Amidst everything which has transpired the past two weeks…the Big 12 teams are in their camps and training for what could be the last season of play for the conference.
It’s been since 2005 in which a Big 12 team won the national championship. In that period of time… OU with Sam Bradford in 2008 made it to the finals against Urban Myers’ Florida Gators. In 2009– the Texas Longhorns with Colt McCoy made it to national championship night before losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide.
OU has made it to the national semi-final game four times since then and gone a collective 0-4 against Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, and LSU. Only in the Georgia game could it be said the Sooners had a chance to win in the second half. OU actually should have won that game. Lincoln Riley needs to ring that bell.
In that same period of time no other Big 12 team has dinged the semi-finals with an appearance. It has been a one team league with one team in essence carrying the only real hope for any team in the conference of appearing in the College Football National Championship Playoff.
Quite the opposite has been the case in basketball as the Big 12 has emerged as the best basketball league in college hoops with Baylor recently winning the national championship over Gonzaga. The season before Kansas and Baylor were the respective one and two seeds in the entire bracket before Covid wiped out the tournament. The season before that Chris Beard’s Texas Tech team came within seconds of winning the national champuonship versus Virginia.
It’s ironic how hoops has thrived in the Big 12 while football other than for one team hasn’t been much.
The Big 12 is a finesse league in which QB play is paramount to a team’s success. I will say this though…OU, Iowa State, and O State have all improved on the defensive side of the ball in the past two seasons.
I would also add that in my view Spencer Rattler, Brock Purdy, and Spencer Sanders enter this season as the three best QBs returning in the league.
Texas under first year coach Steve Sarkisian is an unknown at this point so I can’t have them any higher than fourth. Texas has been the biggest problem in the league the past ten years as in they don’t pull their link on the chain. We’ll see if the former USC offensive savant can turn Texas back into a football program versus just being the Federal Reserve of the league.
I would go 1 OU, 2 Iowa State, and 3 O State. Texas..4. I would think among these top four teams.
If you went went purely on objective data based on the last three years …Iowa State with Matt Campbell is the Big 12 Team which should be heading to the SEC with OU. But as we know the world is for sale every day and Texas is the Federal Reserve of college athletics…like it or not. But I am proud a former John Marshall Bear is running that Federal Reserve… that’s pretty cool. It shows the American Dream is still a thing.
Spencer Sanders is the player I have circled. The former high school national player of the year is now a fourth year junior redshirt. His resume hasn’t matched up to the expectations yet. But this could be the time if he would simply run the football more and create space for his receivers by putting pressure on the other team’s corners. Watch the above video…Spencer. Running the football is your best skill.
Vince Young was horrible until in 2004 in the Rose Bowl versus Michigan … then the light switch went on and Mack Brown became a good coach. Player makes the coach—don’t ever forget that. Just ask Greg Poppovich… Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant…simple game.
If I’m O State prez Kayse Schrum I have November 27th circled. If my Mullet King five million plus dollar coach can’t get it done I’d be looking to be making a change heading into the future regardless of where O State lands.
I mean if you as a coach can’t have your team team jacked to win this game on this stage then it’s time to become a television analyst.
Win the game and make the Big 12 Championship Game. It’s that simple.