West Virginia's Magic Number is 1

The Mountaineers are nearing its first regular season conference title since 1996

The West Virginia University Mountaineer baseball program is one win away from capturing its first Big 12 Conference regular season title after taking the regular season home series finale from Texas Tech over the weekend, and in doing so, tied a program record sixth Big 12 series win of the season. 

There are, however, three programs still in contention for the Big 12 regular season title and the top seed heading into the conference tournament.  

Along with the Mountaineers, the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma State Cowboys remain in contention for the Big 12 regular season title.

West Virginia travels to Austin to take on Texas for a three-game series with game one set for Thursday at 7:30 p.m. EST. 

In order for Texas or Oklahoma State to claim the Big 12 championship, the Longhorns will have to take all three games from the Mountaineers. Texas will also need help from Red River rival Oklahoma as Oklahoma State travels to Norman for its regular season series finale as the Longhorns hope the Sooners can take two games from the Cowboys. Meanwhile, in the event WVU gets swept at Texas, Oklahoma State will need to go and sweep the Sooners for sole possession of first place. In the event Oklahoma wins two games, West Virginia would grab a share of the title, and the No. 1 overall seed. 

West Virginia winning one game against Texas in the upcoming series crowns the Mountaineers Big 12 Champions, even in the case the Cowboys sweep the Sooners. With the Mountaineers taking the series over at Oklahoma State in mid-April, WVU is the sole proprietor of the Big 12 title - no shared title per league rules:

In the event of a tie or ties in the standings, the following tie-breaking system will be implemented.

1. If two teams are tied, head-to-head competition will be used to break a tie.

2. If two teams remain tied, the winner of the first game of the Conference series between the two tied teams will be used.

3. If two teams remain tied, there will be a comparison of the records of the tied teams against the highest place team(s) in descending order from top to bottom until the tie is broken; or,

4. If two teams remain tied, there will be a drawing to determine the seed or qualification for the tournament;

5. If three or more teams are tied, there will be a comparison of head-to-head records in a ‘mini round-robin’ of tied teams, followed by steps (1), (2), (3), and (4). Once a team has been eliminated from a multi-team comparison, it is dropped from further comparisons. 

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