There’s only four days left in the Big 12 regular season — six if you count that pointless Monday night make-up between OSU and Nebraska — which means the post-season picture is getting a bit clearer. Thanks to the Oklahoma State win over K-State last night, Texas is now guaranteed to finish no worse than third place and of course will enjoy a first-round bye in Oklahoma City.

As we all know, tonight Texas takes on the rival Texas A&M Aggies at 8 P.M.in Austin. Later today I’ll bring you a re-preview of this very talented Aggie team. But for now, let’s look ahead at the games left on the conference slate that can affect the Horns.

Wednesday, 8 P.M. – Texas A&M (12-2) at Texas (11-3)

Saturday, 11 A.M. – Texas (11-3) at Kansas (13-2)
Saturday, 3 P.M. – Missouri (6-8) at Texas A&M (12-2)

Although it’s a heck of an uphill battle, the Longhorns do control their own destiny. If they win both of their remaining games, they will force a tie for first place, which results in a co-championship. But for the sake of seeding in Oklahoma City, the Horns would come out with the 1-seed. They would own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Jayhawks, while that same criteria would be a split between A&M and the Longhorns. In that case, the tie would move on to divisional record, which the Longhorns would win thanks to an 8-2 mark against the “south.”

Besides that longshot to claim the top spot in the post-season tournament, all permutations but one would put Texas squarely on the 3-seed line. However, if the Longhorns win tonight against A&M, but lose to Kansas, there is still a slim chance they could earn a 2-seed. That’s because if Missouri were to then upset the Aggies on Saturday, both the Horns and Ags would finish with 12-4 marks. Once again their head-to-head marks would be split, while Texas would have eight “south” wins to A&M’s seven.

To recap in concise, easy-to-read equations:

Defeat A&M + defeat Kansas = 1 seed
Defeat A&M + lose to Kansas + Aggies lose to Mizzou = 2 seed
Everything else = 3 seed

For those of you planning ahead to travel or watch the Longhorns next Friday, this means that Texas will most likely be playing in the nightcap at 8:20 P.M., which actually ends up being roughly 30 minutes after the 6 P.M. game finishes. If the Horns somehow pull off the miracle and the 1-seed, they would open on Friday morning at 11:30 A.M. And that reeeeeeally unlikely 2-seed scenario would result in the 6 P.M. game.

So now that you know our Friday possibilities, who’s joining me in Oklahoma City? Anybody? Bueller?

A&M re-preview coming at you later this morning.