THIS WEEK IN THE BIG 12 CONFERENCE
Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship
Saturday, December 4, 11:00 a.m. CT ~ ABC
Arlington, Texas ~ AT&T Stadium (64,451 capacity)
No. 9 Baylor vs. No. 5 Oklahoma State
Series Record: OSU 22-18
Last Meeting: OSU 24-14 on Oct. 2, 2021 in Stillwater.
Tickets: SeatGeek.com
Rankings are CFP
Conference News and Notes
Oklahoma State and Baylor will square off in the 2021 Dr Pepper Big 12 Football Championship. The Cowboys are making their first appearance in the game while the Bears will play in their second. OSU is the designated home team and will occupy the south bench.
OSU finished at the top of the Big 12 regular season standings with an 8-1 record (.889). Baylor tied for second with Oklahoma at 7-2
(.778), but has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Sooners with a 27-14 win in Waco on Nov. 13.
The Big 12 had three teams in the top 12 of the Nov. 30 CFP Poll with No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 9 Baylor and No. 14 Oklahoma. Seventy percent of Big 12 teams are bowl eligible. Every Big 12 team has a win in conference play.
The Big 12 finished the regular season with a .800 (24-6) win percentage in non-conference outings, good for second among FBS leagues. Four of the six losses were to other autonomy leagues.
Among FBS leagues, the Big 12 is first in pass completion percentage (64.8), passer rating (146.0), rushing yards (173.3) and yards per play (7.3).
Sixty percent of Big 12 defenses are allowing less than 130 yards a game on the ground to rank in the NCAA top 37: 6. Oklahoma State
(93.6), 19. Baylor (120.8), 21. Iowa State (122.1), 23. Oklahoma (123.8), 29. K-State (126.1) and 37. West Virginia (129.3).
The Big 12 has fifty percent of teams in the top 25 of red zone offense, including the top two: 1. Oklahoma (.964), 2. Iowa State (.957), 5. Texas (.936), 16. Texas Tech (.909) and 21. West Virginia (.898).
Oklahoma State’s defense leads the nation in third-down conversion pct. (.247), sacks (4.08) and TFL (8.2). The Cowboys are third in total defense (281.4), fifth in scoring defense (16.4) and sixth in rushing defense (93.6).
Big 12 players of the week were awarded to Iowa State’s Breece Hall (offensive) and the Oklahoma State trio of Malcolm Rodriguez (defensive), Brennan Presley (special teams) and Collin Oliver (newcomer).
With four catches last Saturday, Trestan Ebner has the most receptions by a running back (124) in Baylor program history. Iowa State running back Breece Hall broke the NCAA FBS record for consecutive games with a rushing TD (24) in the regular season finale.
Kansas’ Kenny Logan Jr., led the team with 14 total tackles vs. WVU, including one for a loss. The junior safety finished the season with 113 total tackles.
K-State running back Deuce Vaughn has five-straight games with 100 rushing yards, which is tied for the third-longest streak in school
history.
Oklahoma has registered at least one takeaway in 18 straight games and in 19 of the last 20. It is plus-19 in turnover margin (40 takeaways to 21 turnovers) over the last 21 contests.
OSU set a school record for most home wins in a season with seven. The Cowboys marked the third 11-win season in program history (2010 & 2011).
A sack by DE Dylan Horton vs. ISU gave TCU at least one sack in 96 of its last 103 games.
QB Casey Thompson surpassed the 2,000-yard passing mark for the season, the 14th Longhorn to accomplish the feat and the 24th time in Texas football history that a Longhorn has passed for 2,000 yards in a season.
Texas Tech LB Colin Schooler logged 10 tackles at Baylor and now ranks No. 7 all-time in FBS history with 307 solo tackles.
WVU became bowl eligible for the 18th time in the last 20 years. S Sean Mahone made his 54th career appearance, setting the WVU
program record for career games played.
