So this is good, right?

University of Texas president, Bill Powers, said on his blog Thursday that football coach, Mack Brown has his full support. Hey, it beats the alternative.

I’d like to state unequivocally that Coach Brown has my full support as well as the support of Men’s Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds. Put succinctly, Mack Brown is and will remain the Longhorns’ head football coach.

The Longhorns struggles have been well documented the past several seasons. After finishing the 2009 season, 13-1, and playing for the national title, Texas fell to 5-7 in 2010, 8-5 in 2011, and 8-4 this season with the Alamo Bowl against Oregon State still to come.

The fact that Brown as the support, publicly at least, of his superiors should come as no huge surprise. Like Brown or not, the man has earned it.

It's not necessarily a good thing when a school's administration feels the need to offer their public support, but then again, maybe at least for the time being it would put to bed any rumors of what may or may not be going on behind the scenes in Austin.

The easy thing to do would be to forget Brown's first 12 seasons when Texas won at least nine games every season and won ten games or more nine straight times. The easy thing to do would be to cut bait and roll the dice with a new coach. There might be some upside by doing that, yes, but there's a whole lot of risk involved in that, as well.

Even though it might not make a restless fan base happy, UT's administration getting an itchy trigger finger doesn't ensure anything. The simple facts of the matter is that Texas already has a proven commodity as their head coach so why go looking for a new one?

Not that Brown is looking for any advice - I'm guessing he gets plenty of that the way it is - but the easiest way to appease the masses is to stop getting trampled by Oklahoma. The Longhorns have dropped the last two games to the Sooners by a combined 80 points. That is simply not acceptable and if it continues, whatever else Texas does to get better might not matter. It starts and ends there.

It's also worth noting that getting the train back on the track in Austin isn't getting easier. Texas A&M's early success in the SEC makes the Aggies as attractive as they've ever been to potential recruits. TCU isn't going away and the same can be said for Baylor and Texas Tech. Recruits in Texas have as many solid options in school's to choose from as they've ever had.

But Texas is still Texas. They'll continue to do what they do on the recruiting trail even if they lose a couple more guys that they normally would have secured pledges from in the past.

But you know what? That might also work in UT's favor. No longer can they throw out offers and expect an immediate "yes" in response. Maybe they'll actually have to start working at recruiting like the rest of the schools in the country which means searching longer and deeper for guys that fit what they are trying to get accomplished.

We could go on for days at what ails Texas and what's the best way to fix it. There aren't any easy answers. But they have a guy at the helm who brought Texas back once and there's not much reason to believe he can't do it again given the chance.

And what if the mediocrity continues? Well, at some point you probably have to say enough is enough and in that case, Brown may even say it himself. But now it not the time.

Texas has taken small steps forward getting back to where they were a few seasons ago mixed in somewhere between the steps they've also taken in reverse.

On the surface, it might appear Texas is still light year's away from competing with the best teams in the country, but the reality is they might not be all that far off given the presumed talent on their roster. 

That is, of course, a matter of opinion, but wherever you stand on the matter, Brown's already proven he can win football games at Texas 12 times over and he has earned the the extra slack in the rope he's being given in trying to get Texas back to the top. 

And who knows, maybe he'll actually reward Texas for the patience they're showing him with another couple conference titles and maybe even more.  Of course, that would be a slam dunk with a new coaching staff or so most people seem to believe.

Just over a week from now, it will officially be bowl season when the New Mexico Bowl kicks off on December 15th although things really won't get heated up until the day after Christmas.  Then it is time to buckle your seat because it will be jam packed couple of weeks ahead.

Here's a look at who playing where and when it's happening along with the announcing teams for every bowl game this season.  If you're wondering what channel to catch your favorite team on, it's a good bet it's on ESPN or one of their networks.  They have are carrying every single bowl game with the exception of the Sun and Cotton Bowls which will air on CBS and Fox, respectively.

As you will see, the nine Big 12 games are listed first followed by all of the other 24 games.

The Sirius channel listings will be updated once they become available, most likely next week.

The Big 12 coaches voted and the results are in.

Overall, Kansas State had the most players on the first team All-Big 12 football squad with seven selections which is probably not all that surprising. Oklahoma State was next up with five selections while Oklahoma came in with four first team players.

The only team not to have a first team player was Kansas which was a crime. There's no way James Sims wasn't one of the two best running backs in the league. More on that later.

Here's a rundown of who made the first team. To have a look at the second team, you can visit Big12sports.com

Big 12 First Team All Big 12 as voted on by the coaches.

It's shocking how James Sims was left off the coaches first team (he did make the media's first team). In Big 12 play only, he led the conference averaging 115.2 yards per game. Overall, he was tied with Joseph Randle that category at 112.6 yards per game.  And if you watched Kansas play at all this season, he was their offense, plain and simple.

The only possible knock on Sims was that he missed the first three games of the season due to his suspension for violatinig team rules. And even then, he still topped 1,000 yards, something nobody else could do in the league other than Randle. Granted, he carried a heavy load for the Jayhawks during those nine game finishing second in the league in total carries, but he carried that load well.

Outside of Sims' snub, it's hard to argue with most of the other selections, especially on offense. Collin Klein at quarterback? Yep. And some goes for the wide receivers, Terrance Williams, Tavon Austin, and Stedman Bailey.

A couple of other notes:

One team that was again absent from the having any offensive selections was Texas. If I read correctly today, the Longhorns haven't had an first team All Big 12 offensive player since 2009. That's hard to believe, really. And, they only had one second team player this year, offensive lineman Trey Hopkins.

Also on offense, seven of the 15 players were juniors meaning there will be some solid talent coming back next season (assuming nobody declares for the NFL draft). There were also seven more on the second team (counting sophomore TE, Jace Amaro from Texas Tech).

Defensively, the numbers are similiar in regards to players who should be coming back.. There were seven juniors and a freshman on the first team (including kicker, Quinn Sharp). On the second team, there were two juniors and four sophomores who should be returning.

There were four players that were unanimous selections: running back, Joseph Randle, linemen Gabe Ikard and Lane Taylor, and linebacker Arthur Brown.

Players that made the first team in both 2011 and 2012: Trey Millard (OU), Gabe Ikard (OU), Quinn Sharp (OSU), Alex Okafor (TX), Jake Klein (ISU), and Arthur Brown (KSU).

The conference also announced it's player of the year awards which will be coming up in another post shortly.

Overall, what do you think?  Did anything surprise you?

Collin Klein is headed to the Big Apple, not that anyone is surprised by the news.

The Heisman Trust announced on Monday that the Kansas State quarterback is one of three finalists for the award along with Texas A&M quarterback, Johnny Manziel, and Notre Dame linebacker, Manti Te'o.

Klein capped another terrific season this past Saturday by beating Texas allowing Kansas State to capture their second ever Big 12 football title.

The senior from Loveland, Colorado finished his career as the all-time leader in Kansas State history with 55 rushing touchdowns including 22 during the 2012 season. He also threw for 2,490 yards this season with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 66% of his passes.

Klein figures to have an uphill battle to win the award with the terrific season Manziel has put together at Texas A&M. And that's not to say Te'o is any slouch who finished the season with 103 tackles and would be the first ever defensive-only player to win the award.

Whether Klein wins the award or not, what he's meant to Kansas State over the past two seasons is undeniable. The Heisman award is given the country's best football player, yes, but there isn't a player in the country who has been more valuable to their team than Klein has been to Kansas State.

A quick story on Klein, I was at a game in Manhattan back in 2010 when the Wildcats were taking on Nebraska. The Huskers had the game well in hand and Bill Snyder put Klein into the game in relief of Carson Coffman. Coffman had struggled at times during the year and I remember thinking after watching Klein in mop up duty that the Wildcats didn't have many good options after Coffman. Man, was I wrong.

It was only four games later when he started against Texas and the rest is history.

If Manziel wins, he would be the first ever freshman to capture the award. Adrian Peterson came in second during his true freshman season and Michael Vick and Herschel Walker came in third during their freshman campaigns. That's some solid company to say the least.

Should Klein capture the award, he would be the first ever player from Kansas State to win the Heisman. It would also give the Big 12 their seventh Heisman winner, more than any other conference going back to the league's inception in 1996,

The winner of the Heisman trophy will be announced on Saturday night on ESPN at 7PM (CST).

Leave it up to the BCS system to create havoc with the Big 12's bowl games. By virtue of Northern Illinois finishing in the top 16 plus finishing ahead of the Big East and Big Ten's champions, Oklahoma fell out of a probable BCS bid into the Cotton Bowl. That caused the domino effect to cascade through the rest of the Big 12's bowl selections

Look at it this way, in the end all the BCS bowl games are nothing more than a name so call them whatever you like. Northern Illinois vs. Florida State in the Orange Bowl? Great. I'll take Oklahoma and Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl any day, BCS bowl game or not. The same could be said for several other games that will be played outside of the traditional BCS games.

