For the first time since the 2014 college football season, somebody other than Oklahoma won the Big 12 Championship. Of course, that was the Baylor Bears by virtue of their 21-16 win against Oklahoma State in the 2021 Big 12 Championship.
Now, in an ESPN+ story, Bill Connelly lists another potentially wild Big 12 race as one of the 2022 college football storylines he’s already looking forward to.
While winning their respective power conferences, Georgia (SEC), Michigan (Big Ten), Pittsburgh (ACC) and Utah (Pac-12) combined to win five conference games by one score. Baylor played five such conference games and won four, including a conference championship game won by five points and 1 inch. Big 12 runner-up Oklahoma State won two, lost two others and won all four of its nonconference games (including the Fiesta Bowl) by one score as well. Iowa State lost four one-score Big 12 games, and Texas lost five.
Tight games were rampant in the Big 12, in other words. The conference ended up with five teams ranked between 12th and 21st in SP+, plus two more in the top 50. Having no elite teams but lots of good ones means endless wild finishes, and unless Texas enjoys a massive second-year leap under Steve Sarkisian or Oklahoma does the same in Brent Venables’ head-coaching debut, we should see more of the same in 2022. And just imagine what will happen when the league adds Cincinnati, BYU, Houston and UCF in the coming years. – Connelly, ESPN.
Oklahoma may or may not stick around and play a Big 12 season with the additions of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to the conference, but the Sooners certainly appear locked into the Big 12 for 2022.
As Connelly writes, it should be a fascinating race in 2022. Baylor and Oklahoma State return their starting quarterbacks, Gerry Bohanon and Spencer Sanders, respectively.
It’s tough to gauge Texas this early, but the Longhorns did add 247Sports’ former No. 1 player nationally from the 2021 recruiting class in quarterback Quinn Ewers.
Kansas State added Nebraska transfer quarterback Adrian Martinez to go along with star running back Deuce Vaughn in its backfield, so the Wildcats could be a dark horse candidate to contend in 2022. TCU brings back quarterbacks Max Duggan and Chandler Morris, while Texas Tech has young signal-caller Donovan Smith.
Then, there’s Oklahoma with first-year head coach Brent Venables.
With UCF transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel arriving in Norman, Oklahoma will have a starting quarterback that has made 25 career starts entering 2022. The Sooners have a defined No. 1 at wide receiver, junior-to-be Marvin Mims, too.
Oklahoma addressed its 2022 NFL draft defections up front by adding Tulane transfer Jeffery Johnson and Hawaii transfer Jonah Laulu. OU also brought in Wyoming transfer C.J. Coldon, Trey Morrison and Kani Walker in its defensive backfield.
OU was several special teams gaffes and one failed final offensive drive away from beating Oklahoma State in Stillwater to play Baylor in the 2021 Big 12 Championship.
There’s all sorts of way-too-early predictions out there from a variety of media entities. Athlon Sports’ Steven Lassan ranked OU No. 2 in his first 2022 Big 12 power rankings behind Baylor.
All of this is to say that Oklahoma shouldn’t be discounted in any conversations about who will emerge as the 2022 Big 12 champion.
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