You're Telling Me There's a Chance? WVU Still Has a Path to Big 12 Title Game

Laying out West Virginia's path to the Big 12 championship game.

Ben Queen-Imagn Images

If you were to take a quick glance at the Big 12 Conference standings, you would just assume that West Virginia has been mathematically eliminated from playing in the conference championship game next week.

Despite it being a long shot, and I mean a LONG shot, West Virginia is still alive, believe it or not. They, like the other 5-3 teams - Texas Tech, Baylor, Kansas State, and TCU - need a laundry list of things to happen in addition to taking care of business to even have a shot.

Here's how it can happen.

Item No. 1

Friday at noon, winless Oklahoma State hits the road to take on Colorado. West Virginia needs Mike Gundy to pull out a miracle and beat the Buffs, who are coming off a tough loss to Kansas. If they fail to do so, well, then the championship dreams end right then and there for WVU.

Item No. 2

Moving to Saturday, West Virginia fans need to pull for the red-hot Kansas Jayhawks to remain hot and beat a surging Baylor team on the road. A win for Kansas gets them to a bowl game. They've also won three straight against ranked opponents, so they're playing their best football down the stretch, which is a good thing for WVU.

Item No. 3

West Virginia beats Texas Tech. Duh. I don't really need to go into this, do I? If WVU loses, the dream is over.

Item No. 4

At 3:30, Arizona State will take on in-state rival Arizona, and with a win, they can punch their ticket to the conference championship. The Old Gold and Blue can't have that. And hey, maybe that comment from the old Arizona State AD about Morgantown comes back to bite ASU and they stub their toe to help out the Mountaineers.

Item No. 5

Next on the checklist is TCU preventing Cincinnati from becoming bowl-eligible. The Horned Frogs have been up and down all year long, but have the offense to get the job done on the road against a reeling Bearcats team.

Item No. 6

Capping off the night, the Mountaineers will be banking on Houston to pull off the massive upset on the road at BYU. If everything goes West Virginia's way up to this point and Houston delivers, maybe last year's Hail Mary can be forgiven.

How the tiebreakers work

If two teams are tied at 7-2, it's pretty simple - that's your Big 12 title game. Three-way ties are where it starts to get a little chaotic.

Here are the scenarios, according to the Big 12 Conference:

Colorado loss: Arizona State vs. Iowa State

Arizona State loss: Iowa State vs. BYU

Iowa State loss: Arizona State vs. BYU

BYU loss:
If Texas Tech defeats West Virginia, then
If Baylor beats Kansas and Cincinnati beats TCU: Colorado vs. Iowa State, otherwise: Colorado vs. Arizona State

If West Virginia defeats Texas Tech: Arizona State vs. Iowa State

Four-team tie scenario:

• Arizona State vs. Iowa State

Five-team tie scenario (for WVU):

Would play winner of Iowa State/Kansas State if everything falls their way.

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