OU in good shape on tiebreakers; OSU's picture muddled

With so many teams jumbled in the middle of the Big 12 Conference standings, there are countless possibilities for how the final seeding for the Big 12 Tournament could play out.

But Oklahoma is in a strong position, holding the tiebreaker advantage over the teams it is most likely to end up tied with — Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

OU owns the head-to-head tiebreakers over Baylor and Texas Tech by virtue of sweeping the regular-season meetings with both. The next tiebreaker is the teams' record against the rest of the teams in its division (North and South divisions are only used in basketball for tiebreaking purposes).

In that instance, OU is currently 6-3 against the rest of the South Division. Neither OSU nor Texas A&M can get to six South wins, so OU will win the tiebreaker over both, regardless of the result of tonight's Bedlam game. Kansas State and Nebraska each hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over OU.

Oklahoma State's tiebreaker situation isn't so clear. OSU defeated Nebraska in their only meeting, and Kansas State knocked off OSU to settle those tiebreakers.

But the Cowboys have split with Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M, and are currently 3-5 against South Division teams. Texas A&M is 4-5, Tech is 3-6 and Baylor is 3-5.

The third tiebreaker is each team's record against each individual team in the division, starting at the top in order of conference winning percentage. If the tie still isn't broken, the same procedure will be done with the teams in the opposite division.

But the picture is too convoluted to project any tiebreaker results beyond what is already settled.