The Big 12 Championship will impact the Texas Longhorns bowl bid

On Saturday the Oklahoma Sooners and Iowa State Cyclones will face off for the Big 12 title. The Texas Longhorns’ bowl fate rests on it.

With the regular season wrapped up following the cancellation of Texas’ season finale with Kansas, the Longhorns only have a bowl game remaining.

On Wednesday, head coach Tom Herman addressed the media in which he stated they wouldn’t skip their bowl game as some other schools are seemingly doing. That gives senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger one more game this season before weighing his future options.

The latest bowl projections have the Longhorns heading to the Cheez-It bowl to face off against the Miami Hurricanes. Prior to the slate of games the previous weekend, Texas was projected to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels, a reunion of sorts with former Texas head coach Mack Brown. It now appears more likely that it will come down to a reunion against Manny Diaz, who was the defensive coordinator for the Longhorns up until the game against BYU in 2013.

There is still a chance that they may not play in the Cheez-It bowl at all. It will come down to the Big 12 Championship game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday. Currently, the Cyclones are the No. 6 team in the College Football Playoff rankings, while the Sooners sit at No. 10.

If the Sooners were to avenge their previous loss to Iowa State, depending on how far that drops the Cyclones, then Texas would likely head back to the Valero Alamo bowl. This would mean both Iowa State and Oklahoma would receive New Years Six bowl bids.

On the flip side, should Iowa State win the title game, the Longhorns would remain locked into a trip to Orlando and a date with the Hurricanes in all likeliness. It will be just another reason to tune in to the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday.