Around the Big 12, Week Nine: The Second Law of Thermodynamics

Chaos, in addition to being a near-undrinkably bad flavor of Monster Energy, is the universe’s preferred state of being. The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum, to quote Rudolf Classius (and, more directly, the Wikipedia article I’m reading) — in any self-contained system, order eventually will dissolve into disorder.

But I don’t think that dissolution is supposed to happen as quickly as it did on Saturday in the Big 12. All four favorites lost their games, including three ranked teams. Kansas won a conference game thanks to one of the dumbest plays of the season (more on that later). Baylor — yes, Baylor — is the lone undefeated team in the Big 12, escaping the chaos only due to a bye week.

You already know about TCU’s win over Texas, a Max Duggan-powered fiesta on Homecoming weekend. Here’s what else happened on a wild and wooly day in the Big 12.

Kansas State (5-2, 2-2 Big 12) 48, No. 5 Oklahoma (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) 41

Oklahoma was a 23.5-point favorite entering this game. The Sooners were blowing doors off teams — outside of a 34-27 win over Texas, OU hadn’t won by fewer than 18 points all season and had scored at least 34 in every single game.

But Kansas State welcomed the Sooners to town and put up 426 yards, a dead-even 213 each passing and rushing. Quarterback Skylar Thompson had four rushing TDs. Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts only threw for one score, and that was on a tunnel screen to CeeDee Lamb in the fourth quarter.

And the Sooners still had a chance to win. An onside kick that Oklahoma recovered was ruled as illegal touching by the very slimmest of margins.

This loss probably doomed the Big 12’s playoff chances, unless Baylor can run the table.

Oklahoma has a bye next week, while Kansas State plays at Kansas.

Oklahoma State (5-3, 2-3 Big 12) 34, Iowa State (5-3, 3-2 Big 12) 27

I didn’t watch this game, and only now just discovered that Oklahoma State won. But — wow! The Cowboys were 11-point underdogs traveling to Ames, but despite being outgained by more than 60 yards came out with a massive win.

Do you know how many times Brock Purdy threw the ball in that game? Sixty-two times. For context, according to sports-reference.com, that’s the second-most attempts in a game by any quarterback this season. (Wazzu’s Anthony Gordon threw 64 times in a loss to Arizona State earlier this year.) What’s really troubling is that Purdy only completed 39 of those passes and had just one touchdown against three interceptions.

So Iowa State probably isn’t as good as we think the Cyclones are. And the Cowboys might be better than we expected — which is pretty poor timing, because TCU has to make the trip up I-35 to Stillwater on Saturday. Iowa State, meanwhile, has a bye.

Kansas (3-5, 1-4 Big 12) 37, Texas Tech (3-5, 1-4 Big 12) 34

Let’s get to what we all came here for.

Stupendous. Breaking new ground in the art of absurdity.

Hey, did y’all know that through eight games, Texas Tech has an identical record as Kansas? Let’s see how our friends over at Viva The Matadors are holding up!