Playoff hopes rest with Baylor, West Virginia

Big 12’s remaining unbeatens work toward Dec. 3 clash.

The Big 12 has hardly been mentioned in any playoff discussions. Yet Baylor and West Virginia remain very much alive for a spot in the postseason.

The Bears (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) and Mountaineers (5-0, 2-0) have quietly racked up impressive seasons so far and they’re each shooting up the Top 25.

Baylor moved from 11th to ninth this week after thrashing Kansas 49-7. West Virginia’s 48-17 win at Texas Tech helped it jump from 20th all the way to No. 12.

“We’ve still got some things we can get better at ... but being 6-0 right now, I think at the start of the season, no matter how you got to it, you’d feel pretty good about that,” Baylor acting head coach Jim Grobe said.

If both keep winning, it would set up a de facto Big 12 title game — possibly for a playoff spot — in the season finale in Morgantown on Dec. 3. But should either team make it to December unscathed, they’ll have earned it.

Baylor has trips to Texas (3-3, 1-2) and No. 16 Oklahoma (4-2, 3-0) in the next month. The Mountaineers, second only to Baylor among Big 12 teams in scoring defense at 19.4 points per game, host TCU (4-2, 2-1) on Saturday. West Virginia then goes to Oklahoma State (4-2, 2-1), and it also has to face the Longhorns and Sooners.

“They play hard. They play physical, and they come downhill at you,” Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said of West Virginia’s defense.