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2011 Bowl Predictions: Chaos In The Middle Of The Big 12

With the Oklahoma schools on top of the Big 12, Texas and Baylor are among a huge group of teams playing for a Cotton Bowl berth.

After dominant wins this weekend, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are firmly entrenched at the top of the Big 12.

SBNation's college football team has assembled four sets of predictions for the 2011 bowl season, with one of the Oklahoma schools playing in the national title game and the other in the Fiesta Bowl in all four.

Where it gets interesting is the middle of the pack, where five different teams are competing for berths in the next four bowls with Big 12 tie-ins. After the Fiesta, the pecking order goes the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, the Insight Bowl in Tempe and the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.

Kansas State, at 7-1 and ranked No. 14 in the latest BCS Standings, is first-in-line, but they have to play Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas the next three weeks.

Both the Aggies and the Longhorns, with two conference losses, still have a chance to finish the season strong with a Cotton Bowl berth, while a baffling home loss to Iowa State has pushed Texas Tech behind their in-state rivals, with three of the four college experts placing them in the Holiday Bowl.

Baylor, after a strong start to the season that had Robert Griffin III in the Heisman race, has slid after losing three conference games. A home date against Missouri this weekend will likely determine which team will play in the Texas Bowl in Houston and will be crucial to whether the Bears can play in two consecutive bowl games.

Now that Big 12 play is in full swing, the next two weeks of games should start to sort out the conference's still unsettled bowl picture.

SBNation has a complete look at the full college football bowl schedule here.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.