Schools lose out on some of the prestige that comes from playing in a BCS bowl and some bowl money to go a long with it, but that's not a worry to most fans. They want great football matchups, period.

The BCS failed to deliver in three of their five games this year, but their loss is several other bowl games gain and they'll soon have the TV ratings to prove it (Not that ABC/ESPN cares, I guess, because they're broadcasting all but two games. They'll get the ratings one way or another).

Here's a look at how the Big 12 bowl lineup ended up with a few comments to follow.

*Outside of the BCS title game, there isn't a better bowl game on the schedule than Kansas State taking on Oregon. There's plenty of things wrong with the BCS system, but this is what is looks like when the system gets it right.

As do most teams, Kansas State will have their hands full trying to slow down the Ducks' offense, but give Bill Snyder a month to prepare for any team, and I like his chances.

*How about Oklahoma and Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl? Another great, great game for a plethora of reasons. Oklahoma may not be in the Sugar Bowl, but this is about as soft a landing as the Sooners could have hoped for. They'll be plenty of hype and excitement leading up the showdown in Cowboys Stadium.

*The biggest surprise of the day had to be Oklahoma State falling all the way to the Heart of Dallas Bowl. The Cowboys may have ended the season with a two game losing streak, but the Pokes still finished ahead of TCU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia (and tied with Texas) in the Big 12 standings. Each of those schools went to bowl games that selected before the Heart of Dallas Bowl who has the final selection of the Big 12's eight bowl agreements.

Much of the talk after Northern Illinois qualified for the BCS was how OU then got the short end of the stick, but no school was probably more adversely affected by it than were the Cowboys, at least as far as bowl prestige goes.

*How close did 6-6 Iowa State come to not being selected for a bowl game? I'll guess we'll never know, but the Cyclones bowl possibilities had to at least be in jeopardy when OU fell out of a possible Sugar Bowl bid. That left eight teams for seven Big 12 spots. Luckily, the Liberty Bowl was more than happy to take the Cyclones. The game is played in Memphis which will be within driving distance for many ISU fans.

*It was interesting to note that of the four teams in the Big 12 that finished 7-5, TCU was selected before any of the others. Not that the Horned Frogs weren't deserving. They had a 2-1 record against the other three (Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and Baylor) and they also beat Texas the second to last week of the season.

*Along those same lines, finishing the season strong appeared to be high on bowl committees list o criteria in making their selections.

Of the four teams that were 7-5, here's a look at how they finished the season over the final four games:

TCU: finished 2-2 with wins coming against West Virginia and Texas and a seven point loss to Oklahoma.

Baylor: finished 3-1 with wins over Kansas State, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State and lost to OU by eight. Before that stretch, it seemed like a long shot whether or not Baylor would even be eligible. Hats off to the Bears on the strong finish.

West Virginia: finished 2-2 but their wins were against Iowa State and Kansas.

Texas Tech: Lost three of their final four games and four of their last five with the lone win coming against Kansas.

All told, nine of the ten teams in the league are going bowling. Impressive? Yes, and then some.

What is another great aspect of the Big 12's bowl lineup? Not once during bowl season will another Big 12 team be playing at the same time as another team in the conference. The only day when there are multiple Big 12 games is December 29th when there are three, but all three games that day are in a different time slot.  Well done.

That's something other conferences can probably learn something from (looking at you Big Ten when four of their five bowl games on January 1st kick off within an hour of each other. The only exception being the Rose Bowl).

What a season it was and there is still one game to go. That game might not be in BCS championship that was within Kansas State's grasp just a few weeks ago, but that shouldn't diminish what the Wildcats accomplished in 2012.

The Wildcats captured their share of the Big 12 title by beating Texas, 42-24, Saturday night. It was the Wildcats second Big 12 title and capped an impressive, if not improbable, two season run in which K-State has won 21 football games.

Kansas State has now beaten Texas five straight times, the last three coming under Bill Snyder since his return to the sideline.

When the Big 12 was reduced to ten teams prior to the 2011 season, the schools left in the former Big 12 north weren't supposed to be able to compete and surely wouldn't be playing for conference titles with the divisional formats now a thing of the past.

