Big XII Power Rankings - Week 5

 

Week 5 Big XII Power Rankings

1 - Oklahoma

2 - Oklahoma State

3 - Texas

4 - Baylor

5 - Iowa State

6 - Kanas State

7 - Texas Tech

8 - West Virginia

9 - TCU

10 - Kansas

Big XII Weekly Awards - Week 5

Quietly through the first month, the Oklahoma State Cowboys have been just playing some good football and now its October and they are at the top with their in state counterpart Oklahoma in the Big XII.  How good will Bedlam be this year?  Especially with the OU to the SEC nugget.  TCU still is a bit of a thorn in Texas's neck but the Longhorns pulled it out.  And KState almost pulled a trifecta on OU.  Also this just in Kansas is still bad at football.

 TEAM OF THE WEEK

Oklahoma State

GAME OF THE WEEK

Oklahoma 37 - Kansas State 31

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

35 rush - 216 yds - 2 tds

2 rec - 22 yds

2020 Week 5 Big XII Awards

Game of the week : Oklahoma 53 - Texas 45  4OT :  The Red River Shootout was all that on Saturday.  The first half was tug here and tug there, OU going up by 10, Texas tying the game, and then the 2 entered halftime at 17 a piece.  The 3rd quarter and most of the 4th quarter it looked like OU had a 14 point win locked up and ready to head to Norman.  Then Sam took over and lead the 'Horns to 2 touchdowns in the last 3:28.  Both scored TDs in the first OT and then again in the 2nd OT with the Horns scoring on a great 25 yard scamper by Ehlinger.

Ehlinger AGAIN! @TexasFootball gets the TD to send the Red River Showdown to 3OT pic.twitter.com/MIrJof3rwr

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 10, 2020

In the third quarter both teams missed field goals. Texas had their's blocked by the Sooners and OU shanked it like one of my golf shots.  Then immediately in the 4th OT, the Rattler hit Drake Stoops in the endzone for a score, and added a 2 pt conversion.  

🗣 SPENCER RATTLER PUT THAT ON A DIME@OU_Football bounces back with the TD in 4OT 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Ul9A6gpWPy

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 10, 2020

Their D then sealed the win with a pick of Ehlinger.  Both teams now have 2 conference losses early in the season.  

Team of the Week : Iowa State : Could we be looking at the best team in the confernce even with a loss to Louisiana.  Take away 2 special teams gaffs and the Cyclones might be unbeaten.  The D did whatever it wanted to vs Texas Tech, a team that put up 500+ yards on Texas.  This week though they could only muster up 270 total and 95 through just the first 3 quarters.  Take away another special teams play the Red Raiders would have been held to 8 points.  Brock Purdy looked like Brock Purdy of what we remember.  He threw for 302 yards and 2 scores.  

The All-American @charliekolar_ with his first TD of the season to put the Cyclones up 21.

🌪️🚨🌪️ pic.twitter.com/iRn3jHPfWR

— Cyclone Football (@CycloneFB) October 10, 2020

Breece Hall, the ISU back, may have taken the lead of Big XII Player of the Year too with another solid outing of 135 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Iowa State gets a week off before a matchup with Oklahoma State in which the winner gets way out in front of everyone in a trip to Dallas and the Big XII Title Game.

Player of the Week : Breece Hall - RB - Iowa State : If there has been a model of consistency, its the Cyclones Breece Hall.  The Cyclone back has tallied 4 straight 100 yard games so far, racking up 8 touchdowns in the process far.  Saturday he added 135 and 2 vs the Red Raiders and made the running look effortless.  The way he is running reminds me sort of like another back from the state of Iowa in 2008 (Shonn Greene).  If Hall keeps posting the 100+ and multiple td games, he SHOULD be a finalist for the Doak Walker Award and that will most certainly keep Iowa State near the top of the Big XII all year long.

TD No. 7 for No. 28. #TheBeast

🌪️🚨🌪️ pic.twitter.com/xGOOsWDhJU

— Cyclone Football (@CycloneFB) October 10, 2020

2020 Week 3 Big XII Awards

Team of the Week : Kansas State - 2 years in a row the Sooners went into a game vs KState and 2 years in a row they come out with an L.  Rattler didn't look as sharp as he did in Game 1, but the competition was a step up also.  The Wildcates went into the game short handed, and were also DOWN 21 in the second half and still came back to knock off the Sooners.  Chris Kleiman, after joining Kansas State from North Dakota State, is now 2-0 vs Oklahoma.  

