Texas Christian Demolishes Iowa State to Bolster Its Playoff Hopes

FORT WORTH - Texas Christian Coach Gary Patterson fired a football into the stands at Amon G. Carter Stadium, toward the Horned Frogs fans waving Big 12 Conference championship towels and chanting, 'Gary! Gary!'

The players sported their Big 12 champion baseball caps, and conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby gave the Frogs a trophy.

'T.C.U. is the Big 12 co-champion,' Patterson, soaked from a Gatorade bath, yelled to the crowd.

Whether the Frogs get to play for another championship - a national title - remains to be seen.

Trevone Boykin passed for a career-high 460 yards and caught a touchdown pass as No. 4 T.C.U. earned a share of the conference title and kept its playoff bid alive with a 55-3 rout of Iowa State on Saturday.

The Horned Frogs (11-1, 8-1) came into championship weekend ranked third in the College Football Playoff selection committee's rankings. T.C.U. was the only playoff contender not playing a ranked team during the weekend.

There was not much the Frogs could do to help themselves against the Cyclones (2-10, 0-9), but they avoided the type of game that could have caused the committee to downgrade them.

'Now we'll just wait,' Patterson said. 'We'll watch.'

The final rankings come out Sunday.

Aaron Green scored two touchdowns for T.C.U., which is in just its third season in the Big 12 after conference hopping for nearly two decades.

Derrick Kindred returned an interception 44 yards for a score in the third quarter to put the Frogs up, 34-3.

Iowa State finished winless in the Big 12 for the first time since 2008 - the first time under sixth-year Coach Paul Rhoads.

For T.C.U., the question was not if the team would win, but by how much. The Horned Frogs were 34-point favorites against the worst team in the Big 12. The Cyclones have been hampered by injuries, and no team in the league has allowed more yards per play.

To complete their résumé and make sure they stay ahead of Ohio State and Baylor when the final playoff rankings are revealed, the Frogs needed to control the game.

'We knew we had to make a statement,' Patterson said.

Despite losing, 61-58, at Baylor in October, the Frogs will be able to put conference champion on their résumé no matter what the Bears did at home later in the day against Kansas State, Patterson's alma mater.

'I feel like we did everything we needed to do on our end to be one of those top four teams,' Boykin said.

The Big 12 will not designate a champion through a tiebreaker. Instead, the conference will let the playoff committee sort it out. The selection protocol states that championships won and head-to-head outcomes are supposed to be used as determining factors when choosing between similar teams.

Committee Chairman Jeff Long reiterated on ESPN that the head-to-head matchup between T.C.U. and Baylor has not 'come into play yet.'

The Frogs and Bears played 10 common opponents. The biggest difference is that Baylor played at Buffalo, a mediocre Mid-American Conference team, and T.C.U. played Minnesota, a good Big Ten team.

If this is the weekend the head-to-head game comes into play, it had nothing to do with what T.C.U. did Saturday.

Boykin's first career touchdown reception got T.C.U. off to a good start. The junior threw a backward pass to David Porter, who threw back to Boykin, who was behind a wall of blockers. The quarterback, who had 26 catches last season playing as a receiver, went untouched for a 55-yard touchdown.

Then a penalty here, a negative red-zone play there, combined with a couple of turnovers, kept T.C.U. from pulling away in the first half. It was 17-3 at the break.

'We were pesky for 30 minutes and pleased with the effort and the response of our guys through that first 30 minutes,' Rhoads said.

The Frogs outgained Iowa State, 343 yards to 138, in the first half.

'Here's what I told them, 'Quit worrying about style points.' I thought they were a little bit too tight,' Patterson said. 'I said, 'Just go win a championship.' '

If there was any anxiety in Fort Worth, it went away soon after the second-half kickoff.

Green took a swing pass 54 yards for a touchdown to make it 24-3 just 66 seconds in, and the rout was on.

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