This was Oklahoma and Texas' conference. They had, after all, won 10 Big 12 titles between them including the prior seven going back to Kansas State's 2003 Big 12 championship.

Somebody must have forgotten, however, one of the best coaches ever in college football was back on the sidelines in Manhattan. He built the program from ashes once and although it wasn't in as bad as shape the second time around, it was heading in that direction.

He started with a six win season in 2009 in which KSU came a game away from playing for the Big 12 title.

Then there was a seven win season in 2010 and a bowl game appearance.

The Wildcats followed that up with ten wins in 2011 that saw them win seven of eight games decided by seven points or less and an appearance in the Cotton Bowl.

Surely, the Wildcats couldn't be so lucky in 2012. Think again.

During that time, a guy named Collin Klein arrived on campus. He made his debut as the starting quarterback late in 2010 season beating the same Texas team he beat Saturday night. He rushed for 127 yards on that night while throwing only four passes. Who would have known what would be in store not only for Klein after that game, but for the entire K-State program.

Klein finished Saturday's game with 103 yards rushing including two touchdowns. He also threw for 184 yards and a touchdown on a play that broke the Longhorns back when he connected with Tyler Lockett for a 55 yard score early in the fourth quarter that put K-State up by 11 and they wouldn't look back.

“If you mean what it means to win a championship, it means an awful lot to all of us," Snyder said when asked to put the championship in perspective. "It means a great deal to the young people in our program. They were excited about it. Obviously, I speak for everybody in our football family. I think it is significant and important for every one of us."

As well it should.

I have been at a LOT of stadiums but that atmosphere at Kansas State tonight was special. You could feel #Family. Wildcats shoud be proud.

— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) December 2, 2012

Kansas State is now headed to the Fiesta Bowl to likely face Oregon in a game that many thought might not be for the national championship. It won't be that, but it's still an accomplishment that won't be lost on anyone in Manhattan.

And then there is, of course, the argument on whether or not Klein is deserving of the Heisman trophy.  That's always a touchy subject because by saying one guy deserves to win it, you're saying another doesn't. 

Whatever happens, you could hardly fault anyone for voting for Klein as college football's best player.  The season he has put together, not only individually, but with what he has meant to his team's success qualifies him to be as deserving as anyone else in the country.

"It would be a wonderful thing (winning the Heisman). It surely would, and particularly, for whoever wins for Collin and for his family and his teammates because Collin is a sharing young guy," Snyder said. "He would carve it up in pieces, I would assure you that, and hand it out to his teammates.”

And it would simply be the cherry on top of what has already been an unbelievable season.

(A very cool video from Kansas State on their championship season is below).

It wasn't easy and it took a defensive stand with TCU in the red zone during the game's final minute, but Oklahoma prevailed, 24-17, giving the Sooners at least a share of the Big 12 crown.

Oklahoma will now - believe it or not - have to cheer on Texas tonight. If the Longhorns can find a way to end their four game losing streak to Kansas State, the Sooners will claim the Big 12 title outright guaranteeing them a spot in a BCS bowl.

"In the end, it's just great to be in this position - to be a winner again - and for these guys to at least be either Big 12 champs or co-champs. Either way, they're recognized as champions and these group of players deserve it," Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops said following the victory.

As for the game, OU got their running game going averaging 5.5 yards per carry with Damien Williams leading the way with 115 yards on 18 carries including a 66 yard TD gallop through the Horned Frog defense.

Jalen Saunders continued his stellar late season play with seven catches for 108 yards. Over the final three games of the season, the Fresno State transfer hauled in 24 balls for 393 yards providing a huge spark the second half of the season.

During his post game press conference, Stoops offered no apologies for potentially having to share the title, nor should he. "There seemed to be a little confusion about it, but there isn't. In the end, it isn't anybody's fault here that we're in a ten team league. It's just how it is when you're in a ten team league. Nobody here made those rules. At the present time, that's where we're at. That's how it will be."

"I told the players the bottom line is this is our championship game," Stoops added. "We don't go to Atlanta or Dallas to play it, it's here, so let's do our best to put ourselves in position to win it and fortunately we did."

Big 12 Champions! twitter.com/SoonerSportsco…

— Oklahoma Sooners (@SoonerSportscom) December 1, 2012

The Oklahoma defense, outside of a few big plays, did what they had to do holding TCU to 350 total yards and just 119 on the ground. Those big plays included TCU quarterback Trevon Boykin hitting Brandon Carter on a 80 yard touchdown in the third quarter to bring the Horned Frogs within a touchdown.