Game of the Week : Texas 63 - Texas Tech 56 - This thing was a Wild West Shootout in Lubbock.  The Red Raiders got up by 15 on the Longhorns in the 4th quarter.  Then Ehlinger took out his six shooters and the Horns also got a lucky bounce on a onside kick.  It lasted one OT and Texas applied its grip on Tech to escape with a win.

Player(s)of the Week : Breece Hall - RB - Iowa State : The second year RB opened the scoring with a 75 yard scamper in the 2nd quarter vs TCU.  He helped the Cyclones seal the win with 2 more scores in the 4th quarter.  Hall finished with 155 yards with those 3 scores.  

7️⃣5️⃣ yards to paydirt for @BreeceH

🌪️🚨🌪️ pic.twitter.com/Js8QsRRfZl

— Cyclone Football (@CycloneFB) September 26, 2020

Sam Ehlinger - QB - Texas : Arguably the leader in the clubhouse for the Heisman.  Versus the Red Raiders, Ehlinger tossed 5 tds, ran for another and lead the Horns back from down 15 in the last 3:13 of the game to force Overtime.  Also tossed a two point conversion to tie the game at 56 to send it to OT.  The Longhorns QB rushed for 70 yards and tossed 262 along with those scores.

🤘 @sehlinger3 did it all today for @TexasFootball pic.twitter.com/BE95QmrS7A

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 27, 2020

2020 Week 1 Big XII Awards

Week 1 of the 2020 Big XII Season is in the books.  2 Games ended up being cancelled due to COVID-19 (Baylor & TCU).  I don't foresee the conference teams not named Texas or Oklahoma scheduling SunBelt teams in the future as the SBC went 3-0 as visitors vs the Big XII.   This weeks Big XII Results.

Team of the Week :  West Virginia - The Mountaineers had one of the worst rushing offenses in college football last year.  Week one they go out and roll up 329 yards rushing and racking up 5 touchdowns on the ground.  Alec Sinkfield and Leddie Brown both scored twice and ran for 123 yards against Eastern Kentucky.  Now can the keep that up against conference competition.  

Game of the Week :  Arkansas State 35 - Kansas State 31 - Yes its a loss for the Big XII and an 0-2 week for the conference vs the SunBelt, but this game was back and forth all day.  KState pushed to a big lead.  Some trickery helped the Redwolves come back initially.  Some wind was taken out of the Wildcats sails with Arkansas State driving for the go ahead score, Safety Wayne Jones was taken off on a stretcher.  The RedWolves then marched down to score with 38 seconds left  on Jonathan Adams 3rd touchdown reception.  They then and held off a last hurrah by the Wildcats for the upset win in Manhattan.

Player of the Week :  Sam Ehlinger - QB - Texas - What ever you can do I can do better?  Spencer Rattler goes off in the first half vs Missouri State and looked like he might have this wrapped up.  In comes the gunslinger.  Sam threw for 426 yards and 5 touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes.  He opened up with a 78 yard touchdown, came back then with scores on throws of 20, 40, 5, and 6 in route to a lead of 45-3 lead over UTEP at the half.  The Longhorns won 59-3 with Sam watching from the sidelines the majority of the second half.  The next 9 games the competition will get more difficult, but If Sam keeps this up OU may have a hard time claiming another Big XII title.  How great will the duel between Ehlinger and Spencer Rattler be in the Red River Shootout.

🎯 to @_TheJoshuaMoore #ThisIsTexas #HookEm

📺 https://t.co/WCUxy4elqi pic.twitter.com/hEEvUeKsT1

— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 13, 2020

Hope you enjoyed this opening weekend with major college football.  Who knows how long we'll have it in this crazy year.  The ACC is already talking about how many schools need to be playing to not cancel the season.  The Big Ten is talking about a revote early this week for an October start. 

One update to note, Baylor will now host Houston next week at noon on Fox.  

We have a fun one for you next week 🍿 pic.twitter.com/yuB6Xhx85M

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 13, 2020

Big XII Life Support - help needed

So no one in the Big XII wants to play with each other, especially big bully Deloss (Texas).  But they may have to and the bully to sock it in the nose and let them know they may be the big kid on the block but needs to learn some respect.

