The bright lights of ESPN Gameday are coming to Stillwater, where Saturday night’s Baylor-Oklahoