Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy feels his team has been in playoff mode for several weeks.
With one more win and a little help, the fifth-ranked Cowboys could be one of the four teams in the actual College Football Playoff. A victory in their first conference championship game also would give them their second Big 12 title.
“Essentially, we’ve been in a playoff run week to week or Big 12 championship run the last four weeks,” Gundy said. “If you don’t win these last three or four, win enough of them, you don’t get in the game anyway.”
A week after a rivalry win in Bedlam that knocked six-time defending Big 12 champion Oklahoma out of contention, Oklahoma State (11-1, No. 5 CFP) plays ninth-ranked Baylor (10-2, No. 9 CFP) in the Big 12 championship game Saturday at the home stadium of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
When Oklahoma State won the Big 12 title in 2011, it was the first of six consecutive seasons the league didn’t have a championship game.