The landscape of the Big 12 changed on Saturday when TCU moved from the role of contender to one of the frontrunners for the conference championship game. Obviously that means there’s a small shakeup in our weekly power rankings where two questions should be at the heart of fans of the conference. 1) Where do you put Oklahoma State. 2) In the midst of the noise of OSU losing and Oklahoma sneaking out a win, did anyone notice how bad West Virginia played at Kansas?
Our weekly rankings will tell you exactly how we feel about both of those questions, as well as provide a little insight into our thought process.
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Consensus Big 12 Football Power Rankings |
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| Team | Points | Opponent/Result | Last Week |
| Oklahoma | 40 | At Baylor/W 49-41 | 1 |
| TCU | 36 | At OSU/W 44-31 | 3 |
| Oklahoma State | 31 | TCU/L 44-31 | 2 |
| West Virginia | 26 | At Kansas /W 56-31 | 4 |
| Kansas State | 24 | Bye | 5 |
| Texas Tech | 23 | At Houston/W 27-24 | 6 |
| Iowa St | 14 | Bye | 8 |
| Texas | 13 | Bye | 7 |
| Baylor | 7 | Oklahoma /L 49-41 | 10 |
| Kansas | 5 | WVU/L 56-31 | 9 |
Craig
The Sooners played horrible on Saturday and it nearly cost them their playoff hopes. Lots of adjustments need to be made during the bye week. Hopefully the Sooners get healthy at the DB position or we could see them fall down the rankings.
TCU continues to impress me every week. They took care of business on the road against the Cowboys. Kenny Hill is no joke, and the Horned Frogs look pretty good on defense as well. I’m excited to see them play West Virginia in two weeks.
The Mountaineers are back in the top three, and the Pokes are out. West Virginia displayed some serious offense against Kansas during their three touchdown victory. Starting out with a win in conference play places them ahead of OSU in my rankings.
Kansas had a rough first conference game against the Mountaineers. They did hang in there though, and considering that they played decent and do have one win on the season, I’m putting them ahead of Baylor.
The Bears nearly upset the Sooners on Saturday. While Baylor stayed in the game and even took the lead, it never really felt like they were beating OU. It felt like the Sooners were just beating themselves and making all the mistakes. Until Baylor has a win, they stay at the bottom of my list.
Matt
Oklahoma was pushed to the brink on Saturday night in Waco, but they did what championship caliber teams do when playing poorly, they won on the road. Oklahoma State may have had a chance to steal the top spot in my rankings had they not gone down in flames.
Speaking of Oklahoma State, their loss on Saturday afternoon moved TCU from the position of being a spoiler to being a frontrunner for landing a spot at the conference championship game in Arlington.
Oklahoma State doesn’t drop too far for me. It was a bad performance for sure but I’m expecting them to rebound and make some noise in the conference. They still control their own destiny as far as reaching the conference championship goes.
I’m flopping Baylor and Kansas this week at the bottom of the rankings. I still think you could literally flip a coin here but the Bears were impressive on Saturday night.
Rich
Nothing has changed with the Oklahoma Sooners remaining in the top spot. However, TCU scored the biggest win of the weekend for any team in my opinion. On the road, Kenny Hill not only displayed a maturity and poise on the field, he also showcased the fact that he’s a game manager. The offense scored more than its fair share of points while the defense proved worthy against the high flying offense of OSU. With the win the Frogs join the national title picture as a dark horse candidate. Could TCU be Big 12 Champion this season?
Oklahoma State drops a single slot this week due to the loss. Mason Rudolph’s two interceptions made the star quarterback look pedestrian. Still this is a team that cannot be overlooked despite needing a bit of work on defense.
At the bottom, we have two programs with just one win between them. Baylor slips ahead due to an impressive showing. Returning five players for conference play, it’s clear this program isn’t the same team that lost to Liberty. I’m not sure how high the Bears can climb, but I know they’re better than Kansas.
Zack
The Sooners struggled against the Bears in Waco, but a win is a win. Oklahoma will enjoy the week off and be primed and ready for a morning game against Iowa State on October 7th.
Knocking off Oklahoma State was no easy task for the Horned Frogs, but they certainly made most of that game look easy. TCU controls their own destiny, and they very likely could find themselves in the Big 12 Championship Game in December.
Losing to TCU at home was not a great way to kickoff conference play, but with half the starting offensive line out due to injury, some issues were expected. The defense has problems, but the Cowboys could still climb into the Big 12 Championship Game.
The Jayhawks were able to put some points on the board against West Virginia, but the defense was awful. At least they’re not Baylor, though, right?
Potentially the only real win of Baylor’s season was losing by 8 points to Oklahoma. They put up their best fight, but it wasn’t enough, and they may not get that close to a win for a while.
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Heartland’s Week 5 Big 12 Football Power Rankings |
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| Craig | Matt | Rich | Zack |
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Oklahoma |
| TCU | TCU | TCU | TCU |
| West Virginia | Oklahoma State | Oklahoma State | Oklahoma State |
| Oklahoma State | Texas Tech | West Virginia | Kansas State |
| Texas Tech | Kansas State | Kansas State | West Virginia |
| Kansas State | West Virginia | Texas Tech | Texas Tech |
| Iowa State | Texas | Iowa State | Texas |
| Texas | Iowa State | Texas | Iowa State |
| Baylor | Baylor | Baylor | Kansas |
| Kansas | Kansas | Kansas | Baylor |