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Big 12 Notes – Oklahoma State Week
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November 26th
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Big 12 nominees for national awards: CU has seven out of 11 total nominees
Big 12 nominees for national awards …
Offense
Maxwell Award (Outstanding Player) … Travis Hunter (Colorado)
Walter Camp Award (Outstanding Player) … ATH Travis Hunter (Colorado)
Davey O’Brien Award (Top Quarterback) … Shedeur Sanders (Colorado)
Fred Biletnikoff Award (Top Wide Receiver) … Tetairoa McMillan (Arizona), Travis Hunter (Colorado)
Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (QB Excellence On/Off the Field) … Shedeur Sanders (Colorado)
Defense
Chuck Bednarik Award (Top Defensive Player) … Travis Hunter (Colorado)
Special Teams and Other Awards
Paul Hornung Award (Most Versatile) … ATH Travis Hunter (Colorado)
William V. Campbell Trophy Finalists (Academics, Athletics, Leadership) … Beau Freyler (Iowa State), Tahj Brooks (Texas Tech)
Jet Award (Top Return Specialist) … Keelan Marion (BYU)
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November 25th
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Utah’s Kyle Whittingham on returning in 2025: “I’ll sit down and evaluate everything”
From ESPN … Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, 65, said Monday that he will decide after the season whether to return for his 21st year at the helm.
“My decision will be made on what’s best for the program, not what’s best for me,” Whittingham said. “So, it’ll be completely determined on how I feel this program is best served going forward.”
Utah started the season as the preseason favorite to win the Big 12, but after winning their first four games, they’ve lost seven straight and will finish the season Friday at UCF.
During the summer, the school announced defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley would be Whittingham’s successor whenever he decides to retire.
“[I’ll] sit down and evaluate everything,” Whittingham said. “I can tell you right now that Coach Scalley will be involved in decisions going forward because it’s only right that he does that because he’s the coach in waiting and when that time comes we need to make sure that he’s had input on big decisions. So it’ll be a team effort in that respect going forward as far as hiring and recruiting and that type of thing.”
Whittingham is tied for the second-longest tenured coach in FBS, behind only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, having been hired to replace Urban Meyer at Utah at the end of the 2004 season.
Utah should also have news soon regarding the future of quarterback Cam Rising, who missed the 2023 season due to a major knee injury and was sidelined by injury again early this season. Whittingham said last month that Rising could seek a medical waiver to play in 2025.
“I have no inside scoop or anything right now as to what he’s thinking,” Whittingham said. “Try to give him some space and let him sort things out and decide which direction he wants to go.
“That’s on Cam’s timeline and obviously we’ve got to at some point make our own decisions on what’s going to happen if there is still indecisiveness, but I think that should be cleared up in the next week to 10 days.”
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Big 12: 256 different scenarios for Big 12 title game
From CBS Sports … Media weren’t the only ones on deadline Saturday night.
The Big 12 stepped up, big time. The college football world needed to know what was going on with the conference’s tiebreakers. The office worked overtime in getting them out.
That beat the heck out of the Big Ten which took until last Tuesday to determine its best team, Oregon, had clinched a spot in the conference championship game.
The 16-team Big 12 has fallen into a four-way tie at the top between Arizona State, Colorado, BYU and Iowa State. If you have a problem with everybody in the league having at least two losses, you might want to first have a word with the SEC.
But heading into the final week of the regular season, the Big 12 has the craziest road.
- Those four teams are all tied at 6-2. The simplest way to put this is that the two teams who end up with two losses (at 7-2) are in the Big 12 Championship Game.
- From there it gets complicated. In a four-way tie where all the top four teams win, most likely Arizona State plays Iowa State. That is a tiebreaker broken by common opponents. The odds reflect this. According to FanDuel, Arizona State is the favorite to win the Big 12 at +135, followed by Iowa State +260, BYU +320 and Colorado +650.
However, the Big 12 office said, “there are scenarios” where Arizona State and Iowa State can win and not make the championship game. That would involve common opponents of other teams.
We’ll highlight one three-way tie because of the rabbit holes are too deep to go through all the possibilities.
In a way three-way tie featuring Colorado, Iowa State and Arizona State, a Texas Tech win against West Virginia puts Colorado in. In that scenario it would be Colorado against either Iowa State or Arizona State. Again, common opponents’ records would be determined to separate the Cyclones from the Sun Devils.
That’s one possibility of a three-way tie (where BYU loses).
- But a three-way tie has to be defined first. Is it a three-way for one spot after one team finishes on top at 7-2 or is it a three-way tie at the top for two spots?
- What if BYU, ASU, ISU and CU all lose? That puts in play the possibility of a six-, seven- and even an eight-way tie. That in general favors Baylor and Texas Tech followed by K-State and West Virginia.
In the event of an eight-way tie there are 256 different “scenarios” that could play out according to the Big 12.
An eight-way tie is created by all four of the top teams losing as well as Kansas State, TCU and Baylor winning to all finish 6-3. The winner of Texas Tech-West Virginia would also finish 6-3. There are nine teams alive for the eight-way tie, as Texas Tech vs. West Virginia will cancel one of each other out.
In an eight-way tie, Baylor and Texas Tech have the advantage. Yes, this is likely the craziest college football tiebreaker we’ve ever seen.
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Big 12 lines: CU cheering for 8.5-point, 3.0-point, and 13.0-point underdogs
From Draft Kings …
Big 12 games …
Friday, November 29th
- Oklahoma State at No. 23 Colorado … 10:00 a.m., MT, ABC … Colorado is a 17.0-point home favorite …
- Utah at UCF … 6:00 p.m., MT, Fox … UCF is a 9.0-point home favorite …
Saturday, November 30th
- Kansas at Baylor … 10:00 a.m., MT, ESPN2 … Baylor is a 1.0-point home favorite …
- West Virginia at Texas Tech … 10:00 a.m., MT, FS1 … Texas Tech is a 3.5-point home favorite …
- No. 14 Arizona State at Arizona … 1:30 p.m., MT, Fox … Arizona is an 8.5-point home underdog …
- TCU at Cincinnati … 4:00 p.m., MT, ESPN+ … Cincinnati is a 2.5-point home underdog …
- Kansas State at No. 17 Iowa State … 5:30 p.m., Fox … Iowa State is a 3.0-point home favorite …
- Houston at No. 19 BYU … 8:15 p.m., MT, ESPN … BYU is a 13.0-point home favorite …
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