Monday, October 08, 2007

Big 12 Roundtable--The Aftermath

This week's Roundtable is hosted by BringOnTheCats.com ...

Some teams are coming off a big win or wins (Oklahoma, Colorado, KU, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Missouri), while others are dealing with the sting of a tough loss or losses (K-State, Texas, Nebraska, Baylor, Iowa State, Oklahoma State). Tell us where your team is headed in the wake of the first two weeks of conference play.

Special guest commentator Turbo provides his expert analysis of where this Nebraska football season seems to be heading:


Colorado and Texas A&M have emerged as unlikely conference leaders at 2-0 (give yourself a cookie if you predicted that), while preseason darlings Texas (0-2) and Nebraska (1-1 and not playing well) are floundering. Do the current leaders have the wherewithal to make it to San Antonio, or will somebody from elsewhere in the pack overtake them?
Not very likely. In the North, Kansas and Missouri are the class of the bunch, while Oklahoma is clearly the South leaders, even considering Oklahoma's bad performance against Colorado. Texas isn't all people thought they would be, and Nebraska is in a free-fall.

A few weeks ago we did a ranking of the six BCS conferences, with most bloggers picking the Big 12 in the middle of the pack, which would be a big improvement over the last couple years. Have the middle and bottom teams of the conference improved significantly, or have the teams at the top declined significantly? Or is it something else?
Missouri and Kansas both have improved significantly. The Tigers gave Illinois their only loss of the year, and Kansas have throttled everybody in sight. In the past, both teams would be considered mediocre. And in the South, Oklahoma is still ruling the roost. On the other hand, Nebraska's worst team in 45 years still defeated an ACC team on the road.

Getting waaaaay ahead of ourselves: What if Missouri or KU goes undefeated and wins the Big 12 Championship Game? Would they get a shot at the national championship game?
With the upsets we've seen this year? Very likely. Assuming that this victor will have defeated Oklahoma in San Antonio, they'll probably have as much cred as anybody else. Part of the problem with the current rating systems is that people ask these types of questions in September and early October. Ask this question in 6 weeks when we have a better idea of how good everybody is --- or isn't.

Rank the conference teams
As posted earlier, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State, Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Baylor, Iowa State

3 comments:

  1. You do realize Kansas has yet to leave the state right?

    Dude...lay off the sauce. Other than that..well done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes... but they did go to Manhattan and win. It is a tough choice right now between Kansas and Missouri for the top spot; you can make arguments for either right now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ummm...isn't Kansas State still in Kansas? Last time I checked, it was.

    ;)

    ReplyDelete