For the second straight week, we have a new leader in the Big 12 football power rankings. While there wasn’t a ton of chaos, it did still make a mark.
Another week, another change at the top of the Big 12 power rankings. After spending the first five weeks of the year with Oklahoma on top, we’ve seen changes in back to back weeks now, and can only expect to see more, because this conference is finicky to say the least right now.
The latest change comes because of Iowa State’s upset win over West Virginia, as the Mountaineers return to the number four spot that feels a bit more accurate for their talent level. The top of the conference isn’t the only spot with movement though. Despite being on a bye week, Oklahoma still made a move in this week’s rankings, thanks to the general chaos in the conference.
They were one of quite a few teams on the move in this week’s rankings. On the whole, nine of the ten teams got a new ranking this week, with the only carry over from last week being Kansas in their lowly tenth spot. However, they have new company in the back of the rankings, thanks to Oklahoma State’s showing against previous number nine Kansas State.
All of this is to say that the Big 12 is really wild right now. There’s really no way to go directly off of head to head results, because teams have changed rapidly just in the past few weeks from what we thought they were, and from what they were when they played each other. There’s no better example of that than the conference’s resident agent of chaos, Iowa State.
The Cyclones are incredibly difficult to rank, because they have some very impressive wins, but they also have three losses. It’s difficult to separate the good from the bad with them, because it seems pretty obvious that they’re a good team, but the win-loss record doesn’t really reflect that.
Before we get to the rankings, let’s do the weekly reminder. These rankings are reactionary, not predictive. They will change as the season goes on, based on snap reactions, and become more accurate with a larger sample size. I think we’re getting pretty close to an accurate picture at this point.