Boykin also hit Cam White for a 41 yard gain on the game's final drive setting up TCU at the Oklahoma 12 yard line with just two minutes to play. Two plays later, Boykin scrambled for an apparent game tying touchdown (pending PAT) but TCU was called for holding penalty pushing them back to the 22 yard line.

Boykin's fourth down pass in the end zone was then knocked away by the OU defense giving the Sooners their 34th 10-win season in school history which is more than any team in the country.

Now, the Sooners wait to see what happens with Kansas State and Texas.

Just think how exciting a Kansas State, Oklahoma rematch would have been in a Big 12 title game. Hey, maybe someday, right? But as Stoops said after the game, "at the present time, that's where we're at."

Yes, yes we are.

Now please excuse me why I get back to watching the SEC title game.

Oklahoma and TCU are a mere two hours away from kick off, but apparently somebody running the video screens within Amon G. Carter Stadium is a bit confused about exactly who TCU is playing today. 

Or maybe they're just not quite sure what the famed "OU" the Sooners sport on the side of their helmets stand for. 

Or maybe it's some foreshadowing that TCU is going to the Big Ten.  Ok, forget that last one.

One thing we all know for sure, OU is not Ohio State.

Hey, just a honest mistake, I'm sure.

Oops. Maybe we'd take the 12-0 but hey TCU, we're the #SOONERS! twitter.com/SoonerSportsco…

— Oklahoma Sooners (@SoonerSportscom) December 1, 2012

Here's a preview of today's game between TCU and Oklahoma which has Big 12 title implications. The Sooners enter the game as six point favorites. 

#11 Oklahoma @ TCU

• Game Time: 11:00
• TV: ESPN
• Sirius Channel: 85
• The Spread: TCU +6.5

The Lowdown:

TCU enters Saturday's contest coming off arguably their best win of the season when they knocked off Texas, 20-13, on Thanksgiving night. The Horned Frogs got it done against UT running only 58 plays, 48 of which happened to be running plays.

TCU was probably as healthy as they've been in the backfield all season against the Longhorns and it showed. Quarterback Trevone Boykin, and running backs B.J. Catalon and Matthew Tucker split the bulk of the carries against Texas as TCU picked up 217 yards overall on the ground.

TCU threw the ball only 10 times against Texas which is something TCU coach Gary Patterson said this week probably won't happen again. "Probably not. Not the way they (Oklahoma) are playing on offense. If we can run the football and we can get it done, we will take it, but we probably can't do that again."

While TCU might be forced to throw more to keep up, you can rest assured they'll try to run the ball first. Texad has the worst run defense in the conference giving up 201 yards per game and Oklahoma has been only slightly better on the season giving up 187 yards per game on the ground.

You may have seen Tavon Austin tear up the Sooner defense two weeks ago to the tune of 344 yards (WVU ran for a total of 458 yards and had 778 yards of total offense). That was one week after Baylor ran for 252 against OU's defense. And then came the Cowboys last week who also rushed for over 200 yards.

All three of those no games no doubt skewed Oklahoma's defensive rushing stats a bit, but it also proved that if you want to beat OU it's likely going to have to come by running the ball effectively.

The problem for TCU comes in the fact they don't pose near the threat in the passing game as did Baylor, West Virginia, or Oklahoma State. In all three games (especially Baylor and WVU), OU was geared up to stop Nick Florence and Geno Smith and gave up big yards on the ground as a result. Nothing against Boykin, but he has a ways to go as a thrower before he's in that category as a passer.

While Oklahoma's defense has been struggling the past three weeks, their offense has been cruising right along. In eight Big 12 games, the Sooners have been held under 40 points just twice (19 vs. Kansas State and 35 vs. Iowa State) and they've scored over 50 points four times including each of the past two weeks against West Virginia and Oklahoma State.

Junior college transfer Damien Williams continues to lead the Sooner ground game averaging 5.6 yards per carry but Brennan Clay has also provided a solid boost picking up 59 yards last week including the game winning 18 yard TD run in overtime.

Slowing down the OU offense is going to be a huge task for Patterson's defense but they've proved several times this season they more than capable of holding powerful offenses well below their season averages in both points and total yards.

