MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — TCU survived on a tip-six that offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie jokingly credited to the volleyball team: “Bump, set, spike.”
Oklahoma State beat Texas 30-27 thanks to two field goals in the final 93 seconds—the last one gifted by a punt shanked out of bounds at the Longhorns’ 18-yard line.
These were two of the Big 12’s upper-crusters needing mini-miracles (and in TCU’s case, a supersized one) to defeat lower-tier teams. If such drama became necessary on the opening weekend of conference play, surely these teams will exhaust their lifelines along the way.
Here’s guessing they’ll be exhausted twice.
A two-loss Big 12 champion, or co-champions as is the more likely scenario, probably won’t result in a College Football Playoff participant, though it will be crazy fun.
The conference has six quality teams, and Texas Tech might make a seventh if it can overcome the shock of Boykin-to-Doctson-to-Green. (Then again, how many times does a defense allow 750 yards and have a chance to win in the final minute?) But among that cluster of respectable, maybe even Top 25-caliber squads, there doesn’t appear to be an elite one.
Oklahoma already expended one of its nine lives at Tennessee and could barely slow down Tulsa’s passing attack. K-State needed overtime to edge Louisiana Tech. Baylor is battling defensive issues and off-the-field karma. West Virginia, so impressive against a soft nonconference schedule, plays four road games against teams in the league’s upper half.
That Big 12 round-robin doesn’t allow anyone a chance to dodge anyone else. In a league that projects good-not-great, so much balance paradoxically portends teams tripping over each other.