Oh the wailing of Kansas City Star columnists about how the Big 12 was going downhill in a freight train because the conference lacked a championship game. You recall that, right. Last season, when TCU and Baylor simply got the shaft in not making the playoff pairings.
The selection committee screwed up, that simple. Don’t blame the conference’s policies. TCU was ranked in the top four and then when it came to selection time, the Horned Frogs were dropped. Why? Because Ohio State hammered Wisconsin 59-0? Is that what it boils down to — run up the score on an opponent?
The negative response by columnist and other naysayers overlooked how many times Big 12 teams were knocked off the top rung because of what happened in the championship game. They also ignored how much money the teams were taking in because the schools divided the revenue by just 10, not 12 or 14 or 16.
Well, the conference is sending seven teams to bowls this season, led by No. 4 Oklahoma’s selection in the College Football Playoff semifinal game against No. 1 Clemson at the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve. The winner will advance to the championship on January 11 in Glendale, Arizona, and play the winner of the other semifinal between No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Michigan State.
No. 16 Oklahoma State will square off against No. 12 Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl on January 1. With Conference champion Oklahoma selected for a semifinal game, the Big 12 tiebreaker procedure was used to determine the Sugar Bowl representative among the two teams that finished tied for second in the conference standings. Oklahoma State won the tiebreaker due to its head-to-head win over TCU.
Two conference teams will compete December 29 — No. 17 Baylor vs. No. 10 North Carolina in the Russell Athletic Bowl and Texas Tech vs. No.20 LSU in the Texas Bowl.
Three games are slated for January 2, beginning with Kansas State vs. Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl. No. 11 TCU will face No. 15 Oregon in the Alamo Bowl before the nightcap featuring West Virginia vs. Arizona State in the Cactus Bowl.
Instead of playing in a conference championship game, OU players basically took it easy last weekend, lounging and checking out the games. Now they are in the playoffs because they deserve to be there. No screw jobs this time.
The Star guys can stop whining for awhile, huh.
Yes, of course, check out the possibility of league expansion and championship matchups. Coach Bill Snyder would like to see a conference championship game. Talk it over. Iron it out. But make sure you understand that the status quo is just fine. Quell the paranoia.
After all, the big expansion mistake already has been made. The Big 12 should have gone after Louisville and Cincinnati — and possibly Memphis — not West Virginia. It’s done, however. Move on.
And grin and enjoy how Kansas State made it into the bowl picture.
Against the Razorbacks, huh. Interesting sidelights here with a K-State angle. Bret Bielema coaches Arkansas; he was the co-defensive coordinator for K-State from 2002 to 2003. He then left to work under Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin. Alvarez was A.D. and coach there and when he stepped down as coach in 2005, he selected Bielema to succeed him. Bielema fared well but in a surprise move, he quit Wisconsin and took the job at Arkansas in 2012.
Oh, more ties exist. The late, great Bob Devaney of Nebraska saved the Cats standing in the conference. He sat down in the 1980s with K-State officials and told them they needed to get off their duffs or the conference was going to kick them out and be replaced. The replacement: Arkansas.
Maybe the Cats’ achievements this season don’t rank up there with Doug Flutie’s miracle pass in 1984 that gave Boston College the victory over Miami or the Immaculate Reception by Franco Harris in 1972 to help Pittsburgh turn back Oakland in an AFC playoff game. But K-State’s wild 38-35 victory over Iowa State and the frenzied 24-23 win over West Virginia certainly must draw some sort of high miracle pecking order. The victories helped get them into the Liberty picture.
The regular season wasn’t pretty for the Cats — opening with three straight victories, losing six straight and closing with three wins. A six-point victory over Louisiana Tech is their only triumph over a bowl eligible team this season. The other three FBS programs they’ve beaten went a combined 6-30. They’ve held only two Big 12 opponents to fewer than 31 points in a game — and one was hapless Kansas. Texas Tech, TCU and Oklahoma all scored more than 50 points against the Wildcats.
Arkansas? Hard to figure. The Razorbacks are 7-5 with losses early to Toledo, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Alabama and LSU late. They whipped Texas 31-7 last season in the Texas Bowl.
To get into this situation, Kansas State had to turn back West Virginia last Saturday. The wonder! Kody Cook, basically the fourth string quarterback and the first team wide receiver, subbed for starter Joe Hubener, who suffered a leg injury early in the third quarter. With Horatio Alger type results, Cook was fabulous and effective. Like this: He hooked up with Deante Burton on a 77-yard touchdown pass to give the Cats a 17-13 lead.
Mountaineer defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said cornerback Daryl Worley was supposed to have help from a safety, who instead went elsewhere.
“If you want to pinpoint something other than special teams, it was when Cook came in there,” Mountaineer Coach Dana Holgorsen said. “The kid made a ton of plays.”
Morgan Burns’ 97-yard kickoff return early in the fourth quarter helped give the Cats the lead, 24-23, for good. The Mountaineers were leading the league in kickoff return defense, but Burns had 201 yards of kick returns in the second half.
Holgorsen could be second-guessed if you pushed just a little. Twice during the fourth period, quarterback Sylar Howard, on a gimpy ankle, failed on critical possession downs. A third-and-5 option keeper from the Kansas State 11 gained zilch and forced West Virginia into a consolation field goal. Holgorsen called the same play again with fourth-and-1 and 2:28 left; Howard again bounced outside but didn’t make it back to the line of scrimmage. Linebacker Charmeachealle Moore, who finished with with 17 tackles, two sacks and four tackles for loss, stopped the play for a loss of a yard.
Why not get the ball to the best runner for the Mountaineers, Wendell Smallwood? He wouldn’t criticize the play. “He made the right read,” Smallwood said. “There were two guys in my face. I can’t be mad at that. He made the right read and did his job and just didn’t get the first down.”
Snyder coached to win this game. After the stop on Howard, the Cats ran twice and faced a third-and-6, but Cook completed a 14-yard pass to Deante Burton, who had five catches for 135 yards, and that provided more opportunities to eat up time.
Oh, there’ll be a lot of talk about the ifs, ands and buts of K-State angles during the bowl games. For example, former Wildcat assistants will be involved in the OU-Clemson game, with maybe a little spark or two.
OU hired Bob Stoops in 1999 after his superb stint with Kansas State under Snyder. But things became a little testy when he took his brother, Mike, Brent Venables and Mark Mangino with him — all off the K-State staff. It was a raid. And charges flew that they influenced recruits from the Cats.
Mangino left OU to coach KU and Mike left to become the head coach at Arizona, only to be fired. Brother Bob hired him back at OU and that created friction because he named him as co-defensive coordinator with Venables. The plot thickens. Venables left to take the defensive coordinator job at Clemson. Oh yeah, now OU will play Clemson in the playoff bowl. Uh, last season, Clemson hammered OU40-6 in the Russell Athletic Bowl. Revenge, maybe?
Isn’t this fun!