2023 Texas Bowl

The 2023 Texas Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 27, 2023, at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. The 17th annual Texas Bowl featured Oklahoma State from the Big 12 Conference and Texas A&M from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The game began at approximately 9:00 p.m. EST and was aired on ESPN. The Texas Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The bowl was sponsored by tax preparation software company TaxAct and was officially named the TaxAct Texas Bowl.

Teams
Consistent with conference tie-ins, the bowl featured the Oklahoma State Cowboys of the Big 12 Conference and the Texas A&M Aggies of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

This was the 29th meeting between Oklahoma State and Texas A&M; entering the game, the Aggies led the Cowboys in the all-time series, 18–10. This was also the third time the two teams faced each other in a bowl game; Texas A&M won both prior meetings, the 1981 Independence Bowl and 2019 Texas Bowl.

On two occasions, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M were in the same conference, playing together in the Southwest Conference (SWC) during 1915–1924 and in the Big 12 during 1996–2011.

Oklahoma State Cowboys
The Cowboys entered the game with a 9–4 record (7–2 in the Big 12) and ranked 20th in the College Football Playoff rankings. Having defeated Oklahoma on November 4, 27–24, the Cowboys won the tiebreaker for second place in the Big 12 and advanced to the 2023 Big 12 Championship Game, which they lost to Texas, 49–21.

This was Oklahoma State's second Texas Bowl, following the aforementioned loss to Texas A&M in the 2019 game.

Texas A&M Aggies
The Aggies entered the game with a 7–5 record (4–4 in the SEC), having finished in fourth place in their conference's West Division.

This was Texas A&M's fourth Texas Bowl, setting a new mark for most appearances in the game. In addition to their 2019 triumph over Oklahoma State, the Aggies won the 2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas (when the bowl operated under than name) and lost the 2016 Texas Bowl.