Does the Big 12 deserve two teams in the College Football Playoff?
Maybe.
No. 4 Texas Tech defeated BYU for the second time this season in Saturday's Big 12 Championship game at AT&T Stadium.
The rematch was kind of like the first game. TT's defense was dominant and elite, and BYU turnovers doomed the No. 11 Cougars when Jay Hill's defense could not get a turnover for the first time this season.
Texas Tech is in and should have a first-round bye in the CFP bracket.
BYU is out, even with 11 wins, if you listened to the talking heads on Saturday. It will be the first time in the CFP era that an 11-win team is left out of the Top 10.
Instead, you will get either the No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish or No. 12 Miami Hurricanes with the at-large berth, despite Notre Dame not playing in a conference and cherry-picking its schedule and Miami sitting on the couch watching games after losing a tiebreaker for the ACC conference championship.
Many argue the Hurricanes will get the at-large because they beat the Fighting Irish head-to-head. All the talk during the BYU vs TT game was about Miami or Notre Dame getting in, that BYU couldn't without beating the Red Raiders.
But here's the thing: Miami lost Nov. 1 to SMU and SMU lost to both Baylor and TCU of the Big 12. Baylor isn't even bowl eligible and BYU drilled TCU in Provo.
BYU has a better strength of record (6th), than Notre Dame (13th) and Miami (14th). The Cougars have a stronger strength of schedule (34th) than Notre Dame (42nd) and Miami (44th) and have defeated more Top 25 teams (2-2) than Notre Dame (1-2) and Miami (1-0).
BYU's argument took a hit with a 34-7 loss on Saturday, but face it, even if it had been a one-score loss, the Cougars face a situation that is made to keep them out. BYU's only losses of the year were to No. 8 and No. 4 TT, who is 12-1.
The system is broken.
College football is more popular than the NBA, and while it generates a ton of money, it can still make so much more if done properly.
Still, ever since BYU was crowned the mythical national champion in 1984 by the Associated Press and United Press International polls of media and coaches, the elite, the blue bloods have sought to control how champions are crowned and money divided.
And through it all, the BCS, the CFP, it is still a joke because the administration class designs the champion to be decided by committees who are then politicked by their friends and corporate TV interests.
The CFP is an invitational. It's a gymnastics meet with judges. It's a ballroom dance contest where costumes are replaced with brands, pointed fingers in the air and fast steps before a panel.
Little the CFP has done this year has anything to do with metrics, wins-losses, strength of schedule, strength of record, or other factors the committee announced they would consider, and that's a shame.
It's not just a conundrum; it's a waste.
Expanding the playoff to 12 was supposed to fix this. It only ticked off more people, made fools of the committee and a joke of ESPN's weekly show wherein the chairman comes out and says senseless things.
"I feel a lot of empathy for Reece (Davis) having to host that thing when you know you have to ask certain questions and you're never going to get answers, but talking points," CBS sportscaster Tim Brando told KSL sports radio this week.
"It is a corrupt system. I don't think that the members of the committee are corrupt, but they're part of a corrupt process, and there's no getting around this. It's been set up to fail from the moment they decided that they would hold on to the committee concept when it's been proven time and time again that this committee is manipulated by the movers and shakers of all the conferences that brand recognition.
Brando continued: "There's a reason why Alabama moved ahead of Notre Dame in last week's poll. It's not because Alabama deserved it. Hell, they barely beat Auburn."
Brando said Alabama moved ahead of Notre Dame, something Miami couldn't do. "And that was to make absolutely certain that an Alabama loss would not cost them an opportunity as an at-large bid. That's the reason."
Continued Brando, "It makes me nauseated. I'm nauseous every time I hear it that BYU has to do something that Alabama doesn't, and that is win their conference title game, and that's the only way that BYU is going to get in. They're not going to be picked, even if they're competitive against Texas Tech and lose.
"So you tell me what's right about that concept. It's pathetic, and until we get some real leadership, and until the commissioners get rid of their own hubris and decide that they've got to work together as opposed to against one another, we're going to see this in college football."
Texas Tech is a worthy Big 12 representative. Joey McGuire's team is capable, with that elite defense, of going all the way. I hope the Red Raiders do.
For the Cougars, making the Big 12 conference championship game in the third year of Power Four membership is a big deal. BYU did so without a full share of Power Four revenue until part of 2025.
To get 11 wins is a big deal. To go 22-4 the past two years is nothing to sneeze about. Now, after a dramatic week in Provo, BYU football will have far more resources to create a championship roster than it did when this season started against Portland State.
Fresh off its best recruiting effort with its 2026 class signed this past week, the building blocks are there for renewed head coach Kalani Sitake and his staff to reload, recreate, zone in on critical needs and plan for another run in 2026.
If anything, BYU learned what it it needs to do by being on the field with Texas Tech twice.
Now, on to a bowl game, likely either the Alamo or Pop-Tarts Bowl.