Down goes another one of college football's remaining unbeatens, this time in the Big 12. Cincinnati's stunning 37-24 win over eighth-ranked Texas Tech on Saturday snapped the Red Raiders' nine-game Big 12 winning streak dating back to last season and threatens the league's shot at three selections in the College Football Playoff. With five top-25 teams entering Week 8, the attention now turns to the primetime battle between 14th-ranked Houston and No. 10 Utah, with the winner getting a leg up on the rest alongside second-ranked BYU at the top of the conference.
Behind four touchdown passes from JC French and a career-best 173 yards rushing from Cole Tabb, the Bearcats snapped a two-game skid with a signature win and took advantage of Texas Tech's season-long sputters in the passing game. Struggles offensively finally came back to haunt the Red Raiders, who turned it over three times and never recovered from Cincinnati's 21-point surge in the second quarter. The ranked win was only Scott Satterfield's second at Cincinnati in four seasons.
It was personal for the Bearcats, who watched last season's starting quarterback Brendan Sorsby leave this offseason sign with Texas Tech out of the transfer portal -- though he never played a down for the Red Raiders. Sorsby was suspended following a gambling investigation before mutually parting ways with Texas Tech in June. Now, Will Hammond and the Red Raiders' offense must likely win out — with Arizona looming among others — to have a chance at repeating as Big 12 champions to secure an auto-berth into the CFP. *BYU is playing at UCF in Week 8 following last weekend's win over Notre Dame while Houston-Utah play Saturday night and Arizona hosts Iowa State.
It's imperative the Big 12's best don't bloody each other up over the second half of the season if this league wants multiple teams in the CFP. The selection committee's new conference strength metric helps contextualize league schedules, including disparities between teams playing slates of varied difficulty. However, only one of the league's five ranked teams in Week 8 has a strength of schedule ranked inside the top-35 nationally, and that's going to be part of the discussion when the CFP selection committee meets next weekend.
BYU's currently No. 1 in strength of record and No. 7 in game controls, metrics that will come in handy if Kalani Sitake's team keeps it up as the league favorite. Utah has similar numbers, but the Utes' strength of schedule at No. 99 is worst in the conference. Saturday night's late game at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City provides another glimpse into the league title race exiting Week 8, especially if the Utes can stay undefeated against the Cougars.
Houston's won four straight games since an early season loss at Texas Tech and would move into a multi-team tie for second in the conference behind second-ranked BYU with a victory. A Utah win gives the Utes the upper hand in the Big 12 conversation ahead of next week's showdown at Cincinnati before the Nov. 7 showdown with BYU. From Texas Tech's perspective, the best the Red Raiders can finish is 11-1 overall, and from there, the CFP situation gets interesting for Joey McGuire's team.
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