All eyes were on Lubbock this weekend, and Texas Tech put on a show for the entire college football world. 

Did it come at a cost for the Big 12’s chances of getting two playoff teams? Perhaps. The path to an at-large bid for BYU became more difficult with a blowout loss. 

TCU took itself out of the Big 12 championship picture with a brutal loss, while Houston, West Virginia, and Arizona took steps forward for their programs. 

Here are my five biggest takeaways from the weekend of Big 12 football.  

Tech Makes a Statement Against BYU

After Saturday’s 29–7 win over BYU, there’s no doubt: Texas Tech is the best team in the Big 12.

The Red Raiders controlled this game wire-to-wire. If Tech could solve its recurring red-zone woes, this would have gotten out of hand even sooner.

Texas Tech’s defense showed why it has a case as the best unit in the country, holding BYU to under four yards per play and 2.5 yards per carry, while forcing three turnovers. The Cougars could never get comfortable and finished a dismal 3-for-14 on third down. 

LB Jacob Rodriguez and DE David Bailey bolstered their case that they should be included in the Heisman conversation. Rodriguez led Tech with 14 tackles and had an interception and a fumble recovery. When Bailey wasn’t living in the backfield, he was flexing his coverage skills and batting down Bear Bachmeier passes. 

The Red Raider defense is good enough to win a national title. Full stop. But two issues remain on offense: Behren Morton’s health and scoring touchdowns in the red zone.

I think the two issues are related. With Morton limping around with a hairline fracture, there is zero threat of the quarterback run game in the red zone when you need it most. Morton lost 46 yards on four sacks during the game, which shows the mobility issues. 

Morton is going to have to tough it out with backup QB Will Hammond out for the year. Nothing against QB Mitch Giffis, now Tech’s backup, but I don’t think you can win playoff games with him. 

Morton would need to survive another four or five games at least for the Red Raiders to make a deep playoff run. I don’t question his toughness at all, but I do wonder if his body can hold up. 

Either way, the college football world now knows full well what’s happening in Lubbock. Josh Pate said on his latest show that there was plenty of chatter from national media on Saturday about Texas Tech having the best facilities in the country, and everybody can see how well put together the roster is. 

Tech is laying the groundwork to become the flagship Big 12 brand that the league so desperately needs. If fans and media nationally trust that at least one Big 12 school can consistently field a playoff-caliber roster, that will help the league’s perception. 

Two Bid Big 12 Is No Sure Thing 

Unfortunately, the odds of the Big 12 getting two playoff bids took a minor hit on Saturday. 

Tech’s blowout of BYU hurts the Cougars’ at-large chances if they win their final three regular-season games and then lose a rematch to the Red Raiders in the Big 12 title game.

BYU still fully controls its playoff destiny, though. Beat TCU, Cincinnati, and UCF to reach Arlington, and the Cougars seem confident they’ll fare better in a rematch with Texas Tech. 

If they don’t, it would really test the idea that the College Football Playoff selection committee isn’t supposed to punish a team for losing its conference championship game. 

The likely competition for a final at-large spot would include two or three-loss SEC teams like Texas or Oklahoma and two-loss Notre Dame. Those brands would all be major problems if BYU or Utah were vying for a bid.

That creates a simple rooting guide for Big 12 fans. Notre Dame is at No. 24 Pitt this weekend, the only game left that looks losable for the Fighting Irish. Pull hard for the Panthers.

You’ll also want Georgia and Texas A&M to knock off Texas, and you’re hoping Oklahoma loses two of three to Alabama, LSU, and Missouri.

Vanderbilt could also be a sneaky problem if it wins out. Auburn almost took care of that for the Big 12 on Saturday, but the Tigers blew a two-touchdown lead in Nashville.

Oregon going down at Iowa would have also helped. Unfortunately, Ducks QB Dante Moore threw the best pass of the entire college football season to set up a dramatic game-winning field goal.    

The Big 12 is still in a much better position than the ACC, which now seems doomed to a single spot for its conference champion. I’m higher on the odds of Utah sneaking in as an at-large than some. I just can’t shake how the committee (unfairly) treated last year’s two-loss Cougars.

BYU had a better resume across the board than Miami last season, but got zero consideration for the last spot, while the Hurricanes were considered one of the last two on the outside looking in. 

TCU’s Sloppiness Costs Them Again

I can only imagine how frustrating this season has been for TCU fans. Sloppiness caught up to the Frogs again in a brutal 20–17 home loss to reeling Iowa State that knocked them out of the Big 12 title hunt.

