This isn’t your father’s Big 12. Heck, it might not be your older sibling’s Big 12.
On Saturday, All Preconceived Notions About The Big 12 Turned To Ash
Texas and Oklahoma both lost on Saturday, but it’s who the once-mighty titans fell to that stuns: the Longhorns were blown out by Kansas State, while Oklahoma couldn’t rally against Texas A&M. (Texas A&M, mind you, is still coached by Mike Sherman.) Neither school appears likely to make it to the Big 12 Championship Game, much less a BCS bowl. Oklahoma might suffer the indignity of giving Oklahoma State (which claimed the Big 12 South lead on Saturday by shellacking a ranked Baylor) a Big 12 title shot with a loss in the Bedlam Game; Texas not only isn’t bowl eligible — the Longhorns don’t have a winning record, sitting at 4-5 with losses to UCLA, Iowa State, Baylor, and Kansas State.
Is that more or less unfathomable when one considers that an undefeated Texas team played for the national championship last year?
Meanwhile, in the North, the only team with a realistic shot of going to the Big 12 Championship Game, Nebraska, all but locked up that spot on Saturday — by picking off a two-point conversion attempt in overtime against Iowa State.
Nebraska's once-fierce rivals, Missouri and Colorado, suffered losses on Saturday. Missouri's came to a Texas Tech squad that, contrary to the dearly departed Mike Leach Era, won with defense and ball control, limiting the Tigers to 17 points, holding Blaine Gabbert to 12 of 30 passing for just 95 yards, and keeping the ball for 101 plays and 39:41 of the clock. Tommy Tuberville hasn't revitalized Texas Tech, but he's certainly changed the Red Raiders' approach.
Meanwhile, Colorado continued its agonizing fall from grace under Dan Hawkins with a collapse for the ages. And if you could go back to 2000 and tell someone that Colorado would lose its last-ever Big 12 game against Kansas by coughing up 35 straight fourth-quarter points, I think you would liquefy a brain.
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