The Horned Frog defense ranks second in the Big 12 allowing 23 points per game while they're first in total defense giving up 323 yards per contest, 40 yards better than any other defense in the league.

Championship Implications:

If Oklahoma beats TCU Saturday afternoon, they'll claim at least a share of the Big 12 title. They'll then have to wait until Saturday night to see how Kansas State fares in its game against Texas.

If KSU also wins, they'll split the title and also earn the Big 12's automatic bid to the Fiesta Bowl by virtue of their victory over Oklahoma in the season's first month. If Texas wins, however, the title and the Fiesta Bowl will be Oklahoma's and Oklahoma's alone (assuming OU wins, of course). Sooners cheering for Texas? That will have to be painful for them if it happens.

Oklahoma, Keys to the Game:

1. Make TCU one dimensional. As discussed in the opening comments, Oklahoma has been torched by their opponents running games of late. That needs to change on Saturday.

The strength of the TCU offense is in their running game and if OU can put the clamps on the TCU ground game, they'll be forced to play into the teeth of the OU defense which is their secondary with a quarterback who has been prone to mistakes over the course of his freshman season.

2. Turnovers. Shocking, right? What game is this not a huge factor and Saturday's game will be no different. TCU's defense has forced an impressive 30 turnovers on the season and Oklahoma can ill afford to give up any easy scores coming off turnovers.

On the flip side, TCU has coughed the ball up 26 times themselves so there should be several opportunities for Oklahoma to come up a few of their own.

3. Winning on the road. The Sooners are 5-0 away from Norman this season and will be looking to cap a perfect season away from home. Make what you will of that stat, it may be nothing more than the fact that their two toughest games (Kansas State and Notre Dame) were at home, but only one team - West Virginia - has come within two touchdowns of OU when they visited.

TCU, Keys to the Game:

1. Get after Landry Jones. The Sooners' senior quarterback has played some of his best football of late, but he's still prone to making a couple ill-advised throws when the pocket collapses which is where Devonte Fields enters the picture. The freshman defense end leads the Big 12 with nine sacks and he'll need to have another big game to keep Jones from getting comfortable in the pocket.

2. Don't get behind early. It goes without saying, but TCU can't afford to get down by a couple scores in the first half. They will want to run the ball consistently and they won't be able to do that if they're trying to play catch up all day on the scoreboard.

3. Cover, cover, cover. That's something Oklahoma State couldn't do last week with OU receivers Jalen Saunders and Justin Brown combining for 25 catches and 308 yards receiving. The newcomers for Oklahoma have added another element to the Sooners offense that TCU will have to figure out how to try and stop on Saturday.

The Prediction:

I'm starting to like this TCU team the more I'm able to watch them and I wasn't one who had terribly high expectations for them entering their first year in the Big 12. But they've more than held their own and then some which is impressive considering the youth on the team and some of the injuries and departures they've been forced to deal with.

With that being said, I still like the Sooners on Saturday. The offense is peaking at the right time and here's guessing their defense plays much better this week than it has the last several weeks.

Oklahoma will use a balanced attack to keep TCU off balance and the Sooner defense will do enough to keep TCU's ground game in check.

The Sooners win and notch yet another 10 win season for Bob Stoops. Oklahoma 38 TCU 24.

The national championship may now be out of the picture since we last looked at the Big 12's bowl possibilities, but there's still plenty of very, very, good matchups potentially in store for the Big 12 this bowl season.

Take a look at the top four, heck, top six games that may be headed the Big 12's way if everything falls into place after this weekend.  Not bad, not bad at all.

Here's a look at some of the best guesses as to where everybody lands when the bowl games are announced on Sunday night.

Fiesta Bowl: Kansas State vs. Oregon

Assuming Kansas State beats Texas on Saturday night, the Wildcats will represent the Big 12 in the Fiesta Bowl. It may not measure up to the BCS title game had they not stumbled against Baylor, but it's still a great reward on an 11-1 season.

With the winner of the Pac-12 championship game bound for the Rose Bowl, Oregon slips to the Fiesta Bowl as their at large selection for a matchup many had been predicting would played for the national title only a couple weeks ago. It's funny how these things work out and will still be a great game, national title on the line or not.

Sugar Bowl - Oklahoma vs. Florida

There still remains the possibility that Kent State or Northern Illinois slips into the top 16 when the BCS poll comes out Sunday night, but for now, let's assume (hope) that doesn't happen and the Sugar is able to select Oklahoma as the final at large team.

