LET'S GO HORNED FROGS!!! Oklahoma State's only shot at an outright title

We will all be TCU fans on Saturday. Unfortunately, if the Frogs pull it off, we will then have to become Bears fans the following weekend (wait, is rooting against Texas on Dec 7 the same as rooting for Baylor?).

With OSU, Baylor, and Texas all hanging around with 1 loss, ideally the Cowboys would like to see at least one of them lose this weekend, then have the other team lose the following weekend. Should OSU win, that would give them the outright Big 12 championship.

With the Longhorns' victory last night, that means OSU needs Baylor to lose to TCU, then beat Texas next weekend. If that happens, an OSU win in Bedlam would send them to the Fiesta Bowl as the outright Big 12 champion. If OSU should lose to OU in this scenario, the Big 12 will have a 4 way tie for first, and set in motion the following protocol:

The following procedure will determine the Big 12 Conference representative to the Bowl Championship Series in the event of a first-place tie:

If two teams are tied, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative.

If three or more teams are tied, steps 1 through 4 will be followed until a determination is made. Once a team has been eliminated from a multi-team comparison, it is dropped from further comparisons. If only two teams remain tied after any step, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative.

1. The records of the three teams will be compared against each other

2. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in the conference

3. The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of Big 12 regular season conference play shall be the representative, unless the two highest ranked tied teams are ranked within one spot of the other in the BCS poll. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two highest ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the Bowl Championship Series.

4. The representative will be chosen by draw.

What this gobble dee gook means is that OSU, in this scenario, could lose to OU and still be the conference's BCS representative. If Baylor lost to TCU, they would likely drop down near OU, and a win over Texas wouldn't move them up enough. The Sooners would be the main concern, but OSU would have to drop at least 7-8 spots for OU to have a shot at getting close enough to them in the BCS (current BCS...OSU #7, OU #18) in order to trigger the head to head comparison in #3 above. If Baylor also got close enough, #4 would be enabled and all hell would break loose.

Should Baylor beat TCU, then the Cowboys need a Bedlam win, and even then would have to "share" the title with either Texas or Baylor. Of course, in OSU fans' minds, that would mean OSU is THE champion since they trashed both Baylor and Texas. In the minds of the opposing fans, I'm sure they would take the "Sooner" approach and loudly proclaim a conference championship, conveniently forgetting to mention the "co" part of the equation.

Either way, the Cowboys can remove any doubt by winning, which would ensure that OSU is the Big 12 BCS rep to the Fiesta Bowl.

In the meantime....

GO FROGS!!!