✌🏽 Happy Monday, friends. Let’s ride.

🤔 Trivia: Before this week, when was the last season OU had a team ranked in the Associated Press’ top 5 during the month of November? [Answer in footnotes]

🏆 The race begins

Happy November, y’all. We made it.

The Big 12 Championship Game, scheduled for 11 a.m. on Dec. 4, is about a month away and there’s three teams, maybe four, with a realistic shot at making it there.

So, let’s go over the contenders.

Oklahoma

• Record: 9-0 (6-0 Big 12)

• Remaining games: at Baylor (Nov. 13), vs. Iowa State (Nov. 20), at Oklahoma State (Nov. 27)

• Chance to win conference: 53%

• The path: Oklahoma has a bigger margin for error but the most difficult remaining schedule of the four teams still in contention for the conference — because, well, it has to play the three other contenders. The Sooners at least looked closer to the Big 12 juggernaut they’ve been in the past against Texas Tech than they have all season. Now, they get a rest week before diving into their end-of-season gauntlet.

Oklahoma State

• Record: 7-1 (4-1 Big 12)

• Remaining games: at West Virginia (Nov. 6), vs. TCU (Nov. 13), at Texas Tech (Nov. 20, vs. Oklahoma (Nov. 27)

• Chance to win conference: 24%

• The path: Win out and the Cowboys will be in Arlington, Texas. Oklahoma State’s biggest test, aside from Oklahoma, will be this week’s trip to Morgantown, West Virginia, where the Mountaineers just stunned Iowa State last Saturday. Oklahoma State’s two toughest remaining games sandwich contests against two teams that have parted ways with their head coaches over the last week. They own the head-to-head tiebreaker against Baylor but not Iowa State.

Baylor

• Record: 7-1 (4-1 Big 12)

• Remaining games: at TCU (Nov. 6), vs. Oklahoma (Nov. 13), at Kansas State (Nov. 20), vs. Texas Tech (Nov. 27)

• Chance to win conference: 17%

• The path: Baylor can also secure its spot by winning out, and owns a head-to-head tiebreaker over Iowa State. The Bears have the benefit of hosting Oklahoma, a team it’s had plenty of success against in Waco, Texas, over the last decade. The Bears boast two home wins over the Sooners since 2011. Baylor also played within 10 points of the Sooners in the decade’s three other outings at McLane Stadium.

Iowa State

• Record: 5-3 (3-2 Big 12)

• Remaining games: vs. Texas (Nov. 6), at Texas Tech (Nov. 13), at Oklahoma (Nov. 20), vs. TCU (Nov. 26)

• Chance to win conference: 6%

• The path: Iowa State needs the most help but probably has the most favorable remaining slate. The Cyclones face a struggling Longhorns team in Ames on Saturday, Texas Tech a week later and TCU to close the regular season. Iowa State can’t afford to lose and will need a few teams in front of them to drop games themselves. The Cyclones just have to figure out how they move past their shocking loss to West Virginia this past weekend.

Note: Conference odds according to FiveThirtyEight data

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🟥 OU stays put

Oklahoma is still No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.

The Sooners were voted as high as No. 2 by nine different voters and as low as No. 7 on four ballots.

Other notes:

• Barring a TCU upset of Baylor this Saturday, the Sooners will face their first ranked opponent on the road this season with Baylor at No. 15 in the latest poll.

• Oklahoma State jumped up to No. 11 from 15 after its dominant win over Kansas.

• OU has been ranked fourth for five out of 10 weeks this season.

• This is the last week this poll really has any meaning. The College Football Playoff’s initial 2021 rankings will be released at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

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⏰ On this day

Eighteen years ago today, Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State 52-9 in Norman.

The game’s best moment? Just seconds before it started.