College Football: Season Preview: Big XII

The more things change.....


The more I think they stay the same.

Conference Standings:
	Overall		Conference
Teams (No divisions)	W	L	W	L
Oklahoma	10	2	8	1
TCU	9	3	7	2
Texas	10	2	7	2
Oklahoma State	9	3	6	3
West Virginia	8	4	6	3
Kansas State	7	5	4	5
Baylor	7	5	4	5
Texas Tech	3	9	2	7
Iowa State	2	10	1	8
Kansas	1	11	0	9
Bowl Teams:	7
	CFP:	None
	Big Six	Oklahoma, Texas
	CFP 2:	None
	Big Six 2:	None
	Others:	TCU
		Oklahoma State
		West Virginia
		Kansas State
		Baylor
Most Underrated:	Texas
Most Overrated:	Baylor
Coaches on Hot Seat:	Oklahoma State
	West Virginia
	Texas Tech

Yes, I have Oklahoma pegged to win the conference again (despite the retirement of Stoops) and, yes, I have 2017 as another year where the Big XII gets left on the outside looking in of  the CFP. Even the introduction of a "championship game" isn't going to help because the feeling will be that the conference is down. I'll deal with that a little bit more in my upcoming CFP preview.

Oklahoma is going to lose big games to Ohio State and Texas but I predict that Texas will, in Tom Herman fashion, lose to TCU and West Virginia (Oddly enough, I think they beat USC early in the season.)

Oklahoma State might finish 9-3 and get their coach fired. I've heard that it's "win or you're out" this year for Gundy. West Virginia will be a tough place to play, and Kansas State and Baylor round out the bowl slate.

Texas Tech, Iowa State and Kansas are going to be bad teams in the weakest Power 5 conference of them all.  In fact, I think two of the three might fire their coaches after this season. The only coaches I would say are 100% safe are Lincoln Riley (OU), Tom Herman (Texas), Matt Ruhle (Baylor) and Gary Patterson (TCU). Of course, Snyder is retiring (we think) after this year so that's already a change. I wouldn't be surprised to see as many as four schools looking for new head men in the off-season.

OPOY: Baker Mayfield

DPOY: Travin Howard (TCU)

COY: Tom Herman (Tex)