Who should cock their fist back?  Dan Beebe?  Yea right.  Beebe is that kid who is weak and attaches themselves to the bully to seem tougher.  Beebe could mess up jello.  Oklahoma is talking about taking its ball and going home (west) with little brother.

The answer: a fighting Irish.

Under Dan Beebe the Big XII teams aren’t playing nice. With the Big East collapsing, the Irish are in need of a home for its non football sports.  The ACC is swopping up Big East teams.  West Virginia may be the 14^th school to the SEC. 

The conference needs new and better leadership.  Someone needs to come together and get the remaining 9 together and sit down as 9 equal entities.  Everyone has the same piece of the pie in the conversation.  Then they need to target 3 schools.  Notre Dame, Louisville and TCU.   The later 2 will be easy targets; Notre Dame is the BIG Fish.  AD Jack Swarbuck said the Irish will remain independent unless there is a seismic shift.  The Big East collapsing is a seismic shift.

Now you’re not going to get them to come over just like that, and probably not Texas or OU.  So if I’m the other 9, the revenue is going to be greater on their hand….but not much.  It still needs equality.  Split it that 10% goes to the conf.  9% to the big three and then 7 to the rest.  To get those 3 to play nice, that will need to be done.

What you get is a nice conference you can split easily for football and you get a decent basketball conference.  It’s obviously Kansas’s league in basketball but adding Rick Pitino and the Irish program doesn’t hurt.  Texas & Oklahoma have had decent programs and K-State had some success previously.  Iowa State should be decent this year too. 

With football split it as so, one division has Big 8 mainstays – OU/OSU/ISU/KSU/KU/Missouri.  The other is Notre Dame/Texas/TTech/TCU/Baylor/Louisville.  With OU-UT/ND in different divisions you should have more competitive balance.  Play the championship game in St Louis or Dallas and rotate it. 

TV wise, the current package with ESPN/FOX and the Big XII is probably null and void.  With Notre Dame you already have NBC tied so just add more.  Other than Notre Dame and the Gator Bowl NBC has no presence in college football.  This adds to it and to the NBC Sports Channel (formerly VS).  Then add in a deal with Fox/ESPN and your sitting ok.

With Notre Dame in the mix you can probably get a better bottom tier bowl too.  Who’s not happy here? 

Everyone is happy.  The little brothers of the Texa$-10 are happy.  The Pac-12 isn’t 16.  The Big Ten is at 12.  The ACC and SEC are the only 14 team conf.  They are happy. 

Ok, well maybe Dan Beebe isn’t happy but I’m sure he’ll find a spot in the Texas Athletic Department somewhere at a cubicle; heck doesn’t he have that already?

