The Big XII has been the second best conference in America the last couple of years with a depth at the top surrmounted only by the SEC. The conference still has a bottom with Texas Tech, Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas isn't the worst but has two to three that are bad each year. Ultimately, the Big XII has 1-2 teams in the top ten but will place five or six in the top 25 range and has done this consistantly. This year there are questions at the top but this should be a very exciting race for the championship once again. (Pac-12, B1G, ACC, MWC and Conference rank previews)
Big XII: |last year W-L, returning offensive starters, returning defensive starters, %yards returning, %tackles returning|
Best Team: Texas|9-4, 10, 9, 92.3%, 83.3%| Texas has been the butt of most of the countries jokes over the last three seasons and for good reasons, with the resources available to the team there is no reason for such a lapse. The team though has been making strides since hitting rock bottom and the staff has continued to recruit well. The defense and offense have both shown flashes and inconsistant young players are no in position to make this team very dangerous in 2013. The biggests questions here are at QB and along the d-line. Quarterback has not been a quality position since the departure of Colt McCoy and that has made the pass game woefully inconsistant. The d-line on the other hand has not been stout against the run game but with talent like this and a highly paid staff, I will put my trust them to make the adjustments necessary.
Worst Team: Kansas|1-11, 5, 6, 68%, 51.3%| This is a slightly more talented JUCO team this season, in year 2 of the decided schematic advantage. The talent at Kansas is abysmall and the team on the field has been putrid. It has become so bad that Weis called out all of the players on the team at Big XII media day by saying one of his recruiting pitches is about all the opportunities with all of the horrible play on the field. This team will be bad again especially in such a deep conference.
Intriguing Team: TCU|7-6, 6, 9, 71.4%, 84.8%| TCU has been affected by injuries during fall camp this year which may put a bit of a damper on the Horned Frog's season, but they remain intruiguing none-the-less. Casey Pachall is back after a year off to get better control of his life and should provide an improvement at QB. Gary Patterson's defense was better last season on a per play basis (more useful to decipher because of vast tempo differences) than his first in the Big XII and it should continue to grow under a very good staff. The keys will be to replace the injuries and to continue to making the incremental improvements that have been in the works since the move from the Mountain West.
Intriguing Team: Oklahoma|10-3, 7, 4, 42.2%, 40%| Oklahoma lost much of last years team to graduation and the NFL which is par for the course but they have a big question at QB for the first time since before Sam Bradford came to the Sooners. Landry Jones is gone after a career that was good if not great and all of the replacements have quesiton marks. The Sooners also have holes to fill at LT, RB and its top 2 WRs on offense, along with both DTs, a DE, a LB, 2 safeties and a CB. That's a lot to fill for a team that is expected to challenge for a conference and national title on a national basis. The good news is that the Sooners have a very good recruiting staff which will put many talented players in position to replace those who have left. So we will just have to wait a couple of weeks to see if the Sooners can keep up their past consistancy.
Conference Standings:
Big XII: Texas, Oklahoma, TCU, Oklahoma State, Baylor, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Iowa State, Kansas State, Kansas
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