Since the Sugar Bowl looks destined to lose the SEC champion to the BCS title game, they'll have first selection to replace either Georgia or Alabama. That leaves open the possibility they could select Oregon, but here's guessing they'll stay in SEC country and select Florida who will receive an automatic selection to the BCS given their top four ranking.

AT&T Cotton Bowl - Texas vs. LSU

Here's where it's gets interesting. Let's assume Kansas State beats Texas Saturday night. That leaves the Longhorns with a 5-4 Big 12 record. Let's also assume Oklahoma State beats Baylor which would leave the Cowboys with a 6-3 Big 12 mark and a third place finish in the conference by themselves.

That leaves open the possibility that Oklahoma State could be headed to Dallas, but let's take a guess here and say the Cotton Bowl will stick with Texas given its proximity to Dallas, not to mention the Longhorns hold head-to-head victory over Oklahoma State if anyone is checking (Joe Bergeron did cross the goal line before he fumbled, right?).

Who Texas would play is up in the air with many assuming Texas A&M will be the pick. That's entirely possible but I'm going with an LSU matchup instead who did beat the Aggies back in October. Either game would draw plenty of eyeballs, however, making it tough to gripe with either selection.

Valero Alamo Bowl - Oklahoma State vs. UCLA

If Texas goes to the Cotton Bowl, that will almost assuredly send the Pokes to San Antonio to play in the Alamo Bowl. TCU could potentially land here, as well, but that would take an Oklahoma State loss to Baylor and a TCU win over OU. Even if that happens, the Cowboys would still have a better record than TCU plus a 22 point head-to-head win over the Horned Frogs.

With Oregon in the BCS plus Stanford in the Rose Bowl as the Pac-12 champion, the Bruins will be the likely matchup for the Big 12. Should UCLA beat Stanford for the rights to go to the Rose Bowl, then Stanford would likely swap positions to take on the Cowboys.

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl - West Virginia vs. Wisconsin

This is a complete toss up at the moment, on both sides of the equation.

From the Big 12, the BWW Bowl should have their choice of Texas Tech, TCU, and West Virginia who all could have 4-5 conference records depending on how things play out over the final weekend.

All three teams are appealing in their own right, but let's go out on a limb and guess they'll choose Big 12 newcomer, West Virginia.  There's something about the new guy plus Geno Smith and some guy named Tavon Austin that will give bowl reps plenty to like about the Mountaineers.

On the other side, Michigan State or Wisconsin appear to be the most likely opponents with Nebraska, Michigan, and Northwestern likely off the board by the time they get to make their selection.

The Mountaineers vs. the Badgers has a nice ring to it, no?

Bridgepoint Holiday Bowl - Texas Tech vs. Oregon State

This is largely dependent on who the Buffalo Wild Wing Bowl selects, but Texas Tech looks like as good as bet as any to head to San Diego. The Red Raiders bowl resume has taken a bit of a hit over the second half of the season with only one win over their final five games, but a Holiday Bowl matchup against an Oregon State team that was in the heat of the Pac-12 race for much of the season should provide plenty of entertainment the Holiday Bowl has become known for.

Meineke Car Care Bowl TCU - vs. Minnesota

The Horned Frogs could move up a couple spots in the pecking order should they find a way to knock off Oklahoma this weekend, but playing a bowl game in Houston should give TCU a definite home field advantage over the upstart Gophers.

Pinstripe Bowl - Baylor vs. Syracuse

Just a few weeks ago, neither of these teams seemed destined for a bowl game at all. But then Baylor stunned top ranked Kansas State and an added a victory over Texas Tech. Meanwhile, the Orangemen strung together three improbable wins over Louisville, Missouri and Temple to close out the season.

Iowa State could also be an option for the folks in the Big Apple, but considering the Cyclones made an appearance in NYC last season, here's guessing they select Baylor to play Syracuse who also played in the game two seasons ago where they knocked off Kansas State.

Heart of Dallas Bowl - Iowa State vs. Purdue

The Heart of Dallas Bowl may be last in the Big 12's pecking order this season, but that's probably not a bad thing for the Cyclones who will be able to get some more exposure in Texas from a recruiting standpoint.

They'll likely be matched up with Purdue who is the last remaining Big Ten bowl eligible team despite the fact they will be looking for a new head coach leading up to the bowl game.