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Twitter Reacts-- The Big 12 Championship, Briles on the Warpath, CFB Playoff

So I just got back to Dallas and have been up since about 7 AM, but am I ready to call it a day? NOPE.

By Mark C. Moore
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Given that we're about 9 hours out from the release of the inaugural CFB Playoff (pairing? selection? playoff?) whatever, I could spend the time I have awake right now breaking down the best possible case for Baylor vis-a-vis TCU and Ohio State, our primary competition for what is probably the only remaining Playoff spot after Alabama, Oregon, and FSU all won.  The problem: I'd characterize our chances of actually getting that spot as slim to none, and I don't want to write about that right now.  I'm in a good place and that would only seriously bum me out.

Instead, I've decided to do another Twitter Reacts post off the day's events.  If you've been under some rock and haven't seen most of what's happened, today should go into the annals as one of the best in Twitter history, if I'm any judge.  We kicked things off with College GameDay, where a sign about Patterson's wife being fatigued somehow made it on air before Samurai Mike Singletary beat up Lee Corso for picking Kansas State, just about everything that could have gone against us in the day's non-Baylor games did, Baylor WON THE BIG 12 FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW over Kansas State, and Baylor released one of the greatest media blitzes of all time highlighted by Art Briles putting basically the entire CFB world on blast, starting with our conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

You'd better pack a ... light snack or something? because we're going to be here for a while.

Note: Since Prashanth already did such a great job cataloging the best signs of the day, I won't touch most of those again.

COLLEGE GAMEDAY

LITTLE DID WE KNOW AT THIS POINT THAT BRILES HAD ONLY BEGUN TO SWAGGER.

THE GAME

THEY WERE WEARING MASKS. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Offense was good early, is what I'm getting at here.

There was more that happened during the game, obviously. But all of that paled in comparison to what was to come. Before we get there, though, Mike Greenberg isn't backing down:

THE TROPHY CEREMONY:

I'm going to set the stage for you in case you weren't there: When the game ended, Baylor's fans rushed the field again (hate on, haters) while they prepared for the trophy ceremony with Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby.  He was booed heartily at every mention and every word.  Beyond that, several chants started up drowning out whatever the heck he was actually trying to say, then things got really wild.

While Bowlsby was standing on the dais with Briles, Bennett, and the celebrating Baylor players, Briles and Bennett visibly confronted him in a manner that seemed less than friendly.  That was right after Briles got on the mic and threw the conference completely under the bus with comments I've captured below.  This would become a trend over the following few minutes:

It's getting real now.

This was a joke, but it might as well have been true.

I was so worked up at this point that I commissioned a gif.

THE PRESS CONFERENCE

After leaving the field behind, Briles took his show to the press conference room. The complete video is up on the front page right now.

Accurate.

Spencer Hall's take on the whole deal:

Here's why he said that last part.  Brace yourself.

I've used a fair bit of hyperbole in this post, all of which I stand by.  I'll do it again: this may be the Mona Lisa of tweets, one of the greatest we have seen or will ever see.  When this whole thing went down, I was sitting in a parking lot of the HEB in Bellmead trying to get a handle on things before driving back.  This particular tweet made me laugh so hard I started crying, and again, it was only the beginning.  Baylor Football went on to tweet basically direct shots at the conference, TCU, and just about everything and everybody else.

BACK-TO-BACK WINS OVER TCU? BAYLOR, YOU NAUGHTY MINX.

NO YOU DIDN'T.

Those were all taken directly from the @BUFootball account, either as their tweets or tweets they retweeted.

While all this was going on, Bryce Petty steps up:

Briles eventually went searching for larger prey, appearing on SportsCenter and (I think) another ESPN program.  I don't yet have any video from those, but I'll try to find them.

The Aftermath

Naturally, this made me start thinking about how ridiculous that scenario would be. In fact, it's so ridiculous that I have a hard time believing a group of professional decision-makers sitting in a room never considered the possibility. What would you do? A joint trophy presentation on the field of one of the teams? Separate presentations, like with one in the lockerroom? Wait so it doesn't happen on TV at all? It's mind-boggling, and it could have happened.

Obviously, there are thousands more tweets that I could and probably should include on any number of topics. Because it's late enough to be early and I'm finally winding down from what was, even considering the fact that we're probably not making the CFB Playoff, still an incredible day for Baylor Athletics, I'm going to stop. But first, one last tweet.

I know I missed some, so give me your favorites in the comments.

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