Here's how Utah football can still clinch a spot in the Big 12 championship game

Utes have one path to the Big 12 championship heading into the final week of the regular season

Utah Utes quarterback Devon Dampier (4) looks to pass against the Kansas State Wildcats during the first half at Rice-Eccles Stadium. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

The Utah football team kept its postseason aspirations alive Saturday with a wild comeback win over Kansas State.

The Utes' 51-47 victory over the Wildcats preserved their Big 12 title game and College Football Playoff hopes for the time being, but Kyle Whittingham and company still needed outside help if they were to play for the conference championship in Arlington, Texas (Dec. 6).

While Utah (9-2, 6-2 Big 12) players and coaches were settling down from the emotions that came with Saturday's 12-point rally, the Utes' in-state rival was busy solidifying its place in the Big 12 title race.

Hours after the final home game from Rice-Eccles Stadium concluded, BYU (10-1, 7-1 Big 12) slugged out a 26-14 win over Cincinnati (7-4, 5-3 Big 12), putting the Cougars one step closer toward clinching a spot in the conference championship game and severely hurting Utah's chances of leapfrogging its way into the top two of the league standings.

The Utes would've preferred a Bearcats upset, which would've created a multi-team tie among a trio of two-loss teams in Utah, BYU and Arizona State.

But that didn't happen, so all BYU needed to do to was defend its home field against UCF (5-6, 2-6 Big 12) in the final week of the regular season to punch its ticket to the Big 12 title game.

Texas Tech (10-1, 7-1 Big 12), which was idle in Week 13 while sitting at No. 5 in the CFP rankings, was put in a similar position as it prepared for a trip out to Morgantown, West Virginia, to face the Mountaineers (4-7, 2-6 Big 12). A Red Raiders win would send them to the conference title game for the first time in school history.

Both BYU and Texas Tech were heavy favored to win in Week 14 — ESPN's matchup predictor gave the Red Raiders a 91.6% chance of beating the Mountaineers and the Cougars a 92.4% win probability rate heading into their matchup with the Knights.

However, not all hope was lost for the Utes. Arizona State (8-3, 6-2 Big 12) beating Colorado (3-8, 1-7 Big 12), 42-17, at Folsom Field kept the door open for Utah to make the Big 12 title going into Week 14, though the Utes would require an unlikely result out of Morgantown for those dreams to become a reality.

Utah's path to Big 12 championship game

• Utah beats Kansas
• BYU beats UCF
• West Virginia upsets Texas Tech
• Arizona State defeats Arizona

That scenario would create a three-team tiebreaker for second place among Utah, Arizona State and Texas Tech with two losses each. The Red Raiders would be eliminated due to record against common opponents, as Utah and Arizona State beat West Virginia earlier in the season. Then it would come down to a head-to-head tiebreaker between the Utes and Sun Devils, which Utah would win due to the 42-10 victory over Arizona State on Oct. 11.

The end result: A showdown between Utah and BYU in the Big 12 championship game.