Oklahoma vs. West Virginia: Sooners Can Clinch Big 12 This Weekend
By Chip Rouse
The Big 12 may be bringing up the rear in terms of its perceived competitive ranking among the Power Five conferences this college football season, but Oklahoma vs. West Virginia will draw primetime national attention this weekend, and for good reason.
Oklahoma, West Virginia and Oklahoma State are in a tight, three-way race, heading down the home stretch with the finish line in the Big 12 football championship in clear view.
After losing two of their first three games in 2016, the Sooners have reeled off seven consecutive wins against Big 12 opponents and have returned to the top 10 in the Associated Press rankings, at No. 8 this week. OU owns a one-and-a-half-game lead over West Virginia in the conference standings, and travels to The Mountain State this weekend, where the Big 12 leaders will go toe to toe with the 10th-ranked Mountaineers, with the conference crown on the line.
West Virginia’s only conference loss this season was three weeks ago at Oklahoma State, where the Mountaineers suffered their first loss of the season in a 37-20 setback.
The Mountaineers are hoping that the home field at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown on Saturday night will provide them with an added boost to knock off the favored Sooners and put West Virginia in the driver’s seat to win its first Big 12 championship in football.
As of Tuesday, the Las Vegas oddsmakers had Oklahoma as a 2.5-point favorite in what is expected to be a close game, but with plenty of offense. Sounds pretty much like your prototypical Big 12 game, except in this case, West Virginia fields a pretty good defense, as well.
“West Virginia (is) a tough environment to play in but a very exciting one to play in,” Bob Stoops said in his regular Monday press conference.
“Dana Holgorsen and his staff have done a great job, particularly offensively,” the Sooner head coach said. “They’re very physical running the football and work the run game. And they’ve got some big-play hitters outside. Skyler Howard is a really good quarterback throwing the football.”
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The Sooners control their own destiny in the Big 12 title race, as does in-state rival Oklahoma State. West Virginia, which has games remaining with Iowa State and Baylor after Saturday’s contest with Oklahoma, needs some help to get to the top of the standings. Because of the loss to the Cowboys of Oklahoma State, West Virginia must win out in its final three games and hope that the Sooners prevail over the Cowboys when those two Bedlam rivals go at one another at OU in the final weekend of the regular season.
An Oklahoma win over West Virginia in primetime on Saturday night would eliminate the Mountaineers from Big 12 title consideration.
As good as a victory over West Virginia would be, it would be made even better were TCU to hold home serve earlier in the day against title-hopeful Oklahoma State.
A Sooner win on Saturday coupled with an Oklahoma State loss to TCU would clinch the Big 12 title for Oklahoma and hand Bob Stoops his 10th conference championship in 18 seasons at OU.
If Oklahoma were to lose to West Virginia, however, the Sooners would have to defeat Oklahoma State on Dec. 3 and hope for a Mountaineer loss to Iowa State or Baylor to win the Big 12 crown. It goes without saying, but bears saying anyway: Better to take care of business this weekend and keep control of your own destiny.
If the two Oklahoma schools take care of business this Saturday, what we will have on Dec. 3 is another Bedlam showdown on the final day of the regular season, serving as a de facto Big 12 championship game.
I’m voting for a Sooner victory and an Oklahoma State loss on Saturday, so we can dispense with all the other drama. Game over!