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20 key offseason topics for 2020: No. 4. How do the college football Power Five conferences – ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC – rank in the offseason?
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20 for 2020 Offseason Topics
20. Best Teams To Not Make CFP
19: Teams That Will Rebound Big
18. Teams That Will Fall Back
17: Every Power 5 Team’s Letdown Game
16. Top 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches
15. 2nd Year Coaches Who’ll Be Better
14. Power 5 Hot Seat Coach Rankings
13. Key Transfers You Forgot About
12. Five Big Power 5 Upset Alerts
11. Great Players About To Go Nuclear
10. Group of 5 Teams In New Year’s Six Chase
9. Power 5 Sleeper Teams
8. Most Interesting Quarterback Battles
7. 5 Teams That Might Disappoint
6. 5 Teams That Might Surprise
5. Group of Five Conference Ranking
“My conference is better than your conference.”
It’s an occasionally annoying and seemingly pointless fan fight when it comes to league bragging rights, but it sort of matters. It makes a difference when it comes to getting respect and credit in the College Football Playoff rankings, and it certainly matters when it comes to just getting into the big post-season games.
Clemson could certainly have hung in any league over the last few years, but it makes a massive difference to have been in the ACC instead of the SEC West or Big Ten East.
Despite the absence of spring football to rely on, here’s how the Power Five conferences – ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC – rank in the offseason.
We’ll do the deep dives into all the teams over the next several weeks, but or now …
5. Big 12
Again, why is the Best Conference argument important? What would’ve happened last season if Baylor had beaten Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship?
The Bears would’ve earned the right for the fourth spot in the College Football Playoff, but would the committee have liked a two-loss Oregon after winning a seemingly stronger Pac-12 title?
To take this even further, what would’ve happened if Alabama had pulled off the win over Auburn to finish 11-1? Would being Alabama with its one loss coming to a fantastic LSU team have been enough to get in over a 12-1 Big 12 Champion?
Going into this season – in whatever form it takes – the Big 12 should be okay, but it’s missing a nasty midsection.
With just ten teams in the league, if just three of them are down, that’s a big chunk that drags everything else down. Kansas should be better in Year Two under Les Miles, but it’s still going to be a fight to be anything but near the bottom of the standings.
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Four Big 12 teams failed to win half of their games last season. Four didn’t do it in 2018, and three failed to do so in 2017 – but Texas Tech went bowling, and the league fattened up on Baylor and Kansas teams that finished 1-11. To keep this going, five teams finished with losing records in 2016, and four ended up as losers in 2015.
The point?
The odds are overwhelming that 40% of the Big 12 is going to be mediocre-to-awful.
Oklahoma and Texas will be outstanding, someone will rise up and by the Baylor of last year – TCU and West Virginia are the main candidates – and at least two other teams will get bowl eligible and be dangerous.
The conference race should be fun, and there will be a whole lot of tight battles, but there’s just not enough overall beef.