Bowl Positioning

And while unlikely, it’s possible to still end up in a 4 way tie for 1st place.

K-State losing two is possible, it’s not likely, but the battle for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, …etc is still WIDE OPEN! It looks likely that we’ll get only one BCS team. If we win out Cotton is still in play depending on OUs performance the final 5 games. If they lose one more and we win out… still a possibility as the conference tie breakers are only for deciding the champion, from my understanding bowl bids are more subjective. But winning this week goes a long way to getting us to the upgraded status Alamo Bowl. Where the Pac 12 No. 2 team could be USC, Oregon St., or Stanford. I would rather play one of these teams than Michigan St in Tempe in the Buffalo Wild Wings bowl on many levels.

Here is a Big 12 Affiliated Bowl Grid. I used several sources to build and added the last column with my best guess for acceptable losses. Sources (NCAA, College Football Poll, Phil Steele, Wikipedia). The last column is all in my own opinion.

^ - Outback/Cotton Bowl - The Cotton Bowl has the first preference of teams from the SEC Western Division and the Outback Bowl has first preference of teams from the SEC Eastern Division. The Cotton or Outback Bowl can select teams outside of its divisional preference, but must not select them before the opposite bowl selects from its divisional preference.* May take an at large team if not enough teams from affiliated conferences qualify

**Heart of Dallas Big 12 affiliation ends after 2012 season completed.

BCS Selection Order: The order of selection for this year's BCS games is Fiesta, Sugar, Orange. However, the bowls that lose host conference champions to the BCS title game get to replace those teams before other selections are made. BCS Selection Procedures.

Notre Dame is eligible for all bowls in which the Big East has a commitment, as well as the BCS. It also serves as the backup for the Big 12 in the Pinstripe Bowl.

PAYOUTS: Amounts shown do not necessarily reflect what each school receives. The conferences have different methods by which bowl money is divided among its membership. Some bowl agreements call for higher payouts to one conference than the other, depending on such factors as which is the "host" conference. Most of the above payouts are based on actual figures from the Football Bowl Association for the 2010-2011 season, while others are published estimates of anticipated payouts for the current year

Bowl-ineligible: Ohio State, Penn State and North Carolina.