The Big 12 – The Rodney Dangerfield Conference Of College Football

It looks like it’s the same old story for the Big 12. With TCU’s loss to Iowa State today, it seems like it will be virtually impossible for the Big 12 champion to even make it into the college football playoff. Again. The fact that Oklahoma beat Ohio State like a drum at the Horseshoe will mean nothing because that was early in the season. The fact that Iowa State is obviously a good team will mean nothing because they had two early season losses. And therefore the fact that Oklahoma and TCU both lost to Iowa State means that they’re no good either. In addition, the conference still has huge games between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, Oklahoma State and Iowa State, TCU and Oklahoma, and then a Big 12 championship game. That means that it is almost unimaginable that a team could come out of that conference with just one loss.

Meanwhile, once again, it looks like the Big 10 may be overrated as usual. Penn State’s vaunted defense disappeared in the second half. Wisconsin will probably go undefeated into Big 10 championship game without playing anyone of significance except for a middling Michigan team. Ohio State played a particularly sloppy game today and still won. When a team in the Big 12 does that, everyone says that the league can’t play defense. (We’ll just note that Iowa State’s win yesterday against #4 TCU was 14-7). In the Big 10, it shows that it’s a great team because it can overcome its mistakes.

Today, Ohio State was getting votes from the ESPN panel to be either ranked #3 or #4 this week. Paul Feinbaum said, “Yes, Oklahoma beat Ohio State but that was a long time ago. Ohio State’s win yesterday was the top win in college football so far this season.” Just like I said, Oklahoma’s win counts for nothing.

And don’t get me started on Notre Dame. Yes, they lost a close game to Georgia. But they were at home and they lost. That same ESPN panel talked about their wins against USC and NC State, “which are two pretty good teams”. Please. USC is no longer in the top 25 and NC State probably won’t be in the top 20 after this week.

Now, it may be true that the Big 12 can’t play defense or isn’t comparable with other conferences. However, it is clearly a pretty well-balanced conference with some top flight teams. And despite being continually trashed by the football intelligentsia as a mediocre conference, they still manage to have four teams in the top 25, and possibly after yesterday, four teams in the top 15. But they still won’t get any real respect. Or into the playoffs.

And one other thing about the absurdity of college football. The Big 12 has only ten teams and the Big 10 has twelve teams. I guarantee the Big 12 would get a lot better press if the names were simply changed to actually match the conferences.