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With the regular season over, how did the Big 12 land in USA TODAY Sports latest 1-133 re-rank of every college football team in the nation?
It’s championship week in college football. But for some teams, it’s the beginning of the offseason, while others wait on their bowl destinations.
It was a unique season in the Big 12. A number of teams met or exceeded expectations in 2023. And several were incredibly disappointing based on preseason expectations.
Let’s take a look at how each of the Big 12 teams ranked in the USA TODAY Sports 1-133 rankings in the preseason compared to how they now rank after the regular season.
How does the Big 12 stack up after the final week of the regular season? Here are this week’s power rankings.
The 2023 college football season has been a thrill ride from start to finish. In its lone season as a 14-team conference, the Big 12 did not disappoint. There were fantastic games throughout the conference schedule that brought us to a dramatic final weekend of the regular season.
The Sooners will look back on this season, knowing they missed an opportunity to reach the Big 12 title game. Their performances against Kansas and Oklahoma State were the difference. And although there was some officiating negligence in the loss to the Cowboys, the Sooners also gave the ball away three times in the loss in Bedlam. Combined, the Sooners turned the ball over six times in their two losses and just seven times total in their other 10 games.
Take care of the football and the Sooners are playing for the Big 12 title this weekend.
Week 13 provided a thrilling overtime game between Oklahoma State and BYU. Iowa State and Kansas State played down to the wire in a wintery Farmageddon. Texas beat Texas Tech by 50 with Brett Yormark in attendance, and West Virginia made good on their promise to the preseason media poll look foolish.
After the final week of the regular season, let’s take a look at this week’s Big 12 Power Rankings.
The Oklahoma Sooners head into the regular season finale still with a shot to make the Big 12 title game. They have to beat TCU on Friday and hope for some good things to go their way, but there’s still a chance. A win over the Horned Frogs would …
The Oklahoma Sooners head into the regular season finale still with a shot to make the Big 12 title game. They have to beat TCU on Friday and hope for some good things to go their way, but there’s still a chance.
A win over the Horned Frogs would give Brent Venables his first 10-win season as a head coach and Oklahoma the bounce-back season they needed heading into the SEC in 2024.
With bowl season right around the corner, the Big 12 has eight teams that have earned bowl eligibility. BYU, UCF, and TCU can all earn bowl bids if they can pick up a win this Saturday.
BYU plays Oklahoma State. A Cougars win and a Sooners win puts Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game.
Here’s a look at the latest Big 12 bowl projections from USA TODAY Sports.
With just one week remaining in the regular season, how doe the Big 12 power rankings look after Week 12 action?
The Big 12 will come down to the final week of the regular season to determine who will represent the conference in their title game in Arlington, Texas.
Texas was challenged by Iowa State and Oklahoma State survived a terrible start in Houston. The Kansas State Wildcats trailed in the fourth quarter against Kansas before pulling out a win and the Oklahoma Sooners survived in Provo despite the loss of Dillon Gabriel.
Here’s a look at the Big 12 Power Rankings ahead of the final week of the regular season.
According to the latest Big 12 bowl projections, the Oklahoma Sooners take on the Utah Utes.
The final two weeks of the regular season are upon us. It’s crunch time for the conference title and College Football Playoff contenders. While the playoff is out of reach for the Sooners, they still have an outside shot at a Big 12 title game berth.
They’ll need to take care of business against BYU and TCU over the next nine days. But if the Sooners finish strongly and get a little help, one final trip to Arlington is certainly in the cards.
But at the moment, they’re on the outside looking in, and that affects where they’re heading in USA TODAY Sports’ latest bowl projections.
Let’s take a look at where the Big 12’s projected postseason landing spots.
Oklahoma’s win over West Virginia and Oklahoma State’s loss to UCF shook up this week’s Big 12 power rankings.
There are just two weeks left in the regular season, and there’s still a lot to sort out. Texas and Oklahoma State currently hold the top two spots in the Big 12 standings, but Kansas State, Oklahoma, and Iowa State are lurking.
There’s no time for anyone to slip up like Oklahoma State did this past weekend in Orlando.
The UCF Knights’ dominating 45-3 win over the Cowboys was shocking after Oklahoma State knocked off Oklahoma in Bedlam.
As for the Sooners, they responded to their two-game losing streak with authority, putting together arguably their best game of the season in their 59-20 win over West Virginia.
In the win, the Sooners looked like one of the best teams in the Big 12. That combined with the Cowboys’ loss, there’s been a shakeup in this week’s Big 12 power rankings.
After two straight losses, the Sooners are headed to the Alamo Bowl in latest USA TODAY Sports bowl projections.
The Oklahoma Sooners have had a good year. In the midst of a two-game losing streak, that may not be the thing we want to talk about, but they’ve been good. Good enough to get to the College Football Playoff? No. To make the Big 12 title game? That’s not completely off the table.
