Final Top 25...how the Big 12 fell (no surprise)

[acoustimac]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings

Three Big 12 teams made the final Top 25. OU fell to #7 (down 3), Baylor fell five spots to 13 and Texas crept in at #25. OSU went from ranked to no votes. KSU barely mentioned with 2 votes. And no surprise...ISU disappeared into the mist of "what might have been."

Pretty weak showing overall, but the bowl results really weren't a surprise as none of the Big 12 were favored and some were outright mismatches. No surprises here.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I can't complain about that at all. It really wasn't a very good year for the conference. The bowl game lineup did us no favors either.

My $.02:

Having a boatload of relatively new coaches is causing a shift in the overall game plan.

I feel like teams are going to keep gradually moving towards a more balanced offensive mindset and are shifting away from the "we have to outscore you to win" style we've gotten used to. Right now, most teams in the conference aren't built for a pretty looking game with those parameters. We have thrived on being the conference with the flashier offensive skill players that put up big numbers.

Gundy has been at OSU for 15 years and is really the last remaining "high power offense" guy from the old guard. Patterson would like to be known for defense first. After that, every other coach is sitting at <4 years.

I'm not saying we're going to turn into a 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust conference, but I'll be curious to see if the recruiting patterns will change over the next 5 years to adjust for the style of play changes that I'm expecting.

 

[ClonesFTW]

With the amount of starting QB's returning in the B12 next year (Brewer pending) it will likely be a better year overall.

 

[ISUTex]

The Big 12 was down this year. Not shocking. OU and Iowa State didn't help the cause at all.