A path to the Big 12 Championship and a possible trip to the College Football Playoff will be on the line when Oklahoma (8-1, 5-1 in the Big 12) travels to Waco to play Baylor (9-0, 6-0).

Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC.

Except for Texas, every other Big 12 school has three or more league losses. Baylor hosts Texas next week and travels to Kansas to finish the regular season. OU hosts TCU and travels to in-state rival Oklahoma State to finish.

If Baylor wins, a two-loss OU would have the advantage over Texas since the Sooners won the Red River Rivalry. If OU beats Baylor and Baylor loses to Texas, it could be another OU/Texas rematch in the Big 12 Championship in Dallas.

Meanwhile, the Big 12 isn’t getting much respect.

In the coaches poll, OU is No. 8 (same as last week) and unbeaten Baylor is No. 10. Four one-loss teams are ranked ahead of Baylor. In the AP Poll, OU is No. 10 and Baylor No. 12. Six one-loss teams and one two-loss team (Florida) are ranked ahead of Baylor in that poll.

Baylor is being downgraded for its nonconference schedule, which included Stephen F. Austin, UTSA and Rice. The Bears only beat Iowa State, Texas Tech, West Virginia and TCU by a combined 14 points.

In order for the winner of the OU/Baylor game (presuming they go undefeated the rest of the way), the Big 12 will need losses by at least three teams (probably Oregon, Minnesota, Georgia, Clemson or Alabama).

However, ESPN’s College GameDay will be in Waco Saturday for the game.

Baylor and OU were fortunate to win last Saturday.

TCU took Baylor to three overtimes before the Bears prevailed 29-23.

OU led Iowa State by a score of 35-14 at the half but the Cyclones came roaring back and with 24 seconds, the Sooners had to intercept a two-point pass in the endzone to preserve a 42-41 victory.

The OU defense, which seemed improved since last season, has played poorly in the loss to Kansas State and the near-loss to Iowa State.

“Obviously, there are some real embarrassing stretches of football that fell back on my shoulders,” said OU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. “Defensively, the inability to tackle and falling down in coverage. Things that can’t happen, shouldn’t happen. I’ve got to be a lot better moving forward for us to do anything that we want to do as a football team.”

OU saved the season and title hopes by stopping the two-point conversion.

“Sometimes in those two-point scenarios you think some people take the approach of trickery, which obviously they used some over the course of the night in other situations,” Grinch said. “The approach is because of that have edges… We made the decision to play man. It gave us the best chance to ensure we had body on body, and then use the penetration of the linebacker. DaShaun (White) did a nice job. Also (Parnell Motley) scratching and clawing for a football.”

Poor tackling was a problem, especially in the second half.

“I didn’t think we tackled very well. I honestly felt really in the first half and even parts of that third quarter that we were really kind of suffocating (Iowa State), other than missing tackles,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley. “Then you got  a couple things on a play action-wise where we lost our eyes and gave them a couple of cheap touchdowns. That was probably the more disappointing thing, as it went on we started to tackle a little bit better but we haven’t turned these guys loose this year.”

Riley wouldn’t apologize for the win.

“You’ve got to win tough games,” Riley said. “So that’s a good football team, I’m just telling you right now. Listen, I want to play a lot better, I want to play better in the second half and blow them out worse than anybody in this room, but winning is winning and that’s a win.

OU quarterback Jalen Hurts hit 18 of 26 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns and rushed 22 times for 68 yards and two scores (one interception). He threw an ill-advised interception late in the game that set up the ISU touchdown that almost cost OU the game.

“You look at this game here, as a team, we definitely put ourselves in a horrible situation,” Hurts said. “I look myself under and I say, ‘I put us in a horrible situation.’ I could’ve done better, especially in that second half, in executing our offense and keeping things alive, converting on third-downs, making smart decisions that I always make. The unique part about all of this is we found out about ourselves as far as overcoming adversity and saw some growth. Are there a lot of plays at the end of the game or early in the game that I wish we would’ve made to not even make it close? Yeah. We needed this for a reason. I’m a believer. I’m feeling this way for a reason. It is definitely a lesson we will learn from.”

OU wide receiver CeeDee Lamb had eight catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns. Lamb fumbled in the second half and that led to a Cyclone touchdown.