Much was made about TCU’s lack of strong opponents during their meteoric run to the College Football Playoff, but as it turns out, in ESPN’s own SP+ metric (ESPN+)., the Big 12 is the second strongest conference in college football. Only the SEC has a higher average rating.
We here at Sooners Wire have attempted to be respectful of our purple clad friends down south, and we are very excited to see what Sonny Dykes and co. can do in Los Angeles against Georgia in the national championship.
Moving back to the Sooners, they rank a bit higher than expected at No. 18 in the country. That’s good for fourth in the Big 12.
The SP+ serves as a “predictive model” so perhaps OU fans will be treated to a bit of a resergence in year two of the Brent Venables era. Obviously, No. 18 in the country isn’t the goal for this program, but after a 6-7 season, being anywhere near the top 25 feels like a good sign of things to come. With a lot of players returning on both sides of the ball and some blue-chip prospects coming in, the crimson and cream could end up rising in the SP+ rankings by quite a bit this time next season.
One of the great things about the Big 12 in its current form is that every team will play each other at least once during the course of the football season. That format allowed the “circle of suck” to be completed after Kansas State defeated TCU in the Big 12 Championship.
With Kansas State's win over TCU today, the Big 12 "circle of parity" is complete pic.twitter.com/p792okrAV4
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 4, 2022
Don’t let the talking heads fool you, the Big 12 was a meatgrinder this season. Let’s take a look at where every Big 12 team fell in the SP+ ratings.