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Oklahoma football: What does Big 12 Championship matchup mean to OU?

By Chip Rouse

Sep 8, 2012; Fort Worth, TX, USA; A view of the Big 12 logo before the game between the TCU Horned Frogs and Grambling State Tigers at Amon G. Carter Stadium. TCU defeated Grambling State 56-0. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 8, 2012; Fort Worth, TX, USA; A view of the Big 12 logo before the game between the TCU Horned Frogs and Grambling State Tigers at Amon G. Carter Stadium. TCU defeated Grambling State 56-0. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Big 12 championship in football will be decided on Saturday, and there’s a good chance it will send someone other than the Oklahoma football team to the College Football Playoff.

Why is that important? Because no Big 12 team other than the Sooners has appeared in the College Football Playoff since that format was introduced in 2014. Oklahoma has made four appearances as one of college football’s final four teams, three times under head coach Lincoln Riley, who, much to the chagrin of most OU fans, has his new team, USC, in good position to be one of the four teams making it into the playoff this season.

TCU and Kansas State, the two teams playing in the Big 12 championship game on Saturday, both own victories over the Sooners this season. Oklahoma’s game with Kansas State was one of four games the Sooners lost by one score this season. K-State defeated OU 34-27, handing the Sooners their first loss of the season after three consecutive wins and coming out on top against Oklahoma for the third time in the last four seasons.

The game with TCU this season was another story. The K-State loss was disappointing, but what happened in Fort Worth was the real beginning of the downward spiral that more than not defined the Sooners’ unsettling 2022 season.

OU fell behind 27-10 in the first quarter at TCU and then lost Dillon Gabriel in the second quarter to a hard hit while sliding that sent him into the concussion protocol for the rest of that game and one other (Texas). Things were going bad enough when Gabriel went out of the game, but they got a whole lot worse afterwards. The defense was already struggling to slow down the TCU offense, and with Gabriel out, the OU offense basically shut down.

TCU went on to a 55-24 win over the Sooners. The following week, again with Gabriel out of action, the Sooners were hammered 49-0 by Texas, their worst loss in the history of the Red River rivalry.

Based purely on the results of Oklahoma’s game this season with the two teams that finished one and two in the conference standings and will battle it out on Saturday to determine the Big 12 champion, it would appear TCU has the advantage. But it’s the second time the Horned Frogs will play Kansas State this season. TCU won the regular-season game by 10 points, 38-28, but Kansas State led for a good part of that game played in Fort Worth.

Destiny and the stat sheet may be on TCU’s side, but I wouldn’t count out Kansas State in Saturday’s Big 12 Championship game.

No one knows better than Oklahoma fans what can happen in such circumstances when two teams meet for a second time the same season in the Big 12 Championship game. The Sooners lost to Texas in the regular-season game in 2018 and returned the favor, beating the Longhorns in the conference championship game that season.

This will be the second straight season the Sooners have been left out of the Big 12 Championship. That comes after winning six consecutive conference championships, four of those in an actual Big 12 Championship game (which was reintroduced after a six-year hiatus). One of those four Big 12 title game victories by OU was against TCU (2017).

The Sooners have also played in two Big 12 Championships against Kansas State. OU defeated K-State twice in its 2000 national championship season. The Sooners did not play the Wildcats in the 2003 regular season but was matched up with the Big 12 North Division champions in the Big 12 title game that season.

For the second time in three years, an undefeated (12-0) and No. 1-ranked Oklahoma team coached by Bob Stoops faced Kansas State, coached by Bill Snyder, in for the Big 12 Championship. This time things didn’t go as well for the Sooners. OU jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, but Kansas State would score the next 35 points on the way to a huge 35-7 upset victory over the country’s top-ranked team.

Oklahoma has won 14 Big 12 championships in football in the 27-year history of the Big 12. The Sooners have appeared in 12 actual Big 12 Championship games and won 11. The next closest among current Big 12 members is Texas with three conference titles in six championship game appearances.

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