Big 12 Football Rankings – Week 10

    Big 12 football rankings heading into Week 10 of the 2016 season. Baylor and West Virginia failed to survive tough road contests to stay undefeated.


    Big 12 football rankings heading into Week 10 of the 2016 season. Baylor and West Virginia finally met their makers on Saturday.


    Baylor and West Virginia entered the weekend as the Big 12’s two undefeated teams and best hopes for the conference to received a College Football Playoff invitation. Neither team was expected to have an easy week, though, as the Bears visited Texas and Mountaineers played at Oklahoma State. As it turns out, that narrative proved way too true, as upsets abound.

    Now that the games have been played, here’s a look at how the Big 12 teams rank heading into Week 10 of the season.

    Week 10 Big 12 Football Rankings

    10. Kansas (Last Week – 10)

    Kansas is No. 2 in the coaches poll for basketball. As for football, well, maybe the Jayhawks can stay competitive against Iowa State on Nov. 12. Maybe …

    9. Iowa State (9)

    At least they made it interesting in the end. Iowa State’s season can more or less be summed up by their second possession in the fourth quarter. Some good things happened, the Cyclones made it down to the Kansas State 1-yard line for first-and-goal and then they were stopped four consecutive times. See: making strides, but just not there quite yet. The team looks better under Matt Campbell, but there are still miles to drive.

    8. Texas Tech (8)

    It was a weird game against TCU, with both teams making turnovers and failing to capitalize on the other team’s mistakes. This was the best defensive effort of the season for Kliff Kingsbury’s squad, but with upcoming games against Texas, Oklahoma State and Baylor over the next month we’ll soon find out of this is the new norm or an aberration.

    7. Texas (7)

    Did not see that victory over Baylor coming. But, hey, the same can be said for last year. Texas capitalized when needed, and gutted out a win. Here’s food for thought: D’Onta Foreman might be the conference’s player of the year – 250 yards, a 7.8 ypc average and two touchdowns make for a legitimate stat line.

    6. TCU (5)

    The shine is coming off quickly. If there’s any question why TCU is below Kansas State it’s because the former has lost three of the last four games, while the latter has won three of the last four. And TCU’s win during that span was against Kansas. Kenny Hill or Foster Sawyer: Garry Patterson needs to make up his mind and soon. No gimmes remain on the schedule.

    5. Kansas State (6)

    Have people started calling Jesse Ertz “The Ertz Locker” yet? For the second consecutive game, Ertz has thrown for over 150 yards while rushing for more than 70 (151 and 108 against Iowa State, respectively). In the middle of a weird Big 12 season, K-State has played its role to a T – winning the games its supposed to, and dropping only the ones that were expected.

    4. West Virginia (2)

    What happened? The Mountaineers committed a litany of uncharacteristic mistakes on offense, and ultimately put too much pressure on the defense. West Virginia may be the most complete team in the conference, based solely on the defensive prowess, but against Oklahoma State it was overmatched. The good news is that the Mountaineers can work out any lingering aggression in Week 10 against Kansas.

    3. Oklahoma State (4)

    Now that, right there, was a statement win. The defense stepped up and forced turnovers; the offense scored points of those turnovers. Oklahoma State became the first Big 12 team all year to put up more than 20 points on West Virginia’s defense all season. If we factor out the Central Michigan loss – which should not be counted against the Oklahoma State – then the Cowboys are a one-loss team against one of the conference’s best teams. Same story again for Mike Gundy’s club: underrated and overlooked. Also: congrats on win No. 100 at your alma mater, Coach Gundy.

    2. Baylor (1)

    What a weird game against Texas. The Bears had more yards and owned the time of possession, yet succumbed to a few fatal errors. Points off turnovers and the safety-plus-touchdown coupling ultimately felled the Bears. The one loss, win over Oklahoma State and closer margin of defeat than West Virginia has Baylor drop only one spot downward.

    1. Oklahoma (3)

    Welcome back to the establishment, Oklahoma. The Sooners put it on Kansas, as expected, and jump back to where they were expected to be the entire season. With the losses by Baylor and West Virginia, Oklahoma is now in the catbird seat to win the conference. The worst thing going for Oklahoma right now is that Houston has really fallen off. The Sooners’ ranking in by the CFP committee will be very interesting.

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