The Big 12 once again spent most of Saturday out of the national spotlight, though this time it wasn’t in a bad way for the conference. Last week, I pointed out how not having Texas or Oklahoma play made the Big 12 not relevant on the national stage. This week, while the Longhorns and Sooners played in the Red River Rivalry (Shootout) and held national attention for much of the afternoon, the conference’s two national contenders right now (Baylor and West Virginia) were on byes. The conference has had terrible luck this year in the bye scheduling and staying relevant nationally.
5. Iowa State will be competitive
For the second straight week, Iowa State took one of the conference’s best teams down to the wire. Iowa State led this game for most of the second half but, also for the second straight week, the Cyclones could not close the deal on a major upset. Still, being competitive in consecutive games against upper-tier Big 12 teams is not something that we’ve seen from the Cyclones in a long time. Iowa State is moving in the right direction and, if the Cyclones keep playing like this, will win an unexpected game or two in conference this year.
4. TCU is falling apart
Look, I’m not saying that TCU should be doing to Kansas what Michigan just did to Rutgers, but TCU should be doing to Kansas what Michigan just did to Rutgers. The Horned Frogs are supposed to be one of the best teams in the country, let alone the conference. It has been clear that TCU is out of the national picture for a few weeks now. This game made it clear that TCU is now out of the conference picture. TCU should have lost to Kansas. No one who should have lost to Kansas wins a power conference. Not with the current state of the Jayhawks program.
3. The conference can’t stay nationally relevant this year
This was just highlighted with West Virginia and Baylor, the only two real Playoff contenders in the conference, both on a bye. And yes, as long as one of those two is undefeated, we will be discussing them as Playoff contenders, but not within the context of the Big 12. The conference did too much damage to itself early in the season. Even with the Red River Rivalry being on of the best games of the day, the conference is a national afterthought. A good bowl season (or a good showing in the Playoff) will erase all of this instantaneously, but for now, the Big 12 is not in a good place.
2. The Big 12 still has entertaining shootouts
For a large swath of Saturday evening, the most compelling game on television was Kansas State against Texas Tech. It was an old-fashioned Big 12 offensive shootout, where the team that made the fewest mistakes and/or came up big on defense at the perfect moments won. This came on the heels of an entertaining shootout between Texas and Oklahoma. Run-and-shoot and “air raid” offenses are what the Big 12 is famous for, and fans love it when Big 12 football provides that. The conference has gone away from that identity (aside from Baylor and Texas Tech) in recent years, which I am not sure has been good for the conference.
1. Charlie Strong won’t last much longer at Texas
The fans and boosters of the Texas Longhorns are not known for being overly patient with head coaches. Strong came into a tough situation with a program on a downswing, but he has had four years to reverse that. He was given the time he needed to change the culture and mold the program in his own image. It’s still not working. Texas is on its way to yet another unranked year, and the Longhorns will need to win at least one game as an underdog to avoid missing a bowl for the second consecutive season. There are very recent examples of coaches doing a lot more in a shorter period when brought into similar (or worse) situations. Look at Brian Kelly when he started at Notre Dame and Chris Petersen at Washington right now. Unless Strong can engineer a drastic change very quickly, he will not be the Texas head coach much longer.
