Winners and Losers: Big 12's playoff hopes take significant blow

Here's what we learned about the Big 12 on Saturday: Oklahoma needs some help in the conference title race and Kansas State may be the conference's frontrunner for a possible College Football Playoff spot.

Didn't see that one coming, did you?

Thanks to losses by Baylor and Oklahoma State and a win over Oklahoma, the Wildcats are the lone undefeated team in the Big 12. But due to a loss to Auburn in Week 4, the Wildcats aren't undefeated overall.

If Auburn ends the season with just its loss to Mississippi State or two losses, and Kansas State makes it through the nine-game Big 12 schedule unblemished, the Wildcats will have an argument for the playoff. But if the Tigers don't make it with just a loss or two, it'd be hard to justify adding Kansas State to the four-team field.

The Bears were the Big 12's best chance, as Baylor was undefeated overall entering Saturday. But West Virginia, who beat Baylor 41-27, is unranked, and as strength of schedule has become a strong talking point when it comes to playoff consideration, Baylor wouldn't stack up well among one-loss teams.

A nine-game conference schedule plays into Baylor's favor, but its out-of-conference opponents don't. The Bears' strongest non-Big 12 opponent is Buffalo, a team that lost at Eastern Michigan last week.

With only three possible undefeated Power Five conference teams remaining, we're now virtually guaranteed to see a team with one loss in the playoff (Marshall being the outlier). However, the Big 12's best shot was with an undefeated team. Now, thanks to the loss by the Bears and a second loss by Oklahoma, the chances of a one-loss team — be it Baylor, Kansas State or TCU — stacking up well enough to get in the playoff over other one-loss Power Five teams aren't good.

The Big 12's weekend of cannibalism came in Week 8. It now needs the Pac-12 and SEC to do it to themselves.

WINNERS
Devontae Booker: The Utah running back ran roughshod over the Beavers, and in Corvallis, Ore., no less. In a performance that was good enough for the fifth-best rushing total in Utes history, Booker ran for 229 yards and three touchdowns in a 29-23 victory over Oregon State. Booker entered the week 18th in FBS rushing yards this season, but Thursday night’s effort will give him a big lift on that list. As if the yards weren’t enough to impress you, the 19-yard touchdown run to win the game in its second overtime was pretty sweet.

Minnesota: Raise your hand if you had the Golden Gophers as the leader in the Big Ten West near the conference midway point. Jerry Kill’s crew edged out Purdue 39-38, and found themselves unbeaten in conference play after three games. Minnesota has only lost to TCU. And the rest of the slate? Well, it’s the Big Ten. Illinois, Iowa at home, Ohio State at home, then on the road to Nebraska and Wisconsin – anything can happen. You probably don’t think Minnesota is going to survive that, and you would probably be right. But guessing the Gophers would be bowl eligible after seven games goes against what anyone short of Kill could have expected to this point. You never know.

J.T. Barrett: After losing quarterback Braxton Miller and subsequently tanking against Virginia Tech early in the season, Ohio State sort of disappeared from the national conversation. Part of that came down to the lackluster performance of Barrett in Miller’s place, but there have been signs each week that the freshman is putting it together. The Buckeyes’ 56-17 thumping of Rutgers was highlighted by Barrett’s play. He threw for 261 yards and three touchdowns, and also ran for 107 yards (on just seven carries) and two touchdowns. Now the Buckeyes' biggest obstacles in their final six games are road showdowns against Penn State and Michigan State. It’s a good time for Barrett to round into form.

Josh Doctson: Doctson! Doctson! We got Doctson over here! TCU smoked Oklahoma State 42-9 in Ft. Worth, and the 6-foot-4 receiver put on a show, hauling in seven passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns. His two biggest came on back-to-back drives in the first quarter. The first was a 77-yard connection from Trevone Boykin that found Doctson in stride as he flew up the seam without any defensive support over the top. The second was a leaping grab over an Oklahoma State defensive back committing to break up the pass, only to miss the ball and watch Doctson fly down the field for an 84-yard score. To put his 225-yard performance in perspective, Doctson had 272 receiving yards on the year entering the game.

Rakeem Cato and Cody Kessler: Two veteran quarterbacks set records Saturday. Cato, Marshall's senior signal caller, set an FBS record by throwing a touchdown pass for the 39th consecutive game. The record-setting touchdown came on a one-yard toss to Ryan Yurachek late in the first quarter. It was his first of four TD passes on the afternoon as No. 25 Marshall kept its undefeated season alive in a 45-13 win over Florida International. Cato threw for 214 yards for the 7-0 Thundering Herd. Meanwhile, out on the West Coast, USC senior Cody Kessler set a school single-game record by tossing a whopping seven touchdown passes against Colorado. His career day broke a record set by Matt Barkley and three of Kessler's touchdown passes went to Nelson Agholor. In all, Kessler threw for 319 yards in a 56-28 win for the No. 22 Trojans.

LOSERS

Texas A&M: The Aggies have been called a lot of things under Kevin Sumlin’s tenure, but “punchline” is a new one. Searching for a silver lining from the 59-0 beatdown in Tuscaloosa is an exercise in futility, much like everything Texas A&M attempted against the Tide. The numbers were absolutely staggering. Alabama collected 602 total yards to A&M’s 168. The Tide held the Aggies to just 27 rushing yards. Alabama committed zero penalties, and had 30 first downs to Texas A&M’s 8. It was a whipping, and the first time a Sumlin team has ever been shut out. And to his credit, the Aggies could have kicked a field goal late to avoid that shutout, but went for it on fourth-and-12 and failed. After the season’s opening week, the Aggies looked like a force to be reckoned with. Now, they look like a team that would be fortunate to finish better than .500 overall and in the SEC.

Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets had a chance to keep pace with Duke in the race for the Coastal Division title but couldn’t manage to defeat a North Carolina team that seemingly everyone has beaten this season. The Tar Heels scored with 11 seconds remaining to secure a 48-43 win. The score came less than three minutes after Georgia Tech took a 43-42 lead. The loss means that the Yellow Jackets are now two games behind Duke after the Blue Devils defeated them last week. GT has now lost two straight after starting the season 5-0.

Tulsa: The disaster season for the Golden Hurricane continues. Tulsa looked to be well on its way to its second win of the season at home against South Florida on Saturday and was up 27-7 at halftime. The final score was 38-30, in favor of South Florida. Yes, Tulsa gave up 31 second-half points, including 24 unanswered to end the game. It wasn't turnovers – Tulsa only had one the entire game – it was simply bad offense and defense. The Hurricane only got into USF territory once after scoring its final points of the game and that drive stalled out at the USF 49.

Kentucky: Heading into Saturday's SEC matchup with LSU, Kentucky had a chance to play its way into the top 25 and remain firmly in the mix in the SEC East with a win. Instead, the Wildcats laid an egg and were blown out by the Tigers, 41-3. The Wildcats were underdogs coming into the game, but with a 5-1 record (2-1 SEC), Mark Stoops' team could have set up what could have been the biggest game in Lexington in years with top-ranked Mississippi State coming to town next Saturday. But alas, it was not to be. Kentucky dropped the game and fell to 5-2 as the Tigers racked up 308 rushing yards in an easy win.

Sam Cooper, Max Thompson and Graham Watson contributed to this post.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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