Baylor and TCU saved the Big 12 from further bowl season embarrassment

Photo by Graham StaniforthBaylor and TCU helped the Big 12 save face and keep its perception from dropping to an all-time low. Comparing conference records, especially in bowl games, is a faulty science. It’s like claiming success for your high school or college class because a few guys you graduated with scored great jobs soon after graduation. The sad truth is that these things matter in today’s college football. Perception remains king of the jungle. It is the same reason that preseason polls carry weight despite everyone involved admitting that it is all guess work. There are four playoff spots and five power conferences: Perception matters a lot. The SEC and Big 10 are cemented in place. The champions from those conferences likely see the College Football Playoff every season where an upset in the conference championship games don’t take place. That leaves, in theory, two spots for three conferences. Someone is getting left out. It was the Pac 12 this season, but it was the Big 12 in the first year. The Big 12 was on the verge of an embarrassing bowl season. Oklahoma was blown out in the semifinal game against Clemson. Kansas State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State were beaten handily by SEC teams. Baylor’s win over North Carolina was the lone victory for the conference entering TCU’s game against Oregon. The deck was stacked against both Baylor and TCU. The two programs faced disappointing outcomes to injury plagued seasons that began with the greatest of hopes. Baylor lost two starting quarterbacks and had to rely on its ground game. The result was a record-setting performance. Art Briles’ offense rushed for more yards than any other team ever in a bowl game. TCU, for its part, was also down a quarterback. It wasn’t because of injury, but the result was the same. The Horned Frogs needed a new way to win and it didn’t look like it was coming when Oregon took a 31-0 lead into halftime. A wardrobe change by Gary Patterson (and an injury to Oregon QB Vernon Adams) was followed by 31 straight TCU points and three overtimes. West Virginia ended up beating Arizona State to end the bowl season and move the Big 12 to 3-4 this bowl season. That number doesn’t really mean much, except that after next season, when the College Football Playoff committee is in a room picking teams, no one can stand up and use a 1-6 bowl record against a Big 12 champion. Even if it’d be ridiculous to do so in the first place.