It hasn’t been the most idea start for the Big 12 conference in hopes of making the college football playoff for the second consecutive year. Oklahoma has had two crushing non-conference losses that have pretty much ended their hopes, and Texas hasn’t been able to live up to the hype after their win over Notre Dame. The conference has yet to have a win against a ranked opponent this season, which is not very good. Below we go team by team and will predict the how this conference will end up.
1.) Oklahoma (4-2, 2-0)– While they weren’t able to win any of their key non-conference games this year, they are the favorites to win the conference and go to the Sugar Bowl. The defense got dominated against Ohio State and Houston, but the good news is, nobody’s offense in the Big 12 is as physical as those two teams, so Baker Mayfield and the offense will be able to outscore their opponents. Their toughest game comes November 11th when they host Baylor.
2.) Oklahoma State (4-2, 2-1)– In their conference opener, they suffered a tough loss to Baylor that ended a slim hope at the playoff if they ran the table. The offense is the second highest scoring in the conference behind Mason Rudolph. The Bedlam game the last week of the season has a good chance to decide the conference title.
3.) TCU (4-2, 2-1)– The offense hasn’t been the same since KaVontae Turpin has been out with injury, and Kenny Hill has been inconsistent. With that being said, Gary Patterson just finds ways for his team to win games and they’ll win enough games to finish in the 3 rd .
4.) Baylor (5-0, 2-0)– The Bears have had a very weak schedule to start the season and have let some teams hang around in games that shouldn’t be able to hang. Even though the entire coaching staff remains other than Art Briles, the team is lacking something under Jim Grobe. Just don’t think the Bears have enough to keep this up and when the competition gets better, they will drop some games.
5.) Texas Tech (3-2, 1-1)– This predication relies on the health of Pat Maholmes. If his shoulder can stay connected to his body and pain free they can have their best conference season in a while. They have Oklahoma at home where they are a much better team. The Tech defense also needs to play much better than it has recently if they are going to finish in the top half of the conference.
6.) West Virginia (4-0, 1-0)– Yes the Mountaineers are undefeated but if you watch them play you would be surprised they haven’t lost yet. They have close wins against Kansas State and BYU. The offense has been struggling only scoring 80 points this season, the lowest in the conference, and in this conference you need to score points.
7.) Texas (2-3, 0-2)– After all the talk about Texas being back, they are back to being what they have been the past four/five years, average. I know everyone wants Charlie Strong fired but you have to give him some time to get his players in, and it finally looks like they have solved the quarterback position with Shane Buechele.
8.) Kansas State (3-2, 1-1)– The Wildcats have the toughest part of their scheduling coming up and it’s hard to se them beating all three of Oklahoma, TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma State. Those games alone are why I have KState here. They’ll grind out games and try and play a style that most teams in the conference don’t play.
9.) Iowa State (1-4, 0-3)– First year head coach Matt Campbell has taken his lumps so far in Ames but they are due for a Big 12 upset in the near future. Their two games against Oklahoma State and Baylor they lost by a combined 11 points and against Baylor they were leading almost the entire game. They are a bottom feeder this year but it won’t be an easy win.
10.) Kansas (1-5, 0-3)– The Jayhawks have been on a historically bad run, they haven’t won a road game since 2008 and haven’t won a conference game since 2014. They will finish last again this year and probably won’t win a conference game. They had TCU on the ropes but weren’t able to finish the deal.
