The first Big 12 win in the College Football Playoff came in one of the wildest CFP games ever

Remember when Michigan ran the Philly Not So Special on 4th-and-goal on their first possession? Yeah, that actually happened last Wednesday. 

Georgia's 54-48 double OT survival of Oklahoma in the 2018 Rose Bowl is probably still the greatest CFP semifinal ever, but No. 3 TCU's 51-45 upset of No. 2 Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal on Saturday night might be the weirdest and wildest and just the most CFP game ever played. 

Consider:

-- Michigan's opening drive went 65 yards, TCU's went eight, and yet TCU held a 7-0 lead.

-- The Roman Wilson play. Remember, this was ruled a touchdown on the field, yet the SEC crew felt they had enough indisputable video evidence to overturn that call.

-- ESPN cameras later showed referees appeared to spot the ball two yards short on the previous play, an interception of Max Duggan by Michigan safety Rod Moore. 

-- Michigan had three points until the final play of the first half.

-- A game that was 21-6 at halftime promptly produced the highest-scoring quarter in CFP history, a 24-20 Michigan track meet. 

-- TCU scored to take a 41-22 lead in the final minute of the third quarter, and by the 13:07 mark of the fourth faced a 3rd-and-7, looking to avoid punting the ball while clinging to a 41-38 lead.

-- That 3rd-and-7 resulted in a 76-yard touchdown pass.

-- Within one minute of that potentially fateful 3rd-and-7, TCU had a 1st-and-10 at Michigan's 16-yard line, with an opportunity to potentially put the game away at 55-38.

-- Michigan held TCU out of the end zone and, in a game in which JJ McCarthy threw two pick-sixes and in which it came up empty inside the five yard line twice, the Wolverines had the ball with a chance to win the game in the final minute.

-- That opportunity ended on a Yakety Sax play in which referees reviewed but ultimately decided not to call targeting, despite replay showing what appeared to be textbook targeting.

A College Football Playoff game without much precedent was won by a team without any precedent. 

In a season in which TCU made a living out of coming from behind, the Frogs led wire-to-wire. Of course they did.

Of course, the first Big 12 team to reach the CFP title game is largely the same cast of characters that went 3-6 in conference play a year ago.

Of course, the first Sons of Leach make the national championship game now, in this Season of Leach. Not only did head coach Sonny Dykes spend 2000-06 as a Texas Tech assistant, offensive coordinator Garrett Riley spent 2008-09 as a reserve Red Raider quarterback.

A year ago, TCU was 5-7. A year ago, Dykes coached an 8-4 SMU team that finished in sixth place in the American. Apart, they were as average as average gets. Together, they defeated college football's all-time winningest program, then got to watch Ohio State and Georgia battle each other for right to play the mighty TCU Horned Frogs. 

The Big 12 has spent years shedding its image as the Nobody Plays Defense conference. The 3-3-5 alignment has gone a long way toward allowing defenses to catch up to the offenses in that conference, and Joe Gillespie's unit showed Michigan that the scheme works outside of the Big 12 borders as well.

But even still, it feels fitting that the first Big 12 Playoff win ended 51-45 in a game that only felt like it took three games to play.