The Big 12 Conference Championship is set – finally.
Texas is 11-1, ranked seventh in the country and poised to get into the College Football Playoff if it can win the conference title game at AT&T Stadium, the football palace in Arlington, Texas, this Saturday.
Oklahoma State had to take a much different path. Coach Mike Gundy’s Cowboys (9-3) were upset by South Alabama – yeah, South Alabama – bounced back to engineer an upset of archrival Oklahoma, and then got sucker-punched on the road in Orlando by coach Gus Malzahn and new conference member Central Florida before finally punching their ticket to the championship game with an overtime win over BYU.
Scott Wright of The Oklahoman has an excellent piece here (How can Oklahoma State football upset Texas in Big 12 championship? ) on what Gundy and his team need to do to knock off the Longhorns, and before you think it can’t be done, take a look at what Tulane was able to do to Southern Cal at the same unbelievable facility last year.
Kickoff on Saturday is 11 a.m., and the game will be broadcast on ABC.
Right now, as this story was written, the Cowboys are an 11.5-point underdog (if you care about that sort of thing – not that The Football Beat is endorsing it, cough, cough).
Obviously, the Cowboys have a phenomenal weapon in running back Ollie Gordon, who leads the nation in rushing yards (1,580), is fifth in carries (245 – Georgia State’s Marcus Carroll leads with 274), and is second in rushing touchdowns, with 20 (Michigan’s Blake Corum leads with 22).
The Texas defense will likely try and take Gordon away. Can they?
It’s gonna be fun to watch.
