TCU beat Baylor on Black Friday, 45-22, earning a spot in the Big 12 Championship against Oklahoma next week. The Sooners then locked up an 11-1 regular season by blasting West Virginia, 59-31.
Oklahoma would’ve basically clinched a Playoff bid early (again), if not for the renewed Big 12 title game
The Sooners would already have it made, buuuuuut ....
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
The Big 12 Championship was a thing from 1996 through 2010. It ruined plenty of national title shots.
In 1996 (Texas over Nebraska), 1998 (Texas A&M over Kansas State), 2001 (Colorado over Texas), and 2007 (Oklahoma over Missouri), upsets prevented teams from playing for the big prize.
The conference brought it back in part because of its 2014 Playoff snubs.
Baylor and TCU were co-champs who’d played only 12 games with lighter schedules and were jumped by an Ohio State team that played 13 and annihilated Wisconsin at by 59 points. Committee chair Jeff Long said the selection was partly because of OSU’s extra “data point,” a term that’d become a buzz word in Big 12 expansion debates.
“The addition of a football championship game allows for a 13th data point for our teams under consideration for the College Football Playoff,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby even said during the announcement of the game’s renewal.
But before it got rolling, OU became 2015’s first team to clinch a Playoff spot, thanks to the Big 12’s lack of a title game.
While everyone else had to avoid upsets, the Sooners got to prop their feet up and scout potential opponents. (It didn’t help all that much, but that’s beside the point.)
That and the fact that 2015/2016 editions would’ve just been one-week-later repeats of Bedlam added to the silliness.
Now in 2017, the Sooners could’ve had the same advantage.
The Sooners entered their 12th game ranked No. 4. And then No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Miami lost as OU added a blowout win over a 7-5 team. Bama can’t make it up with an SEC title win, either.
With an 11-1 record, conference title, and a dominant road win at Ohio State, OU would’ve thus made it in.
Now they have to beat the Big 12’s second-best team a second time.
The first one was no trouble. OU won, 38-20, in Norman, with Baker Mayfield lighting up arguably the Big 12’s best defense. This one will be in JerryWorld, FWIW.
I’m still picking Oklahoma to win the (totally unnecessary, this time around, from a Playoff standpoint) rematch, but having to beat Gary Patterson twice in a month doesn’t sound fun.
The title game renewal isn’t just about making the Playoff, of course.
Public estimates of the game’s worth to the Big 12 have floated around $30 million. Seven figures per member school is a pretty good deal.
And, hey, maybe an 11-2 TCU could make an argument anyway.
Hey Frogs!
Visit our TCU blog
Hey Sooners!
Visit our Oklahoma blog
See More:
