Big 12 Roundtable - State of the Conference
The Big 12 Bloggers convened a roundtable this week to discuss the State of the Conference.
State where you believe the Big 12 ranks among the BCS conferences.
I'd put the Big 12 fourth right now behind the Pac-10, SEC, and if you can believe it, the Big East.
What has been the conference's best victory and worst defeat so far this season?
OU's win over Miami is probably the best win so far and ISU's loss to I-AA Northern Iowa is probably the worst loss
State where you believe the Big 12 ranks among the BCS conferences.
I'd put the Big 12 fourth right now behind the Pac-10, SEC, and if you can believe it, the Big East.
What has been the conference's best victory and worst defeat so far this season?
OU's win over Miami is probably the best win so far and ISU's loss to I-AA Northern Iowa is probably the worst loss
Who is the worst coached team in the conference?
I'll say Guy Morriss, he's entering his fifth season at Baylor and I don't think anyone would be surprised to see the Bears go 0-8 in conference play. He was 15-31 in four seasons (never winning more than five games) and the Bears have finished sixth in the Big 12 South in 3 of his four seasons there (the one exception a fifth place finish in 2005). Maybe it's unfair because it's hard to imagine anyone winning there and yet the team won seven games in each of the two seasons before Big 12 play began. They even tied for first place in the SWC in 1994.
With the regular season already a third of the way over, which players received too much hype in late August and which players didn't receive enough?
OU quarterback Sam Bradford is now second in the nation in passefficiency and he wasn't even on a lot of people's radar in the offseason.
Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing was similarly ignored yet is thirteenth nationally in pass efficiency.
Kendall Hunter has been a nice find at running back for Oklahoma State.
Michael Crabtree at Texas Tech is leading the nation in receiving yards per game with a 194-yard average. For that matter, Tech's Danny Amendola is fifth in the country with 131 yards per game. KSU's Jordy Nelson is sixth nationally
averaging 127 yard per game.
OSU's Bobby Reid was second only to Colt McCoy in the conference in pass efficiency a year ago, now he's lost his starting job.
Stephen McGee's pass efficiency is down despite a mostly soft schedule so far.
Aside from a timely interception return for a touchdown this past weekend, Nebraska linebacker Bo Ruud has not lived up to expectations.
Conference Power Rankings. The best part of the roundtable is voicing how we believe the conference teams rank each week, from top to bottom. So, go ahead, let us know who's up and who's down in your book this week.
1. Oklahoma
2. Texas
3. Nebraska
4. Missouri
5. Kansas
6. Texas A&M
7. Texas Tech
8. Oklahoma State
9. Colorado
10. Kansas State
11. Baylor
12. Iowa State
You don't have to be invited to participate in any of our roundtables. Voice your opinion in the comments!
9/28/2007
Steve, I like your list but if I would like to add Sam Keller as an UNDERRATED player. I know that great things were expected from him, going in but he has performed extremely well considering that he basically IS the team, right now. Think about it, I don’t think anyone would have predicted that the defense would “barely” show up (in 3 games)and he has carried this team. I couldn’t see Zac Taylor doing any better with this supporting cast. As far as the interceptions, well, one should think that maybe more would have been thrown considering the afore mentioned. I wasn’t a Keller fan going in and not an NU fan either but I am strangely intrigued by this team. I don’t mean this badly but I feel bad for these kids (imagine that being 3-1!)because of the defensive funk. I just like it when the Big 12 is strong and competing like the days of old. I wish NU had recruited from within (head coach) but we have beaten that dead horse too much lately. GOOD LUCK and beat ISU!