A terrible day for the Big 12 as we move into more prestigious bowl territory. West Virginia lost to Texas A&M in the Liberty Bowl while the big names (but not best teams of the conference) were humiliated – Oklahoma in the Russell Athletic Bowl against Clemson and Texas, finishing the season below .500, by Arkansas in the Texas Bowl.

Liberty Bowl – Not a lot of defenses in Memphis in a bowl game that will be mostly remembered for an Aggies assistant hitting two West Virginia players before being removed from the sidelines by Kevin Sumlin. In the football department, it was a great start for Skyler Howard and West Virginia in the first half and complete dominance from Texas A&M and Kyle Allen, who threw four touchdown passes to lead the Aggies to a 45-37 win, making it 3-0 for Sumlin in bowl games.

Russell Athletic Bowl – A bad day for Oklahoma and probably their worst postseason performance in the Bob Stoops era. Cole Stoudt threw a touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage, Trevor Knight answered that with the first of three interceptions and that was the kind of day Clemson and the Sooners had in Orlando, ending in a 40-6 win for the Tigers, taking down another big name in postseason for a third straight year. The Sooners got on the scoreboard after they were already 40-0 down, turning the ball over five times during the game.

Texas Bowl – Arkansas and Texas feels like a rivalry from days come and gone, but there’s plenty of hate involved if you weren’t born in the 1990’s. The Razorbacks carried on with their brand of stifling defense that helped get them in a bowl game last in the season, torching the Longhorns in what was basically a home game for them. Texas turned the ball over twice as they gained a pathetic 59 yards of offense in the entire game, 57 of them coming from Tyrone Swoopes, having an awful first year at quarterback, maybe his last as well. The Razorbacks won 31-7, enjoying over 41 minutes of possession.

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