THE Iowa State football team was safe in the College Football Playoff just a few weeks ago. But after two straight losses, the Cyclones found themselves not only on the outside looking in, but also a spot in the Big 12 title game.

Well, as quickly as things took a wrong turn, they apparently took a turn for the better – at least for the Cyclone faithful.

Iowa State (8-2, 5-2) got back on track with a resounding victory over Cincinnati. Hours later, BYU fell for the first time this season at home to Kansas, which had a win over the Cyclones the previous week.

The Jayhawks could quickly go from villain to hero for Iowa State, as they get Colorado this Saturday and Heisman Trophy favorite Travis Hunter. If the Cyclones beat Utah on the road and Kansas pulls off a third straight upset, Iowa State would be back in a tie for second place with a week remaining.

There’s also Arizona State, which has a showdown with BYU on the horizon. The Sun Devils have won three straight since losing to Cincinnati last month.

BYU’s hold on the conference lead was weakened by the home loss to Kansas, putting them in a tie with Colorado for first place at 6-1. Arizona State and Iowa State are a game behind with a five-pack all sitting at three losses with two weeks remaining.

Here’s a look at the updated Big 12 standings after Week 12 of the college football season:

1. (tie) BYU (6-1)

1. (tie) Colorado (6-1)

3. (tie) Arizona State (5-2)

3. (tie) Iowa State (5-2)

5. (tie) Baylor (4-3)

5. (tie) Kansas State (4-3)

5. (tie) TCU (4-3)

5. (tie) Texas Tech (4-3)

5. (tie) West Virginia (4-3)

10. (tie) Cincinnati (3-4)

10. (tie) Kansas (3-4)

10. (tie) Houston (3-4)

13. (tie) UCF (2-5)

13. (tie) Arizona (2-5)

15. Utah (1-6)

16. Oklahoma State (0-7)

The loss to the Cougars really makes things interesting at the end. Tiebreakers will likely come into play to determine the final pecking order.

Matt Campbell and the Cyclones don’t control their own destiny right now. These roles are reserved for BYU and Colorado.

If the Cougars and Buffaloes win, they will meet in Dallas for the title next December. But if they don’t — and given the way the last few weeks have gone, that seems unlikely — that will allow Iowa State to sneak back.

The first is the obvious, which means the Cyclones need to take care of Utah on the road Saturday night before doing the same against Kansas State to conclude the regular season.

The tiebreaker scenarios set up by the conference are anything but simple. And when you get more than two teams involved, it gets even more complicated, because with as many teams as the league currently has, there’s no way for everyone to play everyone that year.

One of the main plans for breaking ties is to use common opponents, as this eliminates someone who was beaten in the bottom half of the leaderboard.

To show you how complex this all is, let’s say Arizona State and Iowa State win as expected while West Virginia falls to Texas Tech and Kansas causes a another surprise, eliminating Colorado. That would mean the Buffalos, Cyclones and Sun Devils are all tied for second place in the standings.

Here are the tiebreaker rules for this year in the Big 12:

In the event of a tie between more than two teams, the following procedures will be used: After one team has an advantage and is “seeded”, all remaining teams in the multi-team tiebreaker will repeat the seeding procedure. tiebreaker. If at any point the tie between multiple teams is reduced to two teams, the two-team tie-breaking procedure will be applied.

1. The records of the three tied teams (or more) will be compared based on winning percentage in matches between the tied teams:

In this case, Colorado will not have played a single team involved in the three-way tie. According to the rules, the tiebreaker would move to the next step in the process:

This is the scenario of a 4-2 record against all common opponents. Here’s the next step in the tiebreaker:

Got it? Great, now let’s hope for complete and utter insanity over the next few weeks that really drives the first ever 12-team College Football Playoff crazy.

*Three stars in Iowa State’s win over Cincinnati, including Stevo Klotz

*Full game recap of Iowa State’s win against Cincinnati

*Opponent Research: Get to know quarterback Brendan Sorsby

* Latest College Football Playoff rankings

* What Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield had to say about the Cyclones

*Updated bowl projections for Iowa State and the rest of the Big 12

* Two ISU verbals face off in state football semifinals in Iowa