You are looking live at what’s at stake for West Virginia today.

Texas and it’s quizzical home-court advantage scored 22 unanswered points as part of a 25-5 run that finished today’s 13-point win against Oklahoma. That left the Sooners and Longhorns tied in the standings with 10-6 records. Baylor can join that group today with a win at TCU, which is to say the Bears will join that group, but WVU can push those three into third place with a — let’s call it — winnable game here against Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers would be 11-5.

(Here’s where I doom everything and everyone: Someone from the Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU basement is going to win a game in the final eight days … by default, I guess, because the Wildcats and Horned Frogs have to play one another, but one of those three is going to beat a top-seven team before this is over.)

Kansas, of course, already has its hands on a share of the Big 12 title by virtue of today’s home win against Texas Tech. The Jayhawks, who were once teetering at 5-3 in the league, have won eight straight. The Red Raiders had won five in a row. Should WVU lose today to a team that’s lost three in a row and six of seven and is playing without Phil Forte and now Jawun Evans, then Kansas gets the outright title. Either way, Kansas has a magic number of one, and barring an 0-2 finish at Texas, where the Longhorns are 14-2, and against Iowa State, it’ll own the crown by its lonesome.

So everyone is playing for second, and right now WVU leads the way bye half of a game. Winning out does the trick, and winning out is optimal because just about any tie that involves Oklahoma and/or Texas is bad news because of the tiebreaker procedure. If WVU gets the No. 2, it also gets a nice line on its resume for finishing second in the top-rated RPI conference with a head-to-head win against the perennial champ. The selection committee will like that.

WVU would also get a day off in the Big 12 tournament, which has been a given for a while now, and a game against Kansas State/Oklahoma State/TCU. Those three are guaranteed to finish in the bottom three places, and the No. 2 plays the winner of the 8-9 game. Kansas plays the winner of the 7-10, which today is Texas Tech v. TCU, though Iowa State, believe it or not, could end up as the 7. The No. 2 seed is, in a way, safer, because the No. 6 could finish four or five games clear of the No. 8, which is amazing.

If WVU gets into a tie for second and finishes third or fourth — and fourth is basically the same as fifth, which is as low as WVU can go — then it’s looking at a bye and a game as the No. 3 against a stiff No. 6 or in a 4/5 game. The road to higher NCAA seeding gets much more difficult outside of the No. 2 seed, is what I’m saying. The advantage is there for the taking today.