while true... the big 12 has mostly won their games with ease....
I didn't see much ease with Baylor beating unranked Washington. Texas also didn't look to swell beating unranked California.
while true... the big 12 has mostly won their games with ease....
That's an important thing to consider. Not only does the B1G play more ranked teams, the B1G teams are ranked lower in five of the six games. The Big XII has a ranked team playing an unranked team in three games, and the two games against ranked opponents are split: one where the Big XII is the higher ranked team, and one where the Big XII is the lower ranked team.
The B1G is picking up right where they left off last year, and the year before that, and the year before that...Purdue struggles with a middling major program in western Michigan.
Iowa uncompetitive against OU.
NW dominated for 3 quarters by a&m.More to come unfortunately.
The B1G may be a lot of good things, but a football conference not so much.
OU was preseson #1 , i thought Iowa played lights out.
aTm was preseason #10..once again i thought NW played a great game.
Not sure where your football IQ is at this moment!!!!
Something to remember is that the Big 12 seemingly facing "weak" bowl opponents is partially just a sign of the strength of the B12 conference. 60% of the Big 12 is ranked in the BCS top 25, that's more than any other conference (including the SEC, which also has six teams but that's only 50% of the conference).
I would think that would significantly help A&M. That would be like wondering if a bowl game in Omaha would benefit the Huskers.
I didn't see much ease with Baylor beating unranked Washington. Texas also didn't look to swell beating unranked California.
So then why only 2 Top25 opponents? What does that have to do with the strength of the Big12?
SEC, with the same amount of ranked teams in the Top25, plays 5 ranked teams.
Actually the SEC only plays 3 ranked teams outside of the SEC.
The Big12 plays just 2 ranked bowl opponents. The B1G plays 6. That's quite the difference. Unranked iowa losing to #14 ranked (and preseason #1 OU) was no surprise. They hung close for awhile.
Northwestern playing A&M in Dallas, TX and losing didn't surprise me either.
I'm not "faulting" them, just saying the BCSC game tilts the stats. If LSU and 'Bama were lined up against OOC foes instead of each other, probably that would take away a ranked opponent or two from the B1G.Well, they also have 2 teams in the National Championship game. If they had just LSU in the game, then LSU would play a ranked team as would Alabama. It's hard to fault the SEC for that.
This I think is the key point. If the Big12 had tie-ins with stronger conferences, they'd be playing more ranked teams.The Big12 doesn't have as lucrative of a bowl lineup as the Big10 or the SEC has. The Big10 and SEC play each other 3 times in bowl games, the Big12 only has the Cotton Bowl against an SEC team.
Right, but they're winning by 10+ most of the time. They also face two teams in the top 6, and we'll see how that goes. I think the Big 12 is the strongest conference top-to-bottom, but if they lose those two games, that would change my mind.Quick note: Big12 only faces 2 teams ranked in the Top35! And only 3 teams ranked in the Top40!