Landscaping Aggie Style

Kickoff is about 30 hours away from the 2011 season and the fault line in college football is shaking.  Texas A&M sent a letter to the BIG XII (no confirmation yet on if it was in crayon and included pop ups or pictures so Dan Bebee could understand) letting them know, “Hey – while you other 8 are happy sucking on Doloss Dodd’s teets…we want something better”  and are leaving the conference as of June 30, 2012.  Hello SEC!  Dan Bebee also released a statement here. That would put 13 teams in the SEC, 13 may work in the MAC but it won’t work in the SEC.  So the Aggies need a dance partner.  I’m guessing the most likely candidates are going to be from the ACC in Clemson or Florida State.  That puts the SEC at 14, you know the Pac-12 and Big Ten will not go quietly either, so we will go back to what we had last year in the landscape of college football being on shaky ground. The fate of the Big XII depends on Texas, and how many other schools have enough cache to go up against them?  Oklahoma – No….Missouri – No.  Texas is now more powerful than ever, but as we learned in SpiderMan, “With great POWER comes great RESPONSIBILITY!”  Who does Texas care about?  Texas.  You think that they care about Kansas or Kansas State or Iowa State?  NOPE!  Heck the Big XII catered to them when they moved the basketball tournament from Kansas City to Oklahoma City and Dallas (where no one cares about it) and moves head quarters to Dallas from Kansas City.  Basically Bebee bent over and grabbed ankles for Doloss Dodd’s and his Longhorns. Going to throw out some new prediction here.  In 2015 you will see a very different college football, because it’s all about football in the end,  landscape.  §  The conferences will grow to SUPER CONFERENCES.  The Big Ten, Pac-16, ACC and SEC will each have 16 teams.  The Big East will be shredded to the ACC and other conferences.  The Mountain West will almost have a conference USA feel to it and spread across the Central and Mountain time zones and capture a BCS Bid.  Notre Dame will have to join a conference or be left out.  The Big 4 will put enough pressure on them. §  The BCS will expand to add in the Cotton Bowl.  That will then be 12 BCS bids including the Championship Game.  Along with that, the 4 super conferences will now be assured at least 2 BCS bids.  Along with the Mountain West that will be 9 automatic bids.  Leaving 3 spots as “At-Large” §  Also in 2015 you see the Big Ten going to 9 conference games, which is great to play each other in your conference more, but there will be a 13 game regular season.  Games at home are lucrative for the BIG schools.  They supply the money to fund all the other varsity sports.  And more and more you hear about state regents offices wanting the this universities to be off state tax payer feeding.  Another home game helps.  Also, it frees up some scheduling.  In the case of Iowa with having the Iowa State game there, when you play at Ames you need to play 2 cupcakes at home.  This will free up to add another game vs the likes of Arizona that we’ve seen in the past. §  I wish I could say that bowls will be reduced but I think we may see more bowls…unfortunately. That’s just what I’m seeing in my crystal ball right now as of August 31st 2011.

2011 Big XII Predictions

Welcome to the new Big XII, or as I like to call it, the Texa$ Ten.  No more divisions, no more championship game…a round robin schedule of 9 games too.  The conference was on life support last year and may not be out of the neck of the woods yet with the rumblings going on in Norman, Austin and College Station about the new ESPN juiced LongHorn Network.  Somehow the conference has 9 bowl tie-ins for 10 teams.  That’s gonna change soon, and how did the Holiday bowl slip to #5 in the pecking order.

The conference, in my opinion won’t be around like it is come 2015 but that’s the future.  Let’s talk about this year:

The conference will be split into 3 tiers, the top will be very good, the bottom very bad, and the middle average.

The Conference Championship (and one half of the National Championship) is determined on Nov 5 in Norman when the Sooners host the Aggies. 

Texas will be better than last year but will not move into the elite of the top 3.

Baylor’s record could easily flip flop if Robert Griffin III gets hurt, and they will score the upset of the first week when the Bears beat TCU.

Iowa State record won’t be great but they have a stud on the OL in Osemele, and the new scoreboard is going to be a nice addition to Jack Trice Stadium.

The state of Kansas will continue to be under a heat wave in the college season as the coaches seats will be getting warmer.  I think this is Snyder’s last year at KState and will select his successor and Turner Gill needs to win next year or he will be done at Kansas.

Now for the picks…Norman, Oklahoma should be happy.

BIGXII PREDICTIONS

Oklahoma                         9-0                 12-0              National Championship Game vs Alabama

Texas A&M                       8-1                 11-1              Fiesta Bowl vs Wisconsin

Oklahoma St                     7-2                 10-2              Cotton Bowl

Texas                               5-4                  8-4               Alamo Bowl

Baylor                               5-4                 8-4                Insight Bowl

Missouri                            5-4                 7-5                Holiday Bowl

Texas Tech                        3-6                 6-6               Texas Bowl vs Michigan State

Kansas                              1-8                 3-9

Kansas State                     1-8                 3-9

Iowa State                         1-8                 2-10

BIG XII AWARDS

Coach of the Year – Bob Stoops : Oklahoma

Player of the Year – Landry Jones : Oklahoma

Who’s in your 5….College Mascots

They are at every game, symbols of the university.  Traditions that have been around forever.  Some of them are live, some are costumes, some on leashes, some carry swords or sledgehammers.  The college mascot.  So here we go with my top 5.  I’ll start with an honorable mention since there are hundreds of mascots, it’s hard to narrow them down.  I’m sure with my top 5 you’ll find a trend.  And #1 you’ll be surprised.

Honorable Mention

Zippy (Akron) – really the Zips have a Kangaroo?  It’s odd but still it’s a Kangaroo!

