Hey TKP-ers, I've been following TKP for a year or two, but I decided today was the day I'd create an account. Anyway, to dive into the Big XII...
As I'm sure you all know, the Big XII has some of everyone's (actually probably just ESPN's) favorite traditional "powerhouses" such as Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State and maybe TCU emerging in more recent years. Only 5 out of 10 (not 12... go figure) teams have overall winning records here in week 5. This can be compared to the ACC having 10 out of 14 teams above .500. Also, to help put it in perspective, even the good ole AAC has 5 out of 10 teams with winning records at this point in the season.
Of course what stands out from 5 "winners" in the Big XII is that 4 of these teams are currently undefeated (WVU vs OK St game pending), but who have these teams played? OU barely escaped with a close win over WVU in week 2. WVU only beat W&M by 7 for goodness sake! And I know no one in the ACC has forgotten the flat out beat down WVU was handed last week by Maryland (they look good but not entirely sold on UMD yet). Ok enough bashing of those battery launchers out of Morgantown, so who else might be overrated?
Well Ok St has "impressive" wins over the likes of Texas-San Antonio and Lamar (is this a team made up of and named after one guy?) and Miss St. And oh gosh, Texas Tech at 4-0? Well they beat TCU who is one of the 5 teams not over .500, Texas St, SMU, and the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (they'll get after ya).
The only team I'm hesitant to deem overrated is Baylor, who you could argue hasn't really been tested yet but has an Oregon-esque offense (and uniform combinations now apparently).
This is a very amateur analysis, but I just wanted to bring it up since I hadn't seen it mentioned on any of the forums. Let me know what you all think and I'm looking forward to being more active in TKP community.
Comments
In a word: yes
This
Big XII update after WVU win over OK St:
3 undefeateds
6 of 10 with winning records
Still 9 or 10 trash teams
+1 for your signature.
Welcome to TKP! And I couldn't agree more, the Big 12 is overrated. Oklahoma State is not a top 25 team, I mean they lost to a BAD West Virginia team today.
Thanks! I thought OKSt might be a 20-something at best, but they were the highest ranked team in the conference coming into this week which kind of puts the whole overrated thing into perspective.
I agree that they shouldn't have been ranked as high. But, considering that before this past weekend every redzone trip for them resulted in points, they were deserving of being ranked, even if it was just in the 20's. There were times where they did look deserving of a midlevel rank and this weekend did seem like a fluke for them so I could see them be ranked again soon.
I'd say the way most conferences are thought of really isn't fair. People kind of pick out the top couple teams from conferences and judge the entire conference based on them, rather than the balance from top to bottom of the conference. This can make or break a conference in the media's eyes. I'd say the "bad conferences" aren't as bad as ESPN would like you to think, and the same could be said for the "good conferences".
Good point, I have to agree. A very balanced/deep conference with good but not great teams can be perceived as mediocre or even "bad" in the media's eyes. If I could, I'd give a turkey leg here!
I hate whenever wvu has a reason to brag
Agreed.
I firmly believe that the Pac 12 if the best conference in football and Oregon is the best team in the country. The only reason they're not thought of as such is because they're on the west coast and the ESPN hype machine (for the SEC). My big 6 conference rankings:
1. Pac 12
2. $EC
3. ACC
4. Big 10
5. Big 12
6. Big East (do they still count??)
Pac 12 only gets a look when USC is on top. Oregon gets the sexy vote because of the offense, but ESPN can just write it off as a gimmick that works because of the athletes they get. I agree that whole being on the west coast definitely doesn't help the entire conference.
"Oregon is the new Virginia Tech"
Nobody is going to give the PAC-12 credit until they start winning MNC's. I agree they look very strong this season, but not losing to creampuff OOC teams is different than having teams that are capable of making it to the MNC. We'll see what they look like at the end of October and a bunch of conference games under their belts. I would list them second at this juncture in the season, but it's way too early to say that they have supplanted the SEC.
I'm talking about this season, not the past decade. Everyone always falls into that trap of thinking a conference is good because they've recently been good. This year, the Pac 12 is the best and they will prove that when they dominate bowl season. They whooped up on the Big 10 with the exception of (shitty) Cal vs. Ohio State. The SEC is good, but they benefit from the perception that they're the best when the results in OOC games this year proves otherwise.
I think it depends on how you define a conference overrated. It was shown today that OK State was a little overrated, but as far as having highly ranked teams that shouldn't be I don't think the Big XII(10) is overrated. If you define overrated as media and national perception, maybe they are a little. But how long were they talked about on Gameday this morning. I didn't see half of it but I assume not that much. And I think your argument is a little flawed in saying they only played cupcakes and didn't do that well against them. If you didn't see all our games you would make the same argument about Tech, but there has been a good bit of talk on here today about being ranked.
So overall I think the only way to "rank" conferences is when one conference plays another. I think that's why the ACC takes more than its share of crap because we play the most of our out of conference games against the $EC.
At this point, I'd have to go
1) SEC
2) PAC 12
3) ACC
4) One of the Bigs
5) The other Big
6) Louisville (averages out the other teams in that conference, but I think Louisville is tight)
We just got through the first saturday of actual games. We need to wait until halfway through October to be able to judge these teams on the eye test. Most OOC matchups are done until bowl games at this point, but the PAC12 has the best OOC record out of anyone, and I believe it isn't even close. I'd still rank the SEC up top because I think the top of the SEC has about 4 teams or 5 teams (UGA, Bama, LSU, A&M, maybe Florida) that would beat most of the PAC12 and could hang with the Oregons and Stanfords of the conference, if not win. USCe appears to be a little overrated. I don't believe Washington is as good as they're being hyped to be, but they are good. Between the two conferences, I'd go:
Bama
Oregon
Stanford
UGA
LSU
A&M
Florida & UCLA
Washington & USCe
The rest
We won't have a chance to see Stanford against a real OOC opponent until the bowl game, though, and they really dropped the ball in the second half against AzState last week. Judging by last night's performance against USCw, though, it appears that second half performance is the Sun Devil's M.O.
Side note, maybe Todd Graham to USCw? Job hopper extraordinaire.
There's only a few coaches in the NCAA that would be of interest to USC, especially after they got burned taking a flyer on the "young, hot coach" that Kiffin theoretically was. The short list of NCAA HC's with the requisite resume of success would likely be Saban, Meyer, Stoops, maybe Sumlin, Richt, Petersen, Briles and a few more. I doubt any on that list would be interested except maybe Sumlin, Petersen or Briles. (I left HCFB off since we know he isn't available) I really doubt you see USCw elevate an NCAA assistant to their HC job, which leaves us with the NFL. HC's and any OC or DC in the NFL with prior HC experience are all fair game for the kind of $$$ that USCw can offer.
Personally, I would offer to double Chris Petersen's salary and see what he can do with the kind of talent that USCw can attract, once the schollie restrictions are gone. They would have to pay him around $5 million with bonuses and such, and he is a much better prospect IMHO than anybody else on the list. But knowing USCw, they will go trolling in the NFL instead.
baylor may well be the best team in 12/10. oklahoma is good not great and okie st doesnt have the qb this year they need to make that offense hum. baylor has put up big numbers against the little sisters of the poor, so they still have a lot to prove. the baylor tcu game could be a monster.
Being so early, it's definitely difficult to know for sure but I think Baylor has a lot of potential to win the conference. I can't in any circumstance see them running the table IMO. Like you said, the TCU game could carry a lot of weight in the final week.