The 2019 Big 12 Championship Game was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

game played on Saturday, December 7, 2019, at

AT&T Stadium AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, is a retractable roof, retractable-roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. I ...

in Arlington. This was the 18th

Big 12 Championship Game The Big 12 Championship Game is a college football game held by the Big 12 Conference between the best and the second-best Big 12 team. The game was played each year since the conference's formation in 1996 until 2010 and returned during the 20 ...

and determined the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

champion of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

. The game featured the top-seeded,

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...

and the second-seeded,

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only two private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior to j ...

. Sponsored by soft drink brand

Dr Pepper Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Euro ...

, the game is officially known as the Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship Game.

Previous season

The

2018 Big 12 Championship Game The 2018 Big 12 Championship Game was a college football game played on Saturday, December 1, 2018, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. This was the 17th Big 12 Championship Game and determined the 2020 champion of the Big 12 Conference. The game f ...

featured top-seeded

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

against second-seeded

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It was the first time the two rivals had played each other in the conference title game. Texas had won the regular season's

Red River Showdown The Oklahoma–Texas football rivalry is a college football rivalry game between border rivals Oklahoma and Texas. The two teams first played each other in 1900, and the rivalry has been renewed annually and uninterrupted since 1929 for a to ...

game 48–45. In the championship game, Oklahoma was victorious by a score of 39–27, winning their fourth consecutive and 12th overall Big 12 Conference championship.

Teams

The 2019 Championship Game was contested by Baylor and

. The teams had met 29 times previously, with Oklahoma leading the series 26–3. The Sooners came into the game having won five straight meetings, including the

regular-season meeting, which was played in

Waco Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

and saw Oklahoma complete the largest comeback in school history by overcoming a 25-point deficit to win 34–31.

Baylor

The

, led by head coach

Matt Rhule Matthew Kenneth Rhule (born January 31, 1975) is an American football coach and former player, who is the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He was previously the head coach at Temple University, Baylor University, and for the Carolina Pant ...

, were making their first Big 12 Championship appearance. They were the first team to make their debut in the Big 12 Championship since TCU in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Oklahoma

The

, led by

Lincoln Riley Lincoln Michael Riley (born September 5, 1983) is an American college football coach and former player who is the head coach of the USC Trojans football program at the University of Southern California. He previously served as the head coach a ...

, were making their eleventh Big 12 Championship appearance; they were 9–1, having won each of their past eight appearances in the conference title game, including both editions played since the Championship game was reinstated for the 2017 season.

Game summary

Statistics

Oklahoma received the opening kick-off, but both teams punted on their first offensive possessions. Oklahoma opened the scoring with a six-yard touchdown run by Kennedy Brooks on a 78-yard drive that featured a 71-yard pass from

Jalen Hurts Jalen Alexander Hurts (born August 7, 1998) is an American football quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played his first three seasons of college football at Alabama, where he was part of the team ...

CeeDee Lamb Cedarian DeLeon "CeeDee" Lamb (born April 8, 1999) is an American football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Oklahoma where he was a consensus All-American in 2019 and w ...

. After a Baylor fumble, Oklahoma scored again with a 44-yard field goal by Gabe Brkic. In the second quarter, Baylor got on the board with a 44-yard field goal by John Mayers. Baylor starting quarterback

Charlie Brewer Charlie Brewer (born November 26, 1998) is an American football quarterback who is currently a free agent. He was most recently a member of the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He previously played for the Baylor Bears foo ...

left the game with an injury after being sacked by Kenneth Murray. Late in the second quarter, Oklahoma's Jalen Hurts was intercepted by Jordan Williams and returned to the OU 23 yard line, after which Baylor tied the game with a 33-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Gerry Bohanon to Tyquan Thornton. Baylor took the lead in the final seconds of the half with a 28-yard field goal by Mayers to make the score 13–10. On Oklahoma's first offensive possession of the second half, the Sooners tied the game with a 24-yard field goal by Gabe Brkic. They then took the lead on the next drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Jalen Hurts to Nick Basquine. Early in the fourth quarter, Baylor backup quarterback Gerry Bohanon was also injured. The Sooners took a 10-point lead with another 24-yard field goal by Brkic. Baylor, led by third-string quarterback and true freshman Jacob Zeno, responded with an 81-yard touchdown pass from Zeno to Trestan Ebner. On the next drive, Zeno completed a 78-yard pass to Chris Platt, which set up a 27-yard field goal to tie the game with 3:25 remaining. Oklahoma was forced to punt, and Baylor was unable to score in the final minute, forcing overtime. In overtime, Oklahoma received the ball first and scored in three plays via a five-yard run by Rhamondre Stevenson. On Baylor's possession, Jacob Zeno was sacked by Nik Bonitto and Jalen Redmond on 3rd and 10, and they failed to convert on 4th and 20, ending the game. Oklahoma wide receiver

had eight receptions for 173 yards and was named game MVP.

Aftermath

Oklahoma, who had been ranked sixth heading into the game, moved up to fourth in the final

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

rankings, earning them a spot in the CFP semifinal to be played at the

Peach Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. Since 1997, it has been sponsored by Chick-fil-A and is officially known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. From 2006 to 2013, it was officially re ...

. Facilitating the rise in the rankings was No. 4

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

's loss to

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

in the

SEC Championship Game The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. The championship game pits the SEC East Division regular season champion against the West Division regula ...

and No. 5

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

's loss to

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

in the

Pac-12 Championship Game The Pac-12 Football Championship Game is an annual college football game held by the Pac-12 Conference to determine the season's conference champion. The game from the 2011–2021 seasons had the champion of the North Division against the champi ...

. Baylor remained ranked seventh and received a bid to the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...

against Georgia. Oklahoma lost to LSU in the Peach Bowl, 63–28; and Baylor lost to Georgia, 26–14.

References

{{Oklahoma Sooners football navbox

Big 12 Championship Game Baylor Bears football games Oklahoma Sooners football games American football in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex