Many Big 12 football teams enter 2018 with hopes of a playoff run. However, the conference may be too balanced to produce an elite team this year.
A new football season is upon us, after nearly eight months of waiting. The 2017 season brought us plenty of fun and excitement, from Miami’s resurgence, the dominance of Baker Mayfield, Khalil Tate’s unbelievable October, to UCF’s national title. It was one of the wackier seasons in recent memory, and with that in the back of our minds heading into this season, it’s hard to not have high expectations.
Those high expectations apply nationally, but for Big 12 fans, they mean quite a bit more. The Big 12, after a couple down years, had a pretty great showing in 2017. Oklahoma was one play away from the national title, and had a Heisman winner at quarterback. TCU and Oklahoma State both won more than ten games. Baylor and Kansas were the only members to miss a bowl, and save for the Jayhawks, every team in the conference seems to be trending in the right direction.
However, it may be a bit of a rebuilding year in 2018, if it’s possible for an entire conference to experience a rebuilding year. There’s no true far and away best team, like there was last season. Oklahoma seems like the choice for number one, but they have plenty of questions. The story is similar at other top-level stalwarts like TCU, and Oklahoma State.
Behind those teams, rising programs at Texas, Iowa State, Baylor and West Virginia, as well as model of consistency Kansas State, and the usually decent Texas Tech can all win anywhere from five to nine games. That means that pretty much every week is dangerous for every team, and without an elite leader, I just don’t see anyone surviving without at least two conference losses.
With such a strong middle class, and no head and shoulders above all else best team, it could be a year with several ten or nine-win teams, but no playoff contenders in the Big 12, and that’s reflected in our first week of power rankings for the conference.