The Conference of Chaos is back!
After Kansas State‘s victory against Baylor and losses for Oklahoma State and Kansas, the Wildcats have a pathway to return to the Big 12 Championship Game.
However, Kansas State will need help.
They no longer control their destiny and have not done so since their loss to Texas two weeks ago.
Currently, the top half of Big 12 standings is as follows (conference record in parentheses):
1. Texas (6-1)
2. Oklahoma State (5-2)
3. Oklahoma (5-2)
4. Iowa State (5-2)
5. Kansas State (5-2)
6. West Virginia (4-3)
7. Texas Tech (4-3)
With four teams having two losses, the Big 12’s multi-team tiebreaker rule comes into effect. These tiebreaks are convoluted, to say the least, but according to the Big 12 website, these are the tiebreaks if more than two teams are tied:
1. Head to head between the tied teams (PROVIDED THEY ALL PLAYED EACH OTHER)
1. Win percentage against the next highest placed common opponent in standings.
2. Win percentage against all conference opponents
3. Combined win percentage in conference games of conference opponents.
4. Total number of wins in a 12-game season.
5. Highest ranking by SportSource Analytics (team Rating Score metric) following the last weekend of regular-season games.
6. Coin toss
With that being said, here are some possible scenarios based on Kansas State’s remaining games (and the help of others) that would see the Wildcats return to Arlington.
SCENARIO 1
-Kansas State wins out
-Oklahoma State loses one of two (vs. Houston and @BYU)
-Oklahoma loses one of two (vs. BYU and @TCU)
-Texas wins out
Conference Championship game:
#1 Texas vs. #2 Kansas State
SCENARIO 2
-Kansas State wins out
-Oklahoma State loses one of two
-Texas loses one of two (vs. Iowa State, @ Texas Tech)
-Oklahoma wins out
Conference Championship game:
#1 Kansas State vs. #2 Oklahoma
SCENARIO 3
-Kansas State wins out
-Oklahoma State loses out
-Texas loses out
-Oklahoma loses out
Conference Championship Game:
#1 Kansas State vs. #2 Texas
(Author’s Note: This is certainly the most chaotic possible path, but it’s worth mentioning.)