Sparty (Mich State) – Dude might be on some performance enhancers but he get’s a cool outfit and a sword

Purdue Pete  (Purdue) – he carries a sledge hammer!  And he once dented Herky’s beek with it.

WarEagle (Auburn) – how the Tigers got WarEagle still is odd, but the Eagle flying down from Jordan-Hare stadium is pretty cool

The Stanford Tree (Stanford) – Maybe the goofiest mascot ever, but still funny.

The Drake Relay’s beautiful Bulldog.  – A cool tradition and well who doesn’t like a beautiful Bulldog?

5. Smokey (Tennessee) – A blue tick coonhound that shows up at Tennessee games and leads them into the stadium.  He may not be as big as some others.  But still it’s cool to have a coon hound leading the team out on the field.

4. Bevo – A live long horn.  Do you really wanna mess with him?

3. Ralphie  -  Well maybe if you’re a charging buffalo you’ll take out Bevo.  This is one of the cooler entrances in college football that I want to one day see.  Just don’t get in his way. 

2. UGA – One of the coolest traditions in the sport, an English bulldog, from UGA I to UGA VIII all in the same family lineage.  And perhaps the coolest video of a mascot, UGA biting an Auburn player!  Great Mascot!

1.  Herky – was it going to be any one else??

2010 Year in Review - Top 5 Sports Moments

I did this for my Sports Moments of the Decade last December and had fun with this, so I'm going to go ahead and do this for the year.  Now again these are what I think, so there will be a local flair and national flair. 

1-Northern Iowa upsets Kansas - The #1 seed gets sunk by Farokmanesh!  The Panthers were the best team in the State for the 2nd year in a row.  2 years ago Drake's Cinderella run was sunk on a last second 3.  Last year Northern Iowa was beat by Purdue in a close 1st round matchup.  In 2010 the Panthers beat UNLV in the first round to set up a matchup with #1 Kansas and lead damn near the whole game.  Ali sank a 3 and the rest is MARCH MADNESS HISTORY!  

They even landed on the cover of SI and even an ESPY.

2-Duke beats Butler in the Championship game after last second shot misses.  In the best championship game in memory.  The team that only had to go 5-15 mins from campus had a chance to win it all (hello college football) and missed out on beating one of the best programs in the world by an inch.  This is what makes sports great!

3-The Thomas family at the ESPYs  --  Ed Thomas was shot and killed by former player Mark Becker in 2009, but in 2010 ESPN honored his family and him and his legacy with the 2010 Arthur Ashe Award at the annual ESPY's.  Great moment for a great family.  Really shows what small town Iowa is.










4-Iowa State wins AT TEXAS - Yea it happened.  What Paul Rhoads has done with road wins at Nebraska last year and now Texas this year.  ISU has found a good coach.  Just needs talent.

5.  Iowa wins the 2010 Orange Bowl - Yea it seems like a year ago, it happened int he 2009 season, but still was in 2010. And it built up the hype machine for the 2010 season that has gone to 7-5 and an Insight Bowl Bid vs Missouri instead of a dream that many fans had of the National Championship or Rose Bowl.









So these are my moments from 2010, what are yours?

College Football Predictions - 2010

Big Ten Conf Predictions
Ohio State
Iowa
Wisconsin
Penn State
Northwestern
Purdue
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Illinois
Indiana


Big Ten Bowls
BCS Championship – Ohio State vs. Boise State
Fiesta Bowl – Iowa vs. Oklahoma
Cap One – Wisconsin vs. Florida
Outback – Penn State vs. Georgia
Gator – Northwestern vs. South Carolina
Insight –Purdue vs. Missouri
Texas – Michigan vs. Baylor
Dallas – Michigan State vs. East Carolina


Other Big Bowls
Rose Bowl – Oregon State vs. LSU
Orange Bowl – Pittsburgh vs. Miami
Sugar Bowl – Alabama vs. Texas

Cotton Bowl - Nebraska vs. Arkansas


BCS Conference Champs
Big East – Pittsburgh
Big Ten – Ohio State/Iowa
ACC – Miami (Coastal) over Clemson (Atlantic)
Big XII – Oklahoma (South) over Nebraska(North)
Pac10 – Oregon State
SEC – Alabama (West) over Florida (East)


Heisman
Jacory Harris – Miami

Big Ten MVP

John Clay - Wisconsin