The Big 12 embarked on this grand conference title game escapade with a simple goal. That goal is to define who’s the conference champion on the field, also giving some lucky team the extra data point the Playoff committee so craves in evaluating a squad.
Sorting through some of the extremely complicated Big 12 tiebreaker scenarios
We’re gonna get one true champion after all, but it could still get messy.
Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports
In actuality, the Big 12 has created a scenario in which the landscape of its title game is far from simple, despite the round robin schedule. In fact, you could argue it’s this way because of the round robin schedule. (If Oklahoma wins its last two regular season games, this new title game will also risk OU’s otherwise certain Playoff spot, just as we tried to warn two years ago.)
The standings appear like this:
Big 12 standings
Team | Conference | Overall |
|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma | 6-1 | 9-1 |
| Oklahoma State | 5-2 | 8-2 |
| West Virginia | 5-2 | 7-3 |
| TCU | 5-2 | 8-2 |
| Texas | 4-3 | 5-5 |
| Iowa State | 4-3 | 6-4 |
And while we could go down the rabbit hole of scenarios for hours, here are the most likely wild ones to pop off in the next couple weeks.
Let’s just assume Oklahoma takes one of the two spots.
Just win and you’re in! Isn’t that swell?
Oklahoma can even lose to Kansas (which Texas did last year) and still make the Big 12 Championship, as long as the Sooners:
- beat West Virginia
- or lose to WVU, yet avoid one extremely complex scenario elsewhere.
There are some way more complicated scenarios that involve OU losing to Kansas and WVU, but that ain’t happening.
TCU’s the favorite for the other spot.
With tiebreaker wins over Oklahoma State and West Virginia, the Frogs are in if they:
- beat Texas Tech and Baylor
- or win one of those games and have OSU and WVU lose a game each as well.
Oklahoma State needs some help.
With a tiebreaker over WVU, OSU’s in if it beats Kansas State and Kansas and sees TCU lose a game.
WVU has the hardest path of this group and needs the most help.
The Eers need to beat Texas and Oklahoma and have both TCU and Oklahoma State lose games.
So what if West Virginia, TCU, and Oklahoma State win out?
That would be a two-loss logjam, thus creating a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12 (West Virginia would have beaten Oklahoma). The Big 12’s first tiebreaking scenario then becomes a round-robin between the four teams.
Oklahoma is 2-1 [Beat TCU & OSU, Lost to WVU]
TCU is 2-1 [Beat OSU & WVU, Lost to OU]
OSU is 1-2 [Beat WVU, Lost to OU & TCU]
WVU is 1-2 [Beat OU, Lost to OSU & TCU]
OSU and WVU are eliminated. Oklahoma wins the regular season crown by virtue of its head-to-head win over TCU. Oklahoma and TCU head to the Metroplex for a rematch.
There are even more ridiculous scenarios, such as a six-way tie.
It’d still end with Oklahoma-TCU, though.
Y’all confused enough yet?
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