The Big 12 doesn’t have to wait until Oklahoma and Texas are gone to experience something that hasn’t happened for a long time — a championship game without either of those teams.
When fifth-ranked Oklahoma State plays ninth-ranked Baylor on Saturday, it will end a streak of 16 consecutive Big 12 title games involving the Sooners or Longhorns, including one in which the SEC-bound teams played each other. The last without one of the Red River rivals was in 1998.
“There’s a lot of positives from that perspective,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. “With Oklahoma State being in it and Baylor being in it, I have to imagine that just the conference moving forward is looking at that with a smile on their face.”