The Big 12 looks like a bit of a mess. A few good teams that aren’t great, a few teams that are bad, and everyone else somewhere in between. With that in mind, this season I’ll be doing a power ranking of sorts, but instead of ranking teams 1-16, with so many teams bunched together at places, I’ll be placing each team into a tier. Since this is a power ranking, it won’t necessarily reflect the season as a whole, but rather what’s been on display recently.
Tier I – favorites to win the conference
Iowa
State – Based on what KSU has shown, maybe the Cyclones should have won that game by more, and while they beat Iowa, they didn’t do anything great in the process. Still, they’re 3-0, they blew out a decent FCS team, and it’s hard to definitively rank anyone above them.
Utah – Blew out UCLA and an FCS school. They’ve done all they can do with the schedule they’ve played. Remember, last season aside, this Utah program has been good more often than not in recent years.
Texas Tech – Won first two games by a collective score of 129-21. The metrics really like them, and they added serious talent in the portal.
Tier II – Could be contenders
Arizona – After last year it was easy to write them off, but they’re 2-0 with two easy wins and an offense that looks closer to what was expected last year.
BYU – I’m personally not a believer but they’ve done all that could be asked in beating the two teams they’ve faced.
TCU – North Carolina was the only game they’ve played, and while they won big, UNC may just not be very good.
Tier III – Still could be contenders, but have shown flaws
Kansas – The Jayhawks dominated what’s looking like a decent Fresno State team, and blew out their FCS opponent. They’d be a tier higher if Missouri didn’t make them look like they were playing 10 men on defense
Baylor – I would have put Baylor on tier I before the season started, and beating SMU was big, but Auburn isn’t all that great and handled them without much trouble
Tier IV – Meh
Kansas State – I could easily put them lower, but the loss to Army was flukey, they have a stud at QB, and I expect them to be at least in the top half of the conference when it’s all said and done.
Houston – 2-0 against two bad teams. No reason to get excited for them yet.
UCF – See Houston.
Arizona State – Didn’t make a statement against NAU and blew a second half comeback against a Mississippi State team that went 2-10 last year. If they’re going to live up to preseason expectations, they may want to start playing decent football.
Tier V – Not looking good
Cincinnati – Nebraska beat them despite playing a pretty bad game, and I dare you to name three players on the roster without looking.
Colorado – Lost to Georgia Tech and haven’t looked like they reloaded after losing a lot of talent.
Tier VI – Looking bad
West Virginia – You can’t judge the RichRod hire after two games, but this team lost to Ohio and already has some starters out for the year. The Mountaineers are already looking to next year.
Oklahoma State – Oregon is really good, but damn Mike Gundy is cooked.
