West Virginia Football: 3 takeaways from crushing loss at Oklahoma State

2. West Virginia’s destiny is no longer in their hands

West Virginia’s loss to Oklahoma State tonight means that if the Mountaineers want to play for the Big 12 Championship, then they’ll have to beat Oklahoma next week; there’s no longer a path for them to make it with a loss.

It’s also possible, now, that a win over the Sooners wouldn’t be enough because of the potential for a three-team tie. If Iowa State knocks off Texas in Austin, and wins next week along with a West Virginia win over Oklahoma, then the Cyclones, Mountaineers, and Sooners would all be tied with two losses in conference and we’d have to go to tiebreakers to figure out the two teams that would play in Dallas on Dec. 1.

I believe the tiebreaker would come down to scoring differential among the tied teams, which could be bad news for West Virginia considering they lost to Iowa State by 16. The Mountaineers would not only need to beat Oklahoma, they’d need to do it by a good margin to ensure the tiebreaker would go in their favor.

Holgorsen and company will be big fans of Texas this evening in hopes that the Cyclones are knocked out from contention. Then a win over Oklahoma would ensure a berth for the Mountaineers despite a three-way tie because they would sport wins over the Sooners and Longhorns.

If nothing else, West Virginia’s outside hopes of making the playoff were ended in Stillwater on Saturday night, and they were knocked from the driver’s seat in the Big 12.