Iowa State QB Rocco Becht completed only nine passes and threw two interceptions. TCU out-gained ISU by 160 yards. The Frogs led this game by 11 in the fourth quarter.

How on earth did they lose?

Here’s how: three Horned Frog turnovers, an Iowa State punt-return touchdown, and a missed 25-yard field goal by TCU kicker Nate McCashland before halftime.

It’s the second time this season that the Frogs have blown a double-digit lead in a Big 12 game. In September, TCU had Arizona State down by 17 in Tempe before losing 27-24. They also turned it over three times (two returned for touchdowns) in a 41–28 loss at K-State.

Give Iowa State a ton of credit for continuing to fight when a fifth straight loss looked inevitable. That’s a culture win for Matt Campbell’s program.

But TCU is a talented team that had every opportunity to do more with its roster this season. The Frogs still have BYU, Houston, and Cincinnati left on the schedule, too. A 6-6 season is on the table if they’re not careful. 

Houston is Resilient 

A week after a shocking upset loss to West Virginia, it looked like Houston was headed for another loss to a bottom-tier Big 12 team at UCF on Friday night. 

Houston QB Conner Weigman again struggled to protect the football and threw a 43-yard pick-six late in the first half to give the Knights a 24-14 lead. UCF safety Phillip Dunnam snagged all three of Weigman’s interceptions in the game. 

After turning it over only four times in the first eight games, the Cougars have given it away eight times in the last two.

Somehow, they found a way to weather the storm and pull a 30-27 win out of the fire in Orlando. It’s the first time UCF has ever lost its Space Game. 

Houston leaned on its defense in the second half. The Cougars allowed only 104 yards and three points, while forcing a trio of three-and-outs. Linebacker Latraveon McCutchin also returned an interception 45 yards for a score in style to flip the game late in the first half. 

The win preserves a realistic shot at a ten-win season, though the Cougars need to clean up the turnovers to beat TCU and Baylor. 

No matter what happens from here on out, it’s been an incredible coaching job from Willie Fritz, who has already doubled his year-one win total. 

Lance Leipold’s Close Game Struggles Continue

Kansas fans are growing weary of head coach Lance Leipold’s struggles in close games. After a 24-20 loss at Arizona, Leipold is now 3-9 in one-score games the last two seasons. 

There is one decision that will haunt Leipold after this one. 

Leading 20-17, KU had 4th and 2 at the Arizona 11-yard line with 2:42 left in the game. While a first down would essentially win the game, Leipold opted for a 30-yard field goal. 

Even a make keeps it a one-score game with plenty of time for the Wildcats to drive for the game-winning touchdown, but Leipold got the worst possible outcome. Jayhawks’ kicker Liath Marjan missed for the first time all season.  

Predictably, Arizona QB Noah Fifita led the Wildcats’ offense 80 yards in eight plays, with RB Quincy Craig scoring the game-winning touchdown.  

In Leipold’s defense, he said after the game that Jalon Daniels wasn’t available for 4th-and-2. However, KU regularly uses quarterbacks Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall in wildcat packages and could have gone with either. 

The loss wasted a tremendous effort from the much-maligned KU defense. The Jayhawks held Fifita more than 100 yards below his season passing average. Arizona’s 24 points were its fewest since September.

Leipold has done an outstanding job turning the KU program around. It’s easy to forget that the Jayhawks just finished the worst decade of Power Four football ever played just five seasons ago. 

Fans want a breakthrough to the next level though, especially after nine wins in 2023. It might get tougher next year without Daniels under center.

What You Need to Know

• How’s this for a dream playoff draw? Texas Tech could host Texas and then play Texas A&M in New Orleans, according to a CBS Sports projection. 

• Here are a couple of other playoff projections, one of which includes both Utah and BYU: On3’s Andy Staples, CBS Sports’ Bud Elliott. 

• Utah can still make the Big 12 championship game. Here’s a simple explanation of the path for the Utes to get there. 

• Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire is under fire for taking a not-so-veiled shot at Notre Dame after Texas Tech’s win over BYU. 

• K-State head coach Chris Klieman says the Wildcats lost arguably the best player on their roster for the rest of the season. 

• How likely is it that BYU or Utah can get into the College Football Playoff with two losses? Is Texas Tech going to be the flagship brand of the Big 12? The latest Open For Business podcast on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube addresses it all.

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