So, it is clear that the Big XII South is in an absolute mess. So I tried to find a mathematical way to decipher which of the three teams should face Missouri in the Big XII Championship game next week.
Clearly, the best measure is head to head. However, as we all know there is a tie here.
1. Analysis Part 1
So, I would use common opponent record as the next tie breaker. Lets consider how the three teams did against common opponents. There were 4 opponents that each of the three played:
1.Texas A&M
2. Kansas
3. Baylor
4. Oklahoma State
That said all three were 4-0 against this group. Texas Tech STRUGGLED to beat 4-8 Baylor. In addition when you look at the head to head matchups:Texas Beat Oklahoma by 10 and lost to Tech by 6. Oklahoma beat Tech by 44 and lost to Texas by 10. Tech beats Texas by 6 and lost to Oklahoma by 44. Therefore, right there, I would submit that Tech is a notch below Texas and Oklahoma and will not continue in the Analysis.
Analysis Part 2
The next tie breaker I would use would be score differential against common opponents.
Here are the results against the 4 opponents:
1.Texas A&M: UT +40, OU +38
2. Kansas: UT +28, OU +14,
3. Baylor: OU +32, UT +24,
4. Oklahoma State:OU +20 UT +4,
If you threw out the highest and lowest for each school (outlier scores), you are left with mean scores of:
UT +26 OU +26.
(when the outliers are not eliminated it is UT +24 OU +26).
Wow. These teams are stupidly close based on common record and score point differentials.
Analysis Part 3
Lets look next at records of each schools non Big XII opponents. Texas: 6-6(Fla Atl), 5-7(UTEP), 5-7(Arkansas), 9-3(Rice)=25-23
Oklahoma: 1-11(Chatanooga), 10-2(Cincinatti), 0-11(Washington),10-2(TCU)=21-26 or 22-25(if Washington wins next week).
Texas has played a stronger non conference BCS record. But does that hold up across complete schedule?
Texas: 85-59
Oklahoma: 80-63
So even when comparing schedules overall and outside of Big XII play, Texas played a more difficult schedule.
Results
So, it is clear that UT and OU are a step ahead of TT based on this Analysis. Also, it is clear that UT and OU are razor thin close on mean score differentials with the math slightly favoring OU. Finally we can see that UT has played a slightly tougher schedule than TT.
Based on all this, I believe you have to go back to head to head matchup. There are no other fair stats to utilize.
In the head to head matchup, Texas won the game and in my opinion should go to the Big XII Championship game next week.