The problem stems from the fact that the P4 conferences have anywhere from 16-18 member schools, and in football may only play eight or nine conference contests. So in many instances you have teams toward the top of these standings that will not play each other.

In the Big 12, the simple solution is for BYU and Colorado to win out and then there are just two teams with one-loss in league play. But if Arizona State were to beat BYU and Colorado were to lose one of its last two games while Iowa State wins out, there could be a 4-way tie for first place. There is also a wacky and very unlikely scenario where you could have six teams tie for first place in conference with three losses, but the scenario where there is either a 3-way or 4-way tie either at the top, or for second place, is actually reasonably realistic.

So that begs the question, what criteria does the Big 12 use to sort through this mess?

The Big 12 has a list of seven tiebreakers and the big one is head-to-head, but in this case only BYU and Arizona State will have played each other as neither Colorado or Iowa State will play the teams most likely to tie for the league title. Then the next tiebreaker, you start looking at common opponents. BYU has the edge over Colorado because it beat Kansas State, who will finish with the best record of the teams the two teams have played in common.

But that might not necessarily clarify much because for Iowa State and BYU to end up with two losses, both would have beaten the Wildcats. So the criteria that would separate BYU and Iowa State would be the record of all the conference teams they played. The Cyclones currently have the edge there, but BYU is playing teams with better conference records in its last two games so BYU might, or might not, overtake the Cyclones within that criteria. And then there are two possibilities where the two teams could finish with the same exact record against conference opponents making this criteria useless.

Then going down the list, there is some national ranking system by an organization called SportsSource Analytics that could break the tie, and if for some reason that doesn’t do it, a coin flip could determine who goes to the conference title game.

Imagine that: a chance to win the conference and go to the College Football Playoff (CFP) could come down to a toss of a coin. Maybe it could be done like it was in the movie “Friday Night Lights”, televised and in some diner in Texas.

All the other power conferences have similar messes. For example, in the SEC the Texas vs. Texas A&M winner makes their conference championship game free and clear, but the loser will find itself in a tie for second with as many as four other teams.

Yet, the reality is that the SEC has the luxury that it will get several at-large bids to the playoff tournament, while the Big 12, based on the current rankings, is likely just to get one bid for the CFP, the automatic bid that comes from winning the conference title game.

The loss to Kansas hurts, but it doesn’t need to be fatal for BYU’s ultimate dream to compete for the national title. The Cougars still totally control their own destiny. All they need to do to insure themselves a shot in the CFP is to win out.

Cougar highlights from Saturday: Kicker Will Ferrin continues to shine. He entered the game with Kansas tied for seventh in the nation for made field goals and added two more in the loss against the Jayhawks. Ferrin is tied for fourth all-time in BYU history for field goals made during a season with Owen Pochman with 19. But he’s two field goals away from tying Ethan Pochman for second while Justin Sorenson holds the record kicking 26 field goals in the 2013 season. Ferrin also made multiple field goals in a game for the seventh time this season.

Hinckley Ropati caught his first touchdown pass in a Cougar uniform and became the 11th player on the team to catch a scoring pass from Jake Retzlaff.

LJ Martin became the 42nd player in Cougar history to reach 1,000 yards rushing in his career. Martin had 76 yards rushing on 15 carries Saturday night.

Marquee Collins secured his second interception of the season and his seventh in his playing career. Collins is another top player that followed Jay Hill to BYU from Weber State. For the season, BYU now has 17 interceptions.

Extra points

• BYU brought back some of its award-winning football players from the past to do the ceremonial lighting of the Y. Those included past Sammy Baugh trophy winners Gary Sheide (1974), Marc Wilson (1979), and Robbie Bosco (1984); NCAA Top 5 Award recipient Gifford Nielson (1978); Outland Trophy winner Jason Buck (1985); Doak Walker Award winner Luke Staley (2001); and the 2009 CFP Elite Tight End Award recipient Dennis Pitta.
• The captains for the coin toss were offensive lineman Connor Pay, wide receiver Chase Roberts, cornerback Jakob Robinson and kicker Will Ferrin.
• Two members of the BYU ROTC participated in carrying the flags. Jacob Watkins carried the USA flag and Luke Woods carried the State of Utah flag. Offensive lineman Sam Dawe carried the Big 12 flag while Dawe’s fellow offensive lineman teammate Jake Eichorn carried the ROC flag.
• The alumni flags were carried out by former tight end Dennis Pitta (2004, 2007-09) and former defensive lineman Jason Buck (1985-86).
• BYU won the coin toss and elected to defer receiving the ball to the second half.
• It was a chilly night as the temperature at kickoff was 36 degrees with a slight breeze coming from the south. Temperatures retreated to the low 30’s by the end of the game with the wind chill factor dipping into the 20s.
• Attendance was announced at 62,704.