Baylor Football: Can TCU keep Bears from bowl eligibility?

A lot is on the line in Week 12 for both Baylor football and the TCU Horned Frogs as each team looks to inch closer to the postseason.

Already under head coach Matt Rhule, Baylor football is at the point where it could reach bowl eligibility in his second year at the helm in Waco, Texas. Rhule pulled off a turnaround job that is not getting enough attention around the country, and Baylor football is on the up and up in the Big 12 right now.

Baylor football has its biggest annual rivalry game on tap in Week 12 against the TCU Horned Frogs. And, both Baylor and TCU sit in pretty much the same boat at this point in terms of the final goal for this season. TCU needs to win its last two games to become bowl eligible. Meanwhile, Baylor is just one win shy from that mark of bowl eligibility and at least a five-win improvement from 2017.

Getting the Baylor football program back on track following all the turmoil at the end of the Art Briles era was the main goal for Rhule when he arrived in Waco from the Temple Owls. TCU head coach Gary Patterson is just looking to salvage a wreck of a 2018 season for his team.

At the beginning of the 2018 campaign, you’d be heartfelt to think that Baylor and TCU would be sitting where each squad is at right now. Baylor was considered to be a bottom three team in the Big 12 this fall while TCU was in the preseason top 20 in the initial AP Poll.

Now, Baylor heads into what was formerly known as the “revivalry” as a two-point favorite over the Horned Frogs at home at McLane Stadium. The over/under for this game is set at 53 total points. This shouldn’t be an offensive shootout with how good TCU’s defense can be and how lackluster the offense is this year.

Baylor will continue to ride the efforts of sophomore quarterback Charlie Brewer as he tried to lead his team to pull off the road upset in Week 11 against the upstart Iowa State Cyclones. Brewer had more than 350 total yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions in a solid outing for him against Iowa State.

Meanwhile, TCU is looking to get more out of sophomore quarterback Michael Collins the rest of the way. Collins fell flat in his efforts last week in a blowout loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers by the final score of 47-10. TCU doesn’t appear to be in too good of shape heading into this difficult matchup against Baylor.

Overall, there’s five teams in the same boat in the Big 12 in terms of the road to reaching bowl eligibility. That list of five Big 12 teams does encompass Baylor and TCU. But, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, Kansas State Wildcats, and Texas Tech Red Raiders all have four or five wins each in a fight for postseason eligibility.

TCU and Baylor will kick-off at 12 p.m. ET in Waco, Texas, before each team has its regular season finale in Week 13. We’ll see how this Big 12 showdown and annual rivalry game at McLane Stadium shakes out in Week 12.