Patrick Mahomes shockingly becomes first QB out of Big 12 to win NFL playoff game

More than any other conference today, the Big 12 is defined by its quarterbacks. Be they Air Raid gunslingers like Baker Mayfield or athletic dual-threats in the vein of Vince Young, the conference has benefited from a rich crop of quarterbacks out of Texas for decades.

And yet, there was one barrier no QB from Texas, Oklahoma or any of the Big 12’s other member schools had crossed until Saturday: an NFL playoff win. Texas Tech product Patrick Mahomes changed that with the Kansas City Chiefs’ 31-13 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Patrick Mahomes makes Big 12 history

So, this stat of no Big 12 quarterback ever winning an NFL playoff game is true as far as we can tell, but it comes with some notable qualifiers.

For starters, we’re only talking about the Big 12 Conference, not its predecessors in the Big 8 or the Southwest Conference. The Big 12 was formed in 1996 when the Big 8 absorbed Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor from the Southwest, creating the conference we know today plus and minus a couple schools.

There have also been players who played quarterback in the Big 12 that have been on NFL playoff game-winning rosters. Notably, Iowa State grad Seneca Wallace was on a winning Seahawks team during the game that haunts Tony Romo’s darkest nightmares. But counting Wallace and others wouldn’t really honor the spirit of the stat.

We’re talking about a player who played quarterback at a Big 12 school and won an NFL playoff game while playing quarterback, and that simply hadn’t happened until Mahomes and Co. triumphed in Kansas City.

So that erases a rather embarrassing stat for the conference, but then again, most schools in the conference would probably be more happy if they had the quarterback who won the conference’s first ever College Football Playoff game.

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