Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: Standout stats for OU in Big 12 Championship

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 11: Oklahoma Sooners fans cheer during the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated TCU 38-20. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 11: Oklahoma Sooners fans cheer during the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated TCU 38-20. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /
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Oklahoma football has participated in eight Big 12 Championships. There have only been 15 in total.

That’s because the Big 12 discontinued its championship game in football after the 2010 due to conference realignment, which left the Big 12 with just 10 members. The Big 12 has not changed in size, but Saturday marks the reintroduction of the conference championship game after a seven-year absence.

Big 12 officials believe that bringing back the conference championship game gives the conference a better chance of landing a team in the College Football Playoff. The irony of the Sooners having to play in a championship game this year is that they won the regular-season Big 12 title outright and are firmly in the Playoff picture at the moment, sitting in the No. 3 spot.

This year, if TCU beats Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday, it will end up costing the league a place in this year’s College Playoff, which was the primary reason for bringing back the conference championship game. Go figure.

The Sooners played in the last one, held in AT&T Stadium, and they’ll be there in that same venue, facing TCU, when the Big 12 Football Championship makes its re-entry.

Oklahoma’s record in Big 12 Championship games in football is 7-1. The Sooners have won 10 Big 12 titles overall, nine of them outright. That is seven more than the next closest team (Texas with three).

OU’s lone loss in a Big 12 Championship game was in 2003, when Kansas State, ranked 13th in the Associated Press Poll, shocked No. 1 and previously undefeated Oklahoma 35-7.

Here are a couple more historical facts that will make Sooner fans stick out their chests a little more:

  • According to ESPN Stats & Info, in the history of conference championship games in football, only six times has a team favored by six points or more lost (Oklahoma is a 6.0-point favorite against TCU, according to Sportsbookreview.com.
  • In the Playoff era, the top four teams are 10-0 when favored on the final weekend of the season.

If you’re a glass-half-empty kind of person, however, the aforementioned stats might give you reason for concern that a historical correction (or a game-changing upset) is long overdue.

One way of the other, the Big 12 champion will be crowned on Saturday.

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