They’ve made improvements on the defensive side of the ball, in particular, that provide enough encouragement that this program is heading in the right direction. In 2022, the Sooners allowed their opponents to score more than 30 points seven times. In 2023, that’s only happened twice.
The Sooners still have a lot to play for. Drake Stoops, a player who’s become synonymous with “OUDNA,” said as much when he met with the media.
With three games remaining, the Sooners have a chance to make a statement. They can show off the resiliency that’s been a characteristic of this team in 2023. And in those three games, continue to make strides as a football program.
As for where their postseason fate lies, here’s where Big 12 programs are headed in the latest bowl projections from USA TODAY Sports.
Updated Big 12 power rankings. Conference starting to sort itself out with just a few weeks remaining in the regular season.
In the wake of Week 10’s results, the Big 12 has found its favorites for the Big 12 title game in Arlington, Texas.
Though there are still several weeks to go in conference play, the Oklahoma State Cowboys walked out of Bedlam in control of their path to the game. Their win over Oklahoma put them in a tie for first place with the Longhorns at 5-1, and they have a very favorable remaining schedule.
Oklahoma State finishes the season at UCF, at Houston, and at home vs. BYU in their regular season finale. Those three teams have a combined conference record of 5-13.
The Cowboys are a far different team than the one that was blown out at home by South Alabama.
With their controversial win over Oklahoma and Texas’ win over Kansas State, the front-runners for the conference title game have emerged. It’s not impossible for Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma or Iowa State to find their way to Arlington, but they’ll need help along the way to make the trip to the DFW Metroplex.
Here’s a look at this week’s Big 12 power rankings.
The committee got it right.
The College Football Playoff poll is out. Texas can rest assured that the committee got it right.
The Texas Longhorns rank No. 7 as we predicted they should. Nevertheless, we felt there could be some suspense because of past playoff rankings. One particular part of the team’s season was brought into question after the rankings were unveiled.
The biggest complaint from the Longhorns’ placement in the poll is the team’s four-point loss to the Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners, who had to drive down to win the game despite dominating in several critical moments, check in at No. 9 in the poll. There’s only one problem with those complaints. Oklahoma has played like a team satisfied with already reaching its primary goal.
The Sooners dropped their game last week to the Kansas Jayhawks following a narrow victory over UCF. The loss is bad enough to take the team out of the playoff discussion. Frankly, the team is fortunate to rank as high as it ranked on Tuesday night.
Texas has scored 30 points in every game it has played. That consistency probably has appeal to the playoff committee. But the Longhorns haven’t scored much more than 30 points this season. They did against Kansas.
You might recall Kansas as the only team to allow 40 points against Texas this season. The Longhorns ran for over 300 yards against the Jayhawks.
That Oklahoma was unable to capitalize on the team’s glaring defensive deficiencies is instructive about the Sooners’ low floor. It might give credence to the notion that Oklahoma simply wanted Red River more than Texas. We feel good about the Longhorns in a potential rematch.
The Alabama Crimson Tide ranked just below Texas at No. 8. The Longhorns’ double-digit win over the Tide bodes well for the team’s resume moving forward.
Ultimately, the playoff will sort itself out over the next few weeks. But what now seems more clear is that if Texas wins out it has a solid shot to make the College Football Playoff.
After their loss to Kansas, the Oklahoma Sooners have work to do to right the ship for the stretch run.
There have been a lot of improvements from what the Oklahoma Sooners put on the field in 2022.
The Sooners’ seven wins are already better than their 6-7 season a year ago. Despite what happened on Saturday, things are better on both sides of the ball. And yet, it’s still not good enough.
It wasn’t good enough on Saturday and may not be good enough to get back to the Big 12 title game, a place they haven’t been since 2020. Defensive issues have begun to creep back onto the field as tackling and lapses in coverage have killed the Sooners the last couple of weeks.
Their performance was enough to get mentioned by Paul Myerburg of USA TODAY Sports in his weekly Winners and Losers column. He posed a question many are asking after the Sooners struggles against UCF and their loss to Kansas.
More so than any of the other unbeaten Power Five teams at the top of this week’s US LBM AFCA Coaches Poll, the Sooners were a question mark. Was this truly an elite team, or simply one that had outplayed expectations?
The reality might land somewhere near the middle: Oklahoma is clearly capable of reaching the conference championship game but is not good enough to run the table in coach Brent Venables’ second season. – Paul Myerburg, USA TODAY Sports
By no means are the Oklahoma Sooners finished in 2023. They’re still in first place in the Big 12. If they’re able to win this Saturday on the road in Stillwater, it’ll put them on solid footing to make the Big 12 title game.
The road to Arlington won’t be easy. Oklahoma State, West Virginia, BYU, and TCU each pose interesting challenges that could thwart OU’s final run for the conference title.
Time for the Sooners to lock back in and finish the season strong.
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