RCT Big 12 Power Rankings - Week 3: Big Losses by Oklahoma, Texas shake things up

It seems that no one wants to be the top dog in the conference, as Oklahoma and Texas both suffered embarrassing losses. Baylor and West Virginia are the two remaining undefeated teams left in the conference. Is that enough to bump them up to the top?

1 - Baylor Bears (3-0, Last Week: 3)

The Bears essentially get this by default, as they are the only team that hasn’t been significantly challenged this year so far. SMU hung around for the first half, but other than that this team has been as flawless on the field as they have been troubled off the field.

2 - West Virginia Mountaineers (2-0, Last Week: 4)

What a great week to have a bye. With no negative result to weigh them down this week, they jump up above teams that had much higher preseason expectations. Wins against Missouri and

3 - Texas Longhorns (2-1, Last Week: 2)

The looks to be a real issue, having given up 50 to California after surrendering 47 to Notre Dame is not the sign of a promising unit. The offense is high-flying, but that doesn’t seem to be working too well for Texas Tech either.

4 - Oklahoma State Cowboys (2-1, Last Week: 6)

Putting the shocker against Central Michigan aside, the Cowboys were able to finish off a tough matchup against Pittsburgh, a solid ACC team that should help repair much of the damage that was done to their profile last week.

5 - Oklahoma Sooners (1-2, Last Week: 1)

This drop may seem like an overreaction to the beatdown that was inflicted on them by Ohio State, but in all reality, their ranking was a little inflated by the preseason expectations. Now that it is pretty clear that they are not likely to be contending for the CFP this year, it’s easier to drop them back into the spot deserved by their actual results.

6 - Texas Tech Red Raiders (2-1, Last Week: 5)

Louisiana Tech is not a good team. The defense gave up 45 points against them. The offense is amazing, the defense is amazingly bad. Again.

7 - TCU Horned Frogs (2-1, 1-0 Big 12, Last Week: 7)

Beating Iowa State at home is not enough to move them up the rankings. They did take care of business, and the defense was pretty stout until the game was winding down.

8 - Kansas State Wildcats (1-1, Last Week: 8)

The Wildcats got back on track with a huge win over Florida Atlantic. And that loss to Stanford looks like nothing to be concerned about, given the ease with which they handled USC this week.

9 - Iowa State Cyclones (0-3, 0-1 Big 12, Last Week: 10)

The loss was an improvement over the pasting they got against Iowa. Iowa State showed some life offensively, which is more than enough to get them out of the conference cellar for now.

10 - Kansas Jayhawks (1-2, Last Week: 9)

The defense looks pretty good, but the offense is so bad that it literally puts points on the board for the opponent. If Kansas can’t figure out how to limit turnovers and start to move the ball, even Iowa State should walk all over them.

Fun With Stats

Every week, we are going to rank the Big 12 using team statistics. The goal here is to highlight somewhere that Kansas is the best in the conference. This week, your Jayhawks are #1 in: Total Kickoff Return Yards. Here are the overall rankings for the conference (along with national ranking):

Rank Team Nat’l Rank (out of 128) KO Ret Yards

1 Kansas (16) 294

2 TCU (21) 263

3 Oklahoma (26) 244

4 Iowa State (39) 213

5 Texas (52) 175

6 Baylor (106) 102

6 West Virginia (106) 102

8 Texas Tech (121) 60

9 Oklahoma State (125) 54

10 Kansas State (127) 45