How Will Big 12's Playoff Failure Impact Oklahoma State?

The Big 12’s national look took a big hit on the big stage.

Entering the College Football Playoff, the Big 12 had just one team in the 12-team field for the second straight year. With Texas Tech earning the No. 4 seed at 12-1 and securing a bye, it faced Oregon in the Orange Bowl.

However, the game couldn’t have gone much worse for the Red Raiders and the Big 12, with Texas Tech losing 23-0. The shutout loss featured an awful display from a seemingly explosive Red Raider offense.

After Texas Tech’s lone loss came on the road without its starting quarterback, there was hope that Behren Morton could lead the Red Raiders to a deep playoff run. Instead, his day in Miami went about as poorly as it possibly could’ve, with Texas Tech’s offense failing to find any success throughout the game.

While Oklahoma State was nowhere near the playoff picture this season, Eric Morris will be hoping to usher in a new era in 2026 that features the Pokes in that discussion consistently. However, showings like this from the Big 12 in the College Football Playoff certainly aren’t doing the conference any favors.

Can OSU and the Big 12 overcome Texas Tech’s Orange Bowl collapse moving forward?

As Morris looks to make OSU a contender in the Big 12, there is also obviously an expectation for the Cowboys to eventually become a national contender again. While the Pokes weren’t necessarily a perennial playoff contender every season under Mike Gundy, they were in the conversation more than most programs on OSU’s level.

However, the problem for Morris might simply be that the Big 12’s national perception is almost too low for the conference to secure a favorable spot every year. While the current 12-team format will likely get the Big 12 one team in every season, all of the goodwill Arizona State’s appearance last season brought the conference might have been tarnished all at once with the Red Raiders’ horrendous showing.

Ultimately, Texas Tech still made the playoff as a 12-1 squad and even secured a bye with the new format. However, even the 1-11 Cowboys scored three points on the Ducks back in September, and it simply isn’t a good look for the Big 12’s worst team to have more offensive success against a national title contender than the conference’s lone apparent contender.

College football evolves rapidly, and the Big 12 is sure to be wild again in 2026, but the conference won’t be getting any benefit of the doubt after Texas Tech had such an embarrassing day at the Orange Bowl.