Texas thumps Oklahoma State to claim Big 12 championship
ARLINGTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Texas Longhorns are crowned Big 12 champions.
Texas faced off Saturday morning against Oklahoma State in the kickoff for the Big 12 Championship at AT&T Stadium.
Texas defeated Oklahoma State, 49-21, and earned its fourth title in program history.
The video above is ABC13's 24/7 livestream.
ABC13 captured Texas Longhorn players warming up ahead of the game. It's a team loaded with local talent.
In fact, seven Houston area products are listed as starters on the deck chart for UT.
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The 2023 Big 12 title is Texas' first title since 2009, UT could be one of the four teams selected for the college football playoff.
This year's football playoff national title game will be played in Houston inside NRG Stadium on Jan. 8.
It's a unique year for the Big 12 Conference, adding the University of Houston and three other teams as part of a new look Big 12.
ABC13 had a chance to chat with Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, who said there has never been a better time to be a member of the Big 12 Conference.
Eyewitness Sports asked Yormark about the early returns on having the city of Houston in the lead and also about the national title game being in Space City.
"We love Houston, (it's) the right market in the country, an important market, obviously. It's our first year in it. We engaged, I think, pretty effectively. With the national championship game, we're excited to see if we can kind of engage in all the right ways to give ourselves the right narrative in that moment, but it's an enormously important part of our footprint and one that we're going to take advantage of moving forward," Yormark said.
Yes, he stopped short of saying it would be really nice to have a Big 12 team in the national title game in Houston.
Yormark remained neutral between Oklahoma State and Texas, but he did say if the Longhorns won the Big 12 Championship on Saturday, both he and the conference will do everything they need to support Texas' candidacy to be one of those 14 selected for the college football playoff.
The Big 12 Championship kicked off at 11 a.m. on ABC13.
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