More than half the Big 12 is still alive in the race for the conference title heading into the final week of the regular season.
According to the conference, nine of its 16 teams have a shot to make the title game. Four teams are tied atop the conference at 6-2 while five teams are at 5-3.
Arizona State, BYU, Colorado and Iowa State are the four teams at 6-2. Baylor, Kansas State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia are in the five-way tie for fifth.
All four of the teams in first place are favored in Week 14. If they all win, the conference can’t go to head-to-head tiebreakers because they didn’t play each other. In fact, Arizona State’s win over BYU in Week 13 was the only game between teams in the top four.
The conference will have to use common opponents among the four teams to start breaking the four-way tie. The tied teams all played Cincinnati, Kansas, Kansas State and UCF. Arizona State won all four of those games, Iowa State and BYU went 3-1 and Colorado lost to KU and K-State.
That tiebreaker eliminates Colorado and would also take out the Buffaloes in a three-way tie for first place with two of the other first-place teams.
Arizona State would get to the conference title game via common opponents, while Iowa State would win another tiebreaker over BYU based on the winning percentage of its conference opponents. Iowa State’s conference opponents have 28 wins compared to BYU’s 25. The Cougars have played both Utah and Oklahoma State, teams that have combined to go 1-15 in Big 12 play so far.
ASU wins any three-way tiebreaker it’s in.
The chaos scenario is unlikely, but still possible. Eight teams could end up tied for first place in the conference if Oklahoma State beats Colorado, Baylor beats Kansas, Arizona beats Arizona State, TCU beats Cincinnati, Kansas State beats Iowa State and Houston beats BYU. The seven aforementioned teams with a shot at the title would be joined by the winner of West Virginia at Texas Tech.
An eight-way tie with a Texas Tech win would produce a matchup between Baylor and Texas Tech for the conference title game. Seriously.
There are too many other permutations to go through because so many teams are still alive for the title. So we’ll be succinct. If you want a straightforward final weekend, you’re rooting for at least two of the 6-2 teams to win. If you want chaos, then you’re looking for some upsets and that eight-way tie.
