Texas has a new head coach. Bedlam will be a de factor conference championship game. West Virginia looks like a truly solid team, even if it hasn’t been proven over the course of this season because of a weak schedule. Sure, this was far from a banner year for the Big 12. In fact, until now it’s been a year to be forgotten. But things definitely could be looking up for the conference.
Week 13 Big 12 Power Rankings
1. Oklahoma (LW: 1) — It’s basically 1a and 1b at this point between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Bedlam will decide the conference champion between these two, and —- in very unlikely circumstances — possibly even a Playoff berth.
2. Oklahoma State (LW: 2) — The Cowboys have shown extreme potential at times this season, including looking pretty dominant against West Virginia. On the other hand, showings against Central Michigan and Iowa State left a ton to be desired. Maybe Mike Gundy can miraculously convince the selection committee that his team didn’t actually lose to CMU. Maybe. But he has to win Bedlam to even make that a conversation.
3. West Virginia (LW: 3) — The Mountaineers avoided a hangover against Iowa State and actually looked really good against a team that showed real potential last week. West Virginia is a win over free-falling Baylor away from beating every Big 12 school not from the state of Oklahoma.
4. Kansas State (LW: 4) — Beating the Jayhawks doesn’t say much about a team, but Kansas State has quietly had a very solid season. Bill Snyder’s team is 7-0 against unranked foes (0-4 against ranked teams) and was competitive in all of its ranked matchups. This team should be fun to watch in a bowl game, and might even shock a team with the right matchup.
5. TCU (LW: 5) — Like I said last week, it’s sad that TCU is the No. 5 team in the conference. This TCU team is not good at all. Unfortunately for the conference as a whole, neither are any of the five teams below it.
6. Iowa State (LW: 6) — Is Iowa State really the sixth-best team in the conference right now? Probably not. But getting blown out by West Virginia isn’t worse than what every other team down here has done, and the last four teams in the conference really just are a hot mess.
7. Texas Tech (LW: 10) — The Red Raiders picked the offense back up last week, and even slowed Baylor down enough to earn a win. Kliff Kingsbury is staying another year, though I cannot imagine he will be the coach in 2018 unless the defense drastically improves.
8. Kansas (LW: 8) — Over the course of the season, Kansas has quite obviously been one of the worst teams in all of FBS. And yet, as we remember the surreal sight of fans tearing down the goalposts a week ago, it is actually striking just how much turmoil the two programs below Kansas in these rankings are in.
9. Texas (LW: 9) — It was honestly a toss-up between Texas and Baylor as to which dumpster fire is burning a little less brightly right now. I’ll give Texas the edge, just barely. The Longhorns at least have a star running back and a future star head coach to look forward to.
10. Baylor (LW: 7) — Last Tuesday, Miami (OH) became the first school in FBS history to go from 0-6 to 6-6. I haven’t fully verified this in the record books, but I’m pretty sure that Baylor is about to become the first team to start out 6-0 and end 6-6.
