The Baylor Bears are 10-1 and in control of their own destiny for the Big 12 Conference championship and a shot at the first ever Final Four playoff. To seal the deal however the Bears must defeat a tough and well coached Kansas State Wildcats team that can gain a share of the league title with a win on Saturday.
The Baylor-Kansas State matchup can be seen on ESPN Saturday at 7:45 PM ET in what amounts to a championship matchup.
On Fumes?
Although Baylor will host this climatic matchup at sparkling new McLane Stadium, they will enter action with serious question marks. First, star quarterback Bryce Petty suffered a concussion in last week’s scary 48-46 win against a four win Texas Tech Red Raiders team at Jerry’s World in Arlington. Petty is now listed as questionable for this week’s game.
The win over Tech epitomized the recent look of Baylor as a team that is running out of gas. The Bears have covered the spread in just two out of their last six games at a time when “style points” are at a premium to be considered worthy by the Final Four Playoff Committee.
“Game Control” = Manslaughter
When you barely beat a 4-8 Texas Tech team that ranks 125th in the nation for total defense you immediately get dinged by the committee for that based on a new term known as “game control”, which is a politically correct term for “blowout wins.”
Frogs Leap into Conversation
Not only does Baylor face a strong 9-2 Kansas State team for a share of the league championship, but they must also deal with the TCU Horned Frogs, the team that they share the lead with heading into this final weekend of action.
What is ironic about the Baylor vs. TCU conversation is that the Bears defeated the Frogs 61-58 after rallying from a 58-37 deficit with 11:38 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Per Big 12 officials, a one-loss Baylor would be submitted to the playoff as conference champion over a one-loss TCU because of that head-to-head victory.
Unforgiven
TCU has won six games in a row since that fateful day at McLane Stadium while Baylor suffered a bad 41-27 loss at West Virginia the week after that epic comeback over TCU. Despite the fact that Baylor defeated TCU in their head-to-head match-up, the Bears have not been forgiven by the committee for that loss at WVU. Now they must beat Kansas State and beat them in convincing fashion to have a shot at playoff glory.
We expect Kansas State to ruin Baylor’s season on Saturday.
