College Football Coverage: The Big 12 Looks To Build A Resume

The marquee games of the college football Week 5 card are the quartet of LSU-Georgia, Oklahoma-Notre Dame, Ole Miss-Alabama and Wisconsin-Ohio State. But underneath the glitter are lot of games worth at least checking out, especially with more conference games now on the docket.

TheSportsNotebook’s college football coverage will be back later this week with a look at the four marquee games. For now, let’s whet our appetites with a look at the most notable games on the undercard, going conference-by-conference. Here we check in on what’s a quiet week in the Big 12 beyond the Sooners’ visit to South Bend, but has three cases where the conference can quietly build a resume.

Oklahoma State-West Virginia kickoff at noon on ESPN. Even given that the game is in Morgantown, I would be absolutely shocked if Oklahoma State loses this game, given how bad WVA has looked now that Geno Smith is taking snaps for Rex Ryan and the Jets. What I do want to see is if Okie State can really hammer West Virginia and show that the Big 12 could be a league worthy of getting two teams into BCS bowls (presumably including Oklahoma).

Beyond the tests faced by Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, there are two other spots where the Big 12 needs to establish its strength. SMU was wasted by Texas A&M last week, and now TCU has to do the same to the Mustangs and demonstrate that mid-level American Athletic teams can’t compete with contenders in this league. Iowa State hasn’t had the greatest of seasons, but neither has had Tulsa, and the Cyclones need to take a little revenge for losing a bowl matchup to the Golden Hurricane last December.

OTHER COVERAGE OF THE WEEK 5 COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERCARD
SEC: Good Games Beyond The Glitter
Pac-12: An Interesting Saturday Night Trifecta
ACC: Coastal Division Showdown
Big Ten: Angling For Bowl Position
Midmajors: Friday Night Out West; Saturday In The MAC