Let's Face It: The Big 12 Isn't What it Used to Be

By Big12-Fans Writer Josh Cline

First off, I’d like to welcome all of you here to Big12-Fans. I know I’m excited to be part of this new community online. I just hope to provide everyone with some Big 12 Football and Basketball analysis with maybe a few national notes dropped in there somewhere as well. Anyway, enough with the introduction, we’re launching a quarter of the way through Big 12 conference season, so we have some catching up to do.

Of course, the big headline from last weekend was the fact that Texas finally got over the hump and beat Oklahoma in the 2000’s. Mack Brown got the monkey off of his back and now the expectations are even greater for this Texas team. Maybe the pundits are ignoring that perhaps beating OU was not that big of a deal this season. I know they are rivals, but Oklahoma just isn’t up to the level of a team like Texas this year. Peterson hardly played, Bomar couldn’t hit much except the spotted Cotton Bowl field, and OU probably could have fared as well by not fielding a secondary. If you ask me, beating Ohio State at the Horseshoe may be about ten times more impressive. Even so, kudos to Texas and Mack Brown for being able to beat Oklahoma.

Another storyline of last week was Baylor winning its first road game in Big 12 play since…well, ever. The Bears have a new attitude this season and it is showing with a 4-1 record and a nice 23-13 victory at Iowa State. They could be in the top 25 now if they had been able to hold onto their lead in their 16-13 OT loss to Texas A&M in College Station, a game that the Bears dominated until they wandered into the red zone. Up this week is Nebraska in the friendly confines of Floyd Casey Stadium. Waco is buzzing about a potential sell-out.

Baylor’s success kind of serves as a backdrop to a more concerning issue for the conference. The Big 12 is down this year, plain and simple. This week’s AP poll features exactly three teams from the conference (#2 Texas, #13 Texas Tech, and #24 Colorado). Only two more teams are even receiving votes, Nebraska at #29 and Baylor at #35. To put that in perspective, at this time last year the Big 12 had four teams in the AP Poll with Missouri knocking at the door at #26. In 2001 at this time, there were six teams in the AP poll, including Oklahoma and Nebraska in the top five. That 2001 season finished with four Big 12 teams in the top 10 of the final AP poll.

The fact that the conference is down has serious ramifications for the conference. For one, the TV exposure is somewhat down. While the contracts are in place and the games will be shown, more casual fans will be less likely to watch the games and ABC will be less likely to show the games to neutral markets. The Big 12 has firm bowl slots, but playing teams from tougher conferences in those games will make achieving a winning bowl record almost impossible. The good news is that more teams are going to be competitive so games will be more interesting with the newfound parity.

This weekend is kind of a letdown after the big OU/Texas weekend, but there are some interesting games on the slate. Colorado @ Texas (2:30 CT, ABC) is the marquee game with two ranked teams and the letdown factor for the Longhorns as a potential factor. Texas Tech will face off against Kansas State in Lubbock (11:00 CT, ABC) in what should be a high scoring affair—at least for the Red Raiders. Oklahoma will play in its second consecutive neutral site game taking on Kansas in Arrowhead Stadium (6:00 CT, TBS). The other games will not be on national television and include Iowa State @ Missouri (1:00 CT), Oklahoma State @ Texas A&M (2:30 CT), and Nebraska @ Baylor (6:00 CT). For analysis on these games check back on Wednesday for my weekly Big 12 picks column.

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