(Just Past) Halfway Point in Big 12 season

Every team in the league has now played at least 8 games, with 6 of the teams having played 9.  A review of the current standings and where I thought each team would be, based on my Quarter-Season Review :

1. Texas Longhorns 8-0 (regular season prediction: 6)
Texas is, in my opinion, one of the two or three best teams in the country at this point.  After the win at Kansas, they have ripped off big wins against OSU and Texas A&M on the road, and sandwiched a home win against Top 20 ranked Missouri.
Next 4: @ Oklahoma, Baylor, Oklahoma State, @ Nebraska
Predicted record after 12 games: 11-1 (#1)



2. Kansas Jayhawks 7-1 (regular season prediction: 1)
After the loss to Texas, Kansas has rebounded nicely and has solid wins at Colorado, Texas Tech and Nebraska and a home win against Kansas State.  Ranked 2nd in the country by both major polls, I still think this is the best overall team in the league and still hold to my prediction they will finish the season as the best team in the Big 12.
Next 4: Missouri, Iowa State, @ Kansas State, Colorado
Predicted record after 12 games: 11-1 (#2)

3. Baylor Bears 5-4 (regular season prediction: 5)
Still a completely Jekyll-and-Hyde team.  Lose at Oklahoma; beat Texas A&M in the road.  Huh??  Should finish in the 3-6 range in the conference.
Next 3: Nebraska, @ Texas, Texas Tech
Predicted record after 12 games: 7-5 (#3)

4. Texas A&M Aggies 4-4 (regular season prediction: 4)
The Aggies are on their first 3-game losing streak in 2 years. It could reach 4 before the bleeding stops.
Next 4: @ Colorado, @ Texas Tech, Iowa State, @ Oklahoma State
Predicted record after 12 games: 7-5 (#4)

5. Missouri Tigers 4-4 (regular season prediction: 2)
Busted up by Texas and then beat by the Pokes, Missouri is in a little bit of limbo right now. The next 4 games will be a good stretch for them to get back in the conference race.
Next 4: @ Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, @ Iowa State
Predicted record after 12 games: 7-5 (#5)

6. Oklahoma Sooners 4-4 (regular season prediction: 11)
Up and down, up and down.  I have no idea about this team.  They're really not good enough to finish any higher than 10th in the league, but could conceivably finish in the top 5.  Go figure.
Next 4: Texas, @ Missouri, Nebraska, @ Kansas State
Predicted record after 12 games: 5-7 (#8)

7. Oklahoma State Cowboys 4-5 (regular season prediction: 7)
Road wins are hard to get in this league.  Period.  Case in point?  Blown out at Baylor, beat an even better Missouri team at home.  That is the story of this conference.
Next 3: @ Nebraska, @ Texas, Texas A&M
Predicted record after 12 games: 5-7 (#7)

8. Kansas State Wildcats 4-5 (regular season prediction: 3)
They may finally be finding themselves.  Only losses in last 5 games were to #10 and #2 ranked national teams on the road.  Big stretch of opportunity coming up for the 'Cats.
Next 3: @ Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma
Predicted record after 12 games: 6-6 (#6)

9. Colorado Buffaloes 4-5 (regular season prediction: 9)
Started 3-1 in conference, then went 1-4.  Next 3 games could be even worse.
Next 3: Texas A&M, Kansas State, @ Kansas
Predicted record after 12 games: 4-8 (#9)

10. Nebraska Cornhuskers 3-5 (regular season prediction: 12)
Doc Sadler is a good coach, however, Nebraska will never be a good basketball school.  Maybe they'll have better luck in the Big 10?
Next 4: @ Baylor, Oklahoma State, @ Oklahoma, Texas
Predicted record after 12 games: 4-8 (#10)

11. Texas Tech Red Raiders 3-6 (regular season prediction: 10)
I had them being 0-8 at this point, so at least I'll eat a little crow on that.  This is still a bad team with only one decent player in Mike Singletary.
Next 3: Texas A&M, @ Missouri, @ Baylor
Predicted record after 12 games: 3-9 (#11)

12. Iowa State Cyclones 1-8 (regular season prediction: 8)
Currently on a 6-game losing streak, and just NOW coming into the meat of their schedule.  Yikes.
Next 3: @ Kansas, @ Texas A&M, Missouri
Predicted record after 12 games: 1-11 (#12)




The Big 12 is starting to shape up the way many thought it would, with a few wrinkles thrown in just to keep it interesting.  I don't think anyone, yours truly included, thought Texas would be this good, especially defensively.  The Longhorns have never been known as a defense-first team, but have proven to be a force so far.  Kansas is still Kansas, just as capable of winning the National Title as losing in the first round.  Hopefully OSU can pull out a win or two against a team I don't expect them to.  They're going to need to do so in order to finish even at 8-8, which is what I predicted for them originally.

GO POKES!!

National Signing Day



RB Herschel Sims



QB J.W. Walsh



The Cowboys had a fantasic National Signing Day, evidenced by their #21 ranking on the ESPNU scale.  The day had a little more drama than the Pokes would have liked, as they waited on the LOI for RB Herschel Sims to get to Coach Mike Gundy (it seems the 5-star RB had a power outage in his high school and couldn't get in touch with OSU for a short time).  Nonetheless, Sims' letter is in, as is 4-star QB J.W. Walsh's, who has been compared to former QB Zac Robinson but with a better arm.  Although these two recruits are the stars of the class, the Cowboys leaned heavily towards recruiting on the defensive side of the ball, with 16 of the 26 signings slated to play D for Bill Young's unit.

The Top 10 Recruiting classes look as follows, according to Rivals.com:
1. Alabama (2009 National Champion)
2. Auburn (2010 National Champion)
3. Florida State

4. USC (2004 National Champion)

5. Texas (2005 National Champion)

6. Georgia 

7. LSU (2003, 2007 National Champion)

8. Clemson

9. Notre Dame

10. Ohio State (2002 National Champion)

Other Big 12 notables:

16. Oklahoma

19. Texas Tech

32. Texas A&M

33. Kansas

44. Missouri
47. Baylor

The SEC retains it's title of King of All Conferences, as 4 of the Top 7 (and 9 of the Top 25) recruiting rankings belong to teams within the power conference.  The Big 12-2 and Big 10+2 each have 3 such teams in the Top 25, according to Rivals; the Pac-12 has 5. 

Notes of Interest:
* Oklahoma has it's lowest ranking in the last 10 years. 
* After finishing with their best season since 2004, Texas A&M still doesn't crack the Top 30, even with in-state rival and national power Texas having their worst season since 1997.  Even more salt-in-the-wound is the annoying pest that is Texas Tech finished with a substantially higher ranking than the Aggies.
* The Top 10 teams in recruiting for 2011 have won a combined 7 of the last 10 BCS National Titles (the other 3 are Florida in 2006 and 2008, and Miami in 2001)

A final thought: Recruiting and rankings have become "big business" in the last decade, with many being of the opinion that recruiting rankings bear no factor towards how they will actually play at the college level.  While this is true to an extent (and frankly, is true in any career/job/opportunity), take a look at the last 5 years of recruiting rankings and compare that to the teams you usually think of when considering the "Top Programs in the Country".

2006:
1. USC
2. Florida
3. Florida State

2007:
1. Florida
2. USC
3. Tennessee

2008:
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Florida

2009:
1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Ohio State

2010:
1. USC
2. Florida
3. Texas

Easy to see that the rankings generally do hold true to form, as the teams that have been in the Top 3 of recruiting are usually some of the top on-field programs in college football.  Here's hoping this class catapaults the Cowboys to further success in the new Big 12-2.

GO POKES!!