their rival’s coach, Oklahoma’s Greg Grost, said at the time:

“We ought to let them be honorary national champs and let everybody else go to the NCAA tournament and play for another title.”

OSU did not win that year, and they didn’t win in 1977, which, at the time, head coach Mike Holder said was the best team he’d had (Holder is now the OSU AD #golfschool). That ‘77 team also fell short at the national championships. This team is favored to win and should win, but crazy things can happen in golf, especially college match play.

Oklahoma State has 10 national championships, but has not won under the new match play format. Their last title came in 2006. They are playing at their home course and the pressure will be immense, but they seem unbothered...

Cocky-ass Cowboys

Bauchou will be in the fifth and final anchor match on Wednesday and is one of those three aformentioned players in the top 15 in the country, along with teammates Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland. The team is the subject of a docu-series TV show this spring called Driven, with the final episode coming in mid-June and focused on whatever is about to go down at national championships. So they have a glitzy TV show and production crew following their moves, have an outrageous record this year, and are loaded one-through-five and definitely know it. That brings us to...

Plucky underdog Alabama

So good to see this college athletics program finally have a shot at NCAA glory. It’s weird to think of Bama, a perennial contender playing in an absurd fourth NCAA final in the last seven years, as an underdog. But that’s how good OSU has been and they’re the clear favorite to win on Wednesday afternoon.

Alabama is extremely talented and they re-load the roster year after year. But they “struggled” earlier in the week and snuck into the 6th seed of the match play portion in Stillwater.

The Tide finished as runner-up last week in the women’s golf title, with the fifth and deciding match going to extra holes against Arizona. The men’s team beat Oklahoma State four years ago for the second of their back-to-back national titles. It’s a blue blood program, too, but they’re not as deep as this Cowboys team and Tide head coach Jay Seawall cracked wise about this underdog status on Tuesday night.

Mild s**t talk

Here’s Seawall, who has achieved every accolade as an NCAA golf coach, on this high-profile Oklahoma State group.

That’s not exactly calling out the other team but by golf standards it’s certainly notable! It may make the crowds even more hostile for the finals.

A true home-and-road game

This is a long way from last year, when Oregon and Oklahoma battled for the title in the middle of a neutral Illinois farm field. This all-time Oklahoma State team is playing on their home course, which is an incredible boost to these finals. It’s more fun with a clear favorite among the crowd, which knows its golf given the program’s history. It’s not the first time OSU has played for the title at home and here’s a taste of what Bama can expect.

This is exactly what you want for a match play event. It’s why the Ryder Cup is so charged and successful and why the individual WGC Match Play can fall flat. It will also help that the crowds will be right on top of the matches.

Crowd control

The crowds are allowed to roam the fairways this week at Karsten Creek and match play golf, or any golf, just always looks better with fans chasing behind and not roped off to the side out of view. It looks cool at those old school British Opens, it looks cool at the U.S. Amateur and Walker Cup, and it has enhanced this week too. Now they will be right on top of Tide players trying to play spoiler and up close rooting on one of the funkiest swings you will ever see.

Matthew Wolff’s swing

The stud freshman was a California kid dropped in Stillwater and he made an immediate impact. He’s arguably the highest-rated player on the team, destined for big things, and has one of the most bizarre-but-successful swings, harnessed by — let’s call him “unorthodox” swing coach Georga Gankas (aka “Double G”). This move is in its own category beyond that odd Jim Furyk hitch and you should tune in for a few moments to at least watch this rising star:

College golf names

This is not an elite matchup of extremely golf names. We probably lost that opportunity yesterday when Auburn, and its roster with a Wells, Trace, Graysen, and Reagan, fell to OSU. But Bama still has two players named Davis, a Wilson, and a Lee in the lineup. Oklahoma State relies on two Norwegian imports in Viktor Hovland and Kristoffer Ventura, leaving a Stratton and a Hayden on the bench. The college golfer name generator is always a fun game to play while watching these matches.

Two great logos, really

The golf-adapted logo can be a real reach in some instances, but these are two of the best in the game and you’ll see them everywhere on Wednesday. I have no affiliation with either school and would happily buy and wear a hat with either of these on it.

Nuts and Bolts

Oklahoma State is going with the same lineup that delivered wins in both the quarters and semis on Tuesday. Here’s the lineup with tee times:

• 3:25 p.m. ET — Alabama’s Lee Hodges vs. OSU’s Viktor Hovland
• 3:35 p.m. ET — Alabama’s Davis Riley vs. OSU’s Matthew Wolff
• 3:45 p.m. ET — Alabama’s Wilson Furr vs. OSU’s Kristoffer Ventura
• 3:55 p.m. ET — Alabama’s Davis Shore vs. OSU’s Austin Eckroat
• 4:05 p.m. ET — Alabama’s Jonathan Hardee vs. OSU’s Zack Bauchou

Golf Channel will have the TV coverage beginning at 4 p.m. ET and you can stream it via their Live Extra service.

Golfstat is your best bet for a live leaderboard throughout the matches.