What WVU Needs to Do + What Help They Need to Win Second Straight Big 12 Title

Really, the only way the West Virginia Mountaineers had a legit shot to defend their Big 12 regular season crown was if they went to Lawrence and pulled off a sweep of then-ranked No. 7 Kansas. Sure enough, the Mountaineers did the unexpected, taking all three games from the Jayhawks to pull within one game of first place.

So, what has to happen for WVU to sit atop the Big 12 Conference for the second straight year?

Well, there are a million different ways this could go, considering there are four teams who are still mathematically alive for that top spot — Kansas, West Virginia, Arizona State, and UCF. I'll try my best to cut out all of the fluff (the ridiculous amount of scenarios) and keep it fairly simple and easy to understand.

First, here are this weekend's matchups that matter

TCU at West Virginia
Kansas State at UCF
Arizona at Oklahoma State
Arizona State at Houston
Kansas at BYU

The tiebreakers...

Of the three other teams battling for the championship, West Virginia holds the tiebreaker with two of them: Kansas and Arizona State, thanks to winning both regular season series. If the Mountaineers win one more game vs. TCU than Kansas wins against BYU, then they will finish higher than the Jayhawks.

So for example:

West Virginia wins 3, Kansas wins 2 = WVU earns higher seed
West Virginia wins 2, Kansas wins 1= WVU earns higher seed
West Virginia wins 1, Kansas wins 0 = WVU earns higher seed

And of course, anything more than one win is just more separation. Finishing higher than Kansas doesn't guarantee a title, though.

UCF came into Morgantown and took two of three, so in the event that UCF finishes with the same league record as WVU, they would be rewarded with the higher seed in the conference tournament. Because the Knights lost their series to Kansas, the best they can do is clinch a share of the title, but a lot would need to go their way.

Beyond Kansas...

One WVU win AND one loss by UCF means the Knights can't pass the Mountaineers. As for Arizona State, WVU just needs to win one game OR have one Arizona State loss to clinch a higher finish than the Sun Devils.

Even if WVU is unable to have a strong series against TCU, the one thing they must avoid is a complete disaster, which is getting swept. If they drop all three to the Horned Frogs, it would open the possibility of falling outside of the top four seeds, each of which gets a first-round bye in the conference tournament.