Tag: Big 12 football rankings

Breaking down Big 12 title scenarios, potential matchups for Texas

We may still get Texas vs. Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship.

We are two weeks away from the Big 12 title game. We might not know who will play in the game until the final Saturday of the Big 12 regular season.

The current Big 12 standings, with only conference records in consideration, go as follows:

  1. Texas – 6-1
  2. Oklahoma State – 5-2
  3. Oklahoma – 5-2
  4. Iowa State – 5-2
  5. Kansas State – 5-2

Texas stands ahead of the pack with only one conference loss. That defeat came at the hands of the Oklahoma Sooners. Following the Texas win, Oklahoma dropped games against Kansas and Oklahoma State and fell to 5-2 in conference play.

Oklahoma State’s wins over Oklahoma and an earlier win against Kansas State vaulted the Cowboys into the driver’s seat in the conference. Albeit, last week’s loss to UCF knocked the Cowboys back to the pack.

Let’s look at a few scenarios we could see in the Big 12 championship game.

Contender Edition: Longhorns Wire’s Big 12 Power Rankings for Week 10

We have a new No. 1 this week.

The Big 12 pecking order underwent a seismic shift on Saturday. Several teams updated how they should be perceived this season.

Kansas State had the most dominant performance of the week. Their 41-0 win over Houston should indicate how high their ceiling is as the season closes. That they face Texas as they are peaking this week should be reason for caution for the Longhorns.

The Oklahoma Sooners’ Week 10 opponent is playing its best football as well. The Oklahoma State Cowboys enter the week red-hot with recent wins over Kansas State and Kansas.

The two matchups could sort out our power rankings moving forward, but will have a greater effect on the conference standings. Five teams in the league have just one conference loss.

Let’s rank power rank legitimate conference contenders.

Big 12 Power Rankings heading into the Red River Rivalry game

Texas and Oklahoma take the top spots in the power rankings, but West Virginia surges for Week 6.

The Big 12 has hasn’t displayed much power despite the two teams at the top of the league. One program looks to be capitalizing on that lack of power.

The West Virginia Mountaineers improved to 4-1 after defeating the TCU Horned Frogs (3-2) in Fort Worth on Saturday. The game puts the Mountaineers into the Big 12 title conversation which could be the surprise of the year in the conference.

TCU and Texas Tech continue to underwhelm, although the Red Raiders did secure a bounce-back win against Houston. It seems evident that neither team will compete for the conference contrary to what I predicted heading into the season.

Kansas State and Oklahoma State enjoyed the week off ahead of Friday’s game in Stillwater.

Let’s power rank the conference after five weeks of football.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly places Texas at No. 6 ahead of Week 5

Bill Connelly recently ranked each of the undefeated teams left in college football.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly recently ranked the 27 undefeated teams left in college football this season. Continue reading “ESPN’s Bill Connelly places Texas at No. 6 ahead of Week 5”

Ranking the top five tight ends in the Big 12

Ja’Tavion Sanders leads the way as the best tight end in the Big 12.

While the Big 12 conference may not have many notable tight ends, there is certainly one player who stands out from the rest. Continue reading “Ranking the top five tight ends in the Big 12”

Ranking the Big 12 with the incoming Pac-12 schools through Week 4

Remember: We’re not including OU and Texas since they’re gone in 2024. We are including the Four Corners schools.

We continue our season-long series in which we rank the teams in the 2024 Big 12. This doesn’t include Oklahoma and Texas, since those two schools will be in the SEC next year. This does include the Four Corners schools from the Pac-12 — Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Arizona State — since those schools will be part of the Big 12 next year.

It would be very interesting to see Texas play Utah right now, but those two schools are never going to be fellow Big 12 members. The year Texas leaves is the same year Utah enters. It’s the same for Oklahoma. We are getting one year with those schools playing UCF, Cincinnati, BYU, and Houston, but not for the Arizona schools, Utah, and Colorado.

Let’s rank the 2024 Big 12 through Week 4 of the 2023 season:

Ranking the 2024 Big 12 with the incoming Pac-12 schools through Week 2

The Four Corners schools (Arizona, ASU, Colorado, Utah) are included in these Big 12 rankings. Texas and Oklahoma are excluded.

The death and splintering of the Pac-12 means that all sorts of interesting school comparisons can be made this year.

We are going to spend this 2023 season ranking next year’s Big 12 Conference. In other words, we will keep track of the Big 12 teams which are remaining in the conference next year — everyone other than Texas and Oklahoma — plus the incoming Pac-12 teams from the Four Corners schools: Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado.

Remember, as always, that weekly rankings are not a reflection of season-ending projections or which teams are expected to contend for the College Football Playoff. Rankings are similarly not reflections of who would be favored head-to-head on a neutral field.

Rankings are based solely on which teams have the best (or worst) resumes. Teams with FCS wins are ranked lower. Teams with quality wins are ranked higher. This is how every Trojans Wire rankings piece, from every staff writer, is organized.

Here are the 2024 Big 12 rankings — in other words, with the four Pac-12 schools included — after Week 2:

 

Heartland Sports ranks the top Big 12 quarterbacks

Quinn Ewers gets a more than fair ranking from Heartland Sports in its 2023 preseason quarterback rankings.

Heartland Sports ranked its top quarterbacks in the Big 12 on Wednesday.  It’s an excellent list. Bryan Clinton, who interestingly ranked Kansas State ahead of Texas in his post-spring rankings, has perhaps the same top nine quarterbacks I would have.

Though Clinton probably has too much confidence in Kansas State’s defense this season, he isn’t overrating Wildcats quarterback Will Howard. At his best, Howard might have been the best quarterback in the league. Albeit, he’ll face a different challenge altogether this season with defenses preparing to stop him.

Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels and Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel are easily the most proven quarterbacks on the list. You can expect solid seasons from both in 2023.

Here’s Clinton’s top five Big 12 quarterbacks for 2023.

Texas ranks atop On3’s Big 12 football preseason poll

Texas is viewed as the perennial favorite in the Big 12 this upcoming season.

The buzz around Austin is the same as it always seems to be before each season. Texas fans are confident that this upcoming football season will be their year.

However, unlike in years prior which ended in utter disappointments, there is an aura around this team that many around the country are beginning to notice. The Longhorns are projected to make the College Football Playoff by a variety of national media networks, and according to 247Sports’ blue chip ratio, Texas is one of the 16 teams that can legitimately win the title in 2023.

While this is normally the time that Texas fans are talking themselves into believing this team is destined for greatness, the stars are actually aligning for the Longhorns.

They have an experienced roster with rising stars all over the place, while the rest of the conference and typical playoff contenders seem to be rebuilding. The fans aren’t the only ones that have a belief in Texas, as On3‘s Joe Cook released his Big 12 preseason poll and Texas secured the No. 1 spot. Cook cited their talent and the improvements we saw from year one to year two as the reason why.

I’ll feed into the preseason hype that many other media members will make contributions to. The talented roster, the improvement from Year 1 to Year 2 under Steve Sarkisian, and the sense of urgency that hasn’t been felt in Austin in some time places the Longhorns No. 1 in my preseason poll — the last Big 12 preseason poll they’ll ever appear in.

Kansas State came in as the No. 2 team while Texas Tech was right behind them at No. 4.

The Longhorns are looking to win their first and final Big 12 title since 2009 before they make the move to the SEC.