Last year, Michigan and Cincinnati both made it to the College Football Playoff for the first time. The Big 12, for the second year in a row, did not have a representative.
Only one school that calls the Big 12 home has made it to the College Football Playoff since its debut in 2014: Oklahoma. The Sooners earned a berth in the playoff four times, once with Bob Stoops and three times with Lincoln Riley.
No one else from the Big 12 has made it. Not Texas, not Kansas State, not TCU, not Baylor. The Big 12 is one Oklahoma away from having no teams with any playoff history.
So, can the undefeated TCU Horned Frogs finally get the Big 12 another playoff team?
After Week 9, ESPN’s college football playoff predictor gives the Horned Frogs a 10% chance of making the playoff. If they win out and win the Big 12 title, that chance jumps to 87%. If they win the Big 12 title with one loss, that percentage drops to 38%.
If they win the Big 12 with one loss or less, they’re getting in. They might need some help, but they should get in. The last three times the Big 12 winner got into the playoff, it had just one loss. Of course, there has been one instance where a one-loss Big 12 champion has been shut out of the playoff, and TCU fans remember this well.
In 2014, the Big 12 crowned two one-loss teams, Baylor and TCU, as co-champions of the Big 12. The Frogs finished No. 3 in both the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and the AP Poll. They didn’t make the playoff.
The Big 12 has different rules now. There’s no voting needed for TCU to win the conference.
There’s just no way the committee can keep out the Frogs if they win the conference with one loss or less. If the Frogs finish the regular-season undefeated and then lose in the Big 12 Championship, that’s a different story.
If anyone from the Big 12 is getting into the playoff, it’s going to be TCU. Not a bad start for Sonny Dykes in Fort Worth.
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