With Arizona State being eliminated from the College Football Playoff on Wednesday, the 2024 Big 12 football season is officially over.
The league played a total of eight bowl games with four wins and proved that it belongs among the best conferences in the country.
Last month, Pete Mundo ranked the bowl games from First to Worst, based on how intriguing each matchup was, and now we’ll take a look at them in hindsight and rank them now that they’ve been played. Let’s dive in.
8. Isleta New Mexico Bowl: TCU 34, Lousiana 3
To be completely honest, I’d forgotten about this game until it was midway through the third quarter, and once I flipped over to see that the Horned Frogs were up 34-0, I went back to my business elsewhere. TCU completely outclassed Louisiana in this game and it was a snoozer by halftime with the Frogs up 27-0 at the break. The good news is 9-4 is a heck of a turnaround after 5-7 last year and it appears that TCU is in good shape heading into 2025.
7. Kinder’s Texas Bowl: LSU 44, Baylor 31
This game had plenty of intrigue leading up to kickoff, but it didn’t take long for Baylor fans to realize that this one probably wasn’t going their way. When the Tigers scored their fourth touchdown of the game midway through the second quarter to make it 28-7, it was clear that they would be the ones coming out on top. Baylor put up a good fight and cut the lead to 10 points in the third quarter, but LSU distanced themselves shortly thereafter and that was that.
6. AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Arkansas 39, Texas Tech 26
A lot of the juice from this game was lost when Texas Tech announced that starting running back Tahj Brooks wouldn’t play. Then, Arkansas jumped out to a 21-3 lead and it looked like they were going to run away with it, but credit the Red Raiders for fighting back to make it 24-19 at half. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough to keep up as Arkansas outscored them 15-7 in the second half and pulled away. Tech’s defense should be much improved next season, though, after an impressive portal haul on that side of the ball.
5. Scooter’s Frisco Bowl: Memphis 42, West Virginia 37
This is the first game on the list that is actually ranked higher than it was before bowl season, and for good reason. After Neal Brown was fired and the Mountaineers brought in Rich Rodriguez, it was difficult to know what West Virginia was going to look like. With Memphis jumping out to a 17-0 lead, it seemed like we might have a no-show, but West Virginia came storming back and cut Memphis’ lead down to five points early in the fourth. However, that’s as close as they’d get in Garrett Greene’s final game with the program.
4. Valero Alamo Bowl: BYU 36, Colorado 14
This game was easily the most disappointing of the bunch for me, as I expected a back-and-forth barnburner. Instead, we saw BYU score the first 27 points of the game and the Buffaloes star duo of Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders unable to keep pace. BYU’s LJ Martin was the best player in the game, rushing for 93 yards a couple of touchdowns and BYU’s 36-7 lead with five minutes left was the last I saw of this one.
3. Rate Bowl: Kansas State 44, Rutgers 41
Talk about a surprising outcome! K-State came into this game right around a touchdown favorite but found itself in a world of trouble midway through the third quarter when Rutgers capped a 10-play, 64-yard drive with a touchdown to make it 34-17. But, Dylan Edwards, who emerged as the dude in this game, got the Cats right back in it with a 65-yard touchdown and then gave them the lead with a 36-yarder with less than four minutes to go. It was his best game of the season, with 18 carries for 196 yards and three total touchdowns.
2. Pop-Tarts Bowl: Iowa State 42, Miami 41
Purely from an entertainment standpoint, there’s not a bowl in the country that does a better job of fan fare than the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Then, when you add in a dramatic football game to the mix, you’ve got a masterpiece. That’s what we got in the 2024 Pop-Tarts Bowl, as we watched Iowa State and Miami trade touchdowns all game long. Miami went on a run in the middle portion of the game, scoring 17 unanswered points to go from trailing 28-21 to leading 38-28. But, Rocco Becht and the Cyclones weren’t going out like that, as they crawled back into it with a third-quarter touchdown and then finally took the lead back with 0:56 left in the game on a 1-yard run from Becht. If it weren’t for an all-timer in the Peach Bowl, this would easily have been the most entertaining Big 12 bowl game.
1. Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Texas 39, Arizona State 31 (F/2OT)
This wasn’t just the best Big 12 bowl game of the year, it might’ve been the best game of the entire season. After Texas took a 24-8 lead early in the fourth quarter, it looked like they might be able to load the box and grind out a “bully-ball” kind of win. However, the Sun Devils would have something to say about that, as they quickly seized momentum with an incredible effort from senior running back Cam Skattebo, who finished the day with 284 all-purpose yards, 143 rushing yards (4.9 ypc), and three touchdowns. ASU tied the ball game at 24-24 and had an opportunity to win the game late, but a missed targeting call and two missed field goal attempts from Texas would send the game to overtime.
In the first overtime, Arizona State appeared to have things locked up after scoring a touchdown to take a 31-24 lead and then forcing Texas into a 4th-and-13 situation. Then, lightning struck, as the Longhorns scored on a 28-yard strike and then opened up the second OT period with a touchdown on the first play and a successful two-point conversion. It was an emotional rollercoaster that left everyone exhausted, and simply put, one heck of a game.
