Big XII Power Rankings Week 3: Imagine Fearing Losing Edition

While Week 3 was pretty much an unmitigated disaster for B1G, it was an excellent week for the Big XII with a number of teams scoring key non-conference wins and forcing a shake up in the power rankings.

Power Rankings

1. Oklahoma Sooners (3-0, 1-0) — The Sooners drew first blood in the conference race with a more difficult than expected victory over Iowa State. It should be noted, of course, that Ames is a difficult place to play and ISU has given plenty of highly ranked teams fits over the past couple of years.
2. Oklahoma State Cowboys (3-0, 0-0)—Boise State had been considered a real contender for a Group of 6 team to break through into the playoffs, particularly if they had scored a victory on the road versus a ranked Ok Lite team. Instead we learned the Cowboys are pretty solid, as they ran away with the game early and scored one of the best wins of anyone in the conference so far.
3. West Virginia Mountaineers (2-0, 0-0)—Before someone @’s me, no this isn’t because WVU didn’t play NC State this week. Even if we had won, I’d still be more impressed with the beating Ok Lite put on Boise State than us beating a mid-tier ACC team.
4. TCU Horned Frogs (2-1, 0-0)—”Slippy, nooooo” pretty much sums up the third quarter and beyond f the TCU-Ohio State game. Still the Frogs looked racy and clearly in the next “tier” of Big XII teams.
5. Texas Longhorns (2-1, 0-0)—Texas actually looked like a good football team this week against USC, especially on defensive line where they more or less ate USC’s lunch money. The key for Texas will be to consistently perform at that level (especially on offense). The Texas team that dominated both lines of scrimmage can make some noise in the Big XII, the one who lost to Maryland and barely beat Tulsa will get blasted by Kansas.
6. Texas Tech Red Raiders (2-1, 0-0)—Stop me if you’ve heard this before but, the Red Raider defense is not very good. It’s true the Houston offense is potent, but come on. Still a win over Houston helps improve the Raider’s bowl hopes but their next three are crucial with games against Ok Lite, TCU and WVU.
7. Iowa State (0-2, 0-1) —As mentioned above the Cyclones hung with OU for most of the game, but no rest for the weary as they take on a zippy Akron team that’s coming off it’s first win against an Big Ten school since like, the Johnson administration.
8. Kansas Jayhawks (2-1, 0-0)—I am extremely happy for Kansas’ football team RN. But, otoh, how fucking bad is Rutgers.
9. Baylor Bears (2-1, 0-0)—Baylor showed they still have a long ways to go in returning to competitive levels against good opponents, they were never really in their loss to Duke. The Bears narrow bowl hopes likely depend on the outcome of their tilt with a (yes) streaking (for them) Kansas team.
10. Kansas State Wildcats (2-1, 0-0)— The Wildcats will always be dangerous as long as Bill Snyder is on the sidelines, but this certainly not one of his more talented teams.

Bowl Watch

That aged well,

• College Football Playoff: Oklahoma vs Clemson
• Sugar Bowl: WVU vs Georgia
• Valero Alamo Bowl: Oklahoma State vs Stanford
• Camping World Bowl: TCU vs Miami
• Texas Bowl: Texas vs Florida
• Cactus Bowl: Texas Tech vs Washington State