College Football 2020: 5 (Potentially) Stupid Big 12 Predictions

Five bold, crazy, stupid, daring, wacky Big 12 college football predictions for the 2020 season. 

Five bold, crazy, stupid, daring, wacky Big 12 college football predictions for the 2020 season. 


5 (Potentially) Stupid Big 12 Predictions

As if everything we’re going through in the college football world – and in real life – isn’t stupid enough, let’s take it all down a few levels.

What if you were told last year at this time that Baylor was going to play for the Big 12 Championship?

What if you were told that Jalen Hurts would be one of the most efficient passers in the history of college football? What if you were told that eight of the ten teams – including Texas – would fail to hit the nine-win mark for the season?

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What if you were told last year at this time that Matt Rhule would have an NFL job – hardly a shocker – but Lincoln Riley was still going to be in Norman?

They’re the wild and wacky curveballs that make each season fun. Enough safe and sane, it’s time for dumb and dangerous with five (potentially) stupid predictions thrown at the wall to see if they stick.

To keep this fun, this entire Stick To Sports piece is in a safe, COVID-19-free bubble.


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Big 12 Team Previews, 5 Things To Know
Baylor | Iowa State | Kansas | Kansas State
Oklahoma | Oklahoma State | TCU | Texas
Texas Tech | West Virginia

2020 Big 12 Preview
Ranking The Big 12 Coaches
CFN All-Big 12 Team & Top 30 Players
CFN Big 12 Team-By-Team Predictions
Big 12 Schedule, Most Interesting Games


5. The Big 12 will lose two non-conference games

It’s going to take some work for the Big 12 to biff two or more of their Plus-1 games.

Each Big 12 team gets one non-conference tune-up game before diving into the nine-game conference run, and let’s just say no one is exactly pushing the envelope.

Let’s just give Texas Tech (Houston Baptist), West Virginia (Eastern Kentucky), TCU (Tennessee Tech), Texas (UTEP), and Oklahoma (Missouri State) the benefit of doubt and chalk up wins for all of them.

And that’s fine. With no preseason, all college teams are insane to not schedule a winnable game to work out all the kinks. Unless something crazier than even 2020 can throw at the Big 12, assume 5-0 out of that group.

And 3-2 from the other five.

2020 Big 12 Preseason Rankings

Tulsa has a potentially amazing offense that might come up with something special on the right day against Oklahoma State, but nah – the Cowboys will win that. However …

Be very, very careful of the opening of the Dave Aranda era at Baylor with a dangerous Louisiana Tech team coming into Waco.

Ha ha ha, Kansas gets Coastal Carolina to start. Yeah, the Chanticleers won 12-7 on its trip last year to Lawrence.

Arkansas State absolutely has the chops to pull off something fantastic in Manhattan against Kansas State, and watch out for a dangerous Louisiana team with the offense, coaching and firepower to upset Iowa State.

NEXT: The quarterbacks …

Big 12 To Play 9 Plus 1 Model. The Likely Non-Conference Games Are …

The Big 12 has figured out what it’s going to do with its football season, adopting the 9+1 model. What should be the non-conference games?

The Big 12 has figured out what it’s going to do with its football season, adopting the 9+1 model. What should be the non-conference games?


Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

The Big 12 actually had to work on this one

The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 have all decided to run with a conference-only model without a non-conference opponent. That made sense considering there are more than enough teams in each of the leagues to easily fill out a ten-game schedule, and there wasn’t any reason to pay a team outside of the conference to play without the normal revenue coming in from fans in the stands.

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Since the Big 12 only has ten teams, it had the choice of either 1) playing a nine-game model, 2) going to ten games with a double-up somewhere within the league, or do what they’re doing with this 9+1 version.

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Like it was supposed to be when the season was normal, every Big 12 team was going to play every other Big 12 team for the nine-game schedule. Now each one has to fill out that one extra game to round out the slate.

Flexibility – like it is for the other conferences – is key. The Big 12 is planning on starting in mid-September, and will have its conference championship sometime in mid-December.

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So what will those non-conference games be?

With the Power Five leagues taking the conference-only route, we lose Texas vs. LSU, Iowa State vs. Iowa, Oklahoma vs. Tennessee, West Virginia vs. Florida State, and Kansas State vs. Vanderbilt, but here are the games currently on their slates from the Group of Five and FCS to choose from.

One note, these could all be ditched for other options. Each team would keep one of these, but some of the FCS programs have delayed or cancelled their seasons.

Baylor – Incarnate Word, Louisiana Tech
Iowa State – South Dakota, UNLV
Kansas – at Coastal Carolina, (New Hampshire game postponed)
Kansas State – Buffalo, North Dakota
Oklahoma – Missouri State, at Army
Oklahoma State –  Tulsa, Western Illinois
TCU – at SMU, (Prairie View A&M game postponed)
Texas – USF, UTEP
Texas Tech – at UTEP, (Alabama State game postponed)
West Virginia –  Eastern Kentucky, Maryland
2020 CFN Preseason Big 12 Rankings

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