9 teams have a shot at the Big 12 title heading into Week 14

More than half of the Big 12 is still alive in the race for the conference title heading into the final week of the regular season.

According to the conference, nine of its 16 teams have a chance to reach the title. Four teams are tied atop the conference at 6-2, while five teams are 5-3.

Arizona State, BYU, Colorado and Iowa State are the four teams at 6-2. Baylor, Kansas State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia are in the five-man game.

All four first-place teams are favored in Week 14. If they all win, the conference can’t go to head-to-head tiebreaks because they didn’t play each other. In fact, Arizona State’s win over BYU in Week 13 was the only game between teams in the top four.

The conference will need to use common opponents among the four teams to begin breaking the four-way tie. The tied teams all played Cincinnati, Kansas, Kansas State and UCF. Arizona State won all four of those games, Iowa State and BYU went 3-1 and Colorado lost to KU and K-State.

That tiebreaker eliminates Colorado and would also eliminate the Buffaloes in a three-way tie for first place with two of the other first-place teams.

Arizona State would get to the conference title game via common opponents, while Iowa State would win another tiebreaker over BYU based on the winning percentage of its conference opponents. Iowa State’s conference opponents have 28 wins compared to BYU’s 25. The Cougars have played both Utah and Oklahoma State, teams that have gone a combined 1-15 in Big 12 play so far.

ASU wins any three-way tiebreaker it is in.

The chaos scenario is unlikely, but still possible. Eight teams could finish first in the conference if Oklahoma State beats Colorado, Baylor beats Kansas, Arizona beats Arizona State, TCU beats Cincinnati, Kansas State beats Iowa State and Houston beats BYU. The seven aforementioned teams with a shot at the title would be joined by the winner of West Virginia at Texas Tech.

An eight-way tie with a Texas Tech win would produce a matchup between Baylor and Texas Tech for the conference title game. Seriously.

There are too many other permutations to go through because so many teams are still alive for the title. So we will be brief. If you want a straightforward finals weekend, you’re sure at least two of the 6-2 teams will win. If you want mayhem, you’re looking for some disruption and the eight-way tie.