Iowa State has one more regular season football game to focus on before thinking or discussing the bowl season. The main reason why the Cyclones should be focusing on this game is not only to end with a win and add confidence, but this win might determine whether they’re in the Alamo Bowl or the Liberty Bowl.

Iowa State is heading to a bowl game. We know that’s a for sure statement.

The only question is where will they be heading?

Cyclone fans won’t know that answer until Dec. 3 when bowl selection happens, but here’s what could happen depending on a number of Big 12 results this weekend.

First, let’s list off the tiers of bowl games in December and January.

The first-tier would be the College Football Playoffs. This is a four-team playoff with two semifinals and the winners meeting for the national championship on Jan. 8. With four losses on the season, Iowa State will not be heading to the playoffs. This is where teams like Alabama, Oklahoma and Miami (Florida) will be.

The second-tier blends with the first tier and relates to the six College Football Playoff bowl games. The College Football Playoff poll has committees of experts that chose four teams to play in the semifinals of the playoffs.

These selections are based off of many different principles like strength of schedule, top wins, top losses, point differential and other similar statistics. Once those four are selected, those teams will play in the Rose Bowl and Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.

Besides those two, there are three bowl games that are at-large bids and one bowl game, the Capital One Orange Bowl on Dec. 30, that has affiliates of ACC vs. Big Ten or SEC or Notre Dame. The other three bowl games are based upon the College Football Playoff rankings.

Those three bowl games are the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on Dec. 29, PlayStation Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 30 and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Jan. 1. Again, Iowa State will not make these bowl games either, but the Big 12 could have a couple teams representing the conference.

Finally, the third tier is the actual Big 12 Conference bowl games. There are six bowl games that associate with the Big 12 and this is where Iowa State will be fighting for the top spot.

Now, the Big 12 bowls have a selection order, but the bowl partner has the ability to choose which team they want to represent that specific bowl game. For example, the bowl partners of the Alamo Bowl could choose Iowa State over Oklahoma, even though the Sooners have a better record.

Most of the time the bowl partners will pick the highest ranked or the best record in the Big 12 and go from top to bottom.

The selection order for Big 12 bowl games are as follows: the Valero Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28, the Camping World Bowl on Dec. 28, AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl on Dec. 27, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Dec. 30, the Cactus Bowl on Dec. 26 and the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl on Dec. 26.

Within the Big 12, there are seven teams (Oklahoma, TCU, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Iowa State, Texas and Kansas State) that are bowl eligible with Texas Tech needing a win to lock its bowl eligibility.

Now, you might be asking, how can there be seven or eight Big 12 teams eligible, but only six Big 12 bowl games? Not to worry, all of them will play in a bowl game.

Oklahoma and TCU are the two likely Big 12 teams to play in the College Football Playoff bowl games. Oklahoma is considered to be one of the top four teams in the playoffs and would play in one of the semifinal games on Jan. 1 if the Sooners can continue to roll out a couple more wins.

On the other hand, TCU will not be playing in the semifinals, but is being highly considered for an at-large bid into one of the three non-playoff bowl games for the College Football Playoffs.

So there’s at least two teams out of the Big 12 bowl selections meaning Iowa State has the possibility of earning a top bowl game within the conference. Iowa State will more than likely receive one of the top two Big 12 bowl games if it defeats Kansas State this weekend.

To get that top spot, the Cyclones will need to defeat Kansas State on the road this weekend, while also receiving a little help from their Big 12 rivals.

Here’s the different scenarios that I think need to happen for Iowa State to reach one of those three bowl games.

To earn a spot in the Alamo Bowl

Iowa State will need to defeat Kansas State to become 8-4 overall on the season. Then, the Cyclones will need TCU to defeat Baylor and Oklahoma to defeat West Virginia, so those two teams continue to stay up in the College Football Playoff bowl games.

The West Virginia loss to Oklahoma would bring the Mountaineers down to a 7-5 record, below Iowa State. The tricky part of this situation is Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are playing Kansas and Iowa State would need Oklahoma State to win by a large margin, so the Cowboys could be considered for one of the College Football Playoff bowl games.

Oklahoma State has defeated Iowa State in the regular season and has one more win than the Cyclones right now. That means even if the Cowboys lose this weekend, Oklahoma State would still win the tiebreaker because of the head-to-head matchup this season.

So, the top three Big 12 teams win this weekend and Iowa State is looking at a better position to head south to Texas for the Alamo Bowl.

To earn a bid in the Camping World Bowl

Everything from the Alamo Bowl section has to happen. Iowa State defeats Kansas State, Oklahoma defeats West Virginia, TCU defeats Baylor and Oklahoma State defeats Kansas.

The only difference is that Oklahoma State wouldn’t go up into the College Football Playoff bowl games and would instead take the top spot, the Alamo Bowl, in the Big 12 bowl games.

Then, the Cyclones would still head south, but to Orlando, Florida, for the Camping World Bowl.

If Iowa State loses this weekend, then things become interesting

The Cyclones would drop to 7-5 on the season if the loss happens and Kansas State would improve to 7-5. A tie. But, the Wildcats have the tiebreaker because they defeated Iowa State in the regular season.

The only thing going for the Cyclones in that situation is that they defeated two top-five ranked teams this season. One on the road and one at home. Kansas State hasn’t done that this season.

If Texas were to beat Texas Tech this weekend, the Longhorns would be 7-5 on the season too and they beat Iowa State at Jack Trice Stadium to open up the Big 12 season.

What this means is that Iowa State needs to win this weekend if it wants to stay in the top two Big 12 bowl games. I don’t see Oklahoma State losing to Kansas or TCU losing to Baylor. The only game that could be interesting is the Oklahoma and West Virginia game.

With bowl implications on the line for West Virginia, the Mountaineers could potentially put up a fight in Norman, Oklahoma, this weekend. I still see the Sooners pulling out the victory, but it could be a contested one throughout the game.

All in all, Iowa State is going to a bowl game and Cyclone fans should be excited about that because it’s the first time since 2012 that they will be bowling. So, Iowa State fans should be glued to Big 12 football this Saturday to see where Iowa State could potentially be at the end of December.

I know I’ll be by my television all weekend long.