THIS WEEK IN THE BIG 12
Dr Pepper Big 12 Football Championship
No. 10 Kansas State (9-3) vs. No. 3 TCU (12-0)
Saturday, December 3, 11 a.m. CT (ABC)
Arlington, Texas ~ AT&T Stadium (64,451)
ESPN College GameDay, 8 a.m. CT (ESPN)
Series History: Tied 8-8
Last Meeting: TCU won 38-28 in Fort Worth on October 22, 2022.
Big 12 Championship Game Appearances:
K-State: 4 (1998, 2000, 2003 [won], 2022)
TCU: 2 (2017, 2022)
CONFERENCE NEWS AND NOTES
The matchup is set for the Dr Pepper Big 12 Football Championship as undefeated TCU squares off against 9-3 Kansas State on Saturday at AT&T
Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The game will kickoff at 11:11 a.m. CT on ABC. ESPN’s College GameDay will go live at 8 a.m. CT from outside the stadium in Parking Lot 3.
A Big 12 television partner pregame show will originate from a Conference game for the ninth time in eight games this season. It is GameDay’s first appearance at the Big 12 Championship Game since 2007.
No. 3 TCU, No. 10 K-State and No. 20 Texas are in the fifth CFP Rankings (Nov. 29). Final rankings will be released on Sunday.
The Big 12 has a Top 10 Championship Game matchup for the third consecutive season and is the only top 10 contest in this season’s conference title games.
K-State has qualified for the Championship Game for the fourth season and first since winning the title in 2003. The Wildcats also played in the game in 1998 and 2000. TCU is making its second appearance in the Championship contest since joining the Conference in 2012. The Horned Frogs played in the 2017 title game when it resumed after a six-season absence.
TCU will occupy the South bench as the home team and wear dark jerseys while K-State will be on the North bench as the visiting team and wear white jerseys.
TCU is the first Big 12 team to start 12-0 since Texas started at 13-0 in 2009. The Horned Frogs are also the first team to go undefeated in Big 12 play since Oklahoma in 2016.
TCU is one of just three undefeated teams along with Georgia and Michigan. TCU’s five wins over ranked opponents are more than the combined total of the other two (Georgia – 2, Michigan – 2). K-State has two ranked wins this season.
The Big 12 is the only conference that has 80% of teams bowl-eligible: Baylor, Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas and Texas Tech.
The Big 12 has eight bowl-eligible teams for the first time since 2017 and the 12th season in Conference history. It is the fourth time since the Big 12 has competed as a 10-team league.
The Big 12 is one of just two leagues (SEC) in which every team has at least four wins.
The Big 12 leads all conferences in scoring (32.7 ppg), total yards (429.4) and rushing yards (177.6) while it is fourth in passing yards (251.9) and pass completion pct. (62.3).
The Big 12’s average home attendance this season was 59,134, up over 4,100 from the final 2021 season average of 55,017.
Every Big 12 team averaged over 79 percent of stadium capacity and 50 percent were over 100 percent of capacity. The Big 12 had five of the 12 teams nationally that averaged over stadium capacity.
Home teams ended the year with a 26-18 advantage in on-campus Big 12 games. TCU was the only team to go unscathed at home this season. Every Big 12 team had a starting quarterback miss game time due to injury this season.
The Big 12 concluded regular season non-conference games with a .833 (25-5) win percentage, which is second in the FBS while the five losses are tied for the fewest. Every Big 12 team finished with a winning record and the win percentage is the highest since going .900 (27-3) in 2011.
Baylor recorded its first safety since 2017, when Bravion Roy secured a sack vs. TCU.
Iowa State QB Hunter Dekkers went over 3,000 yards on the season, becoming the third player in school history to do so for a total of four seasons.
Kansas had three plays of 20+ yards on Saturday, and now has 73 plays of 20+ yards this season.
K-State’s Deuce Vaughn has 1,295 rushing yards this season to record his second-straight season with 1,000 rushing yards.
Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel threw for 449 yards and a career-high six touchdown passes at Texas Tech.
Oklahoma State’s Jason Taylor II picked off his sixth pass of the season in the second quarter of the regular season finale.
Kendre Miller has a rushing score in all 12 games this year, tying LaDainian Tomlinson for the longest streak to begin a season in TCU history.
Texas had seven tackles for loss vs. BU, the seventh game this season with at least seven TFL.
Texas Tech became the second FBS team since 1996 to have three quarterbacks pass for 1,000 yards (Donovan Smith (1505), Behren Morton (1117), Tyler Shough (1068)). Oklahoma State is the only other team to do so in 2012.
West Virginia tied a season-high with seven TFL against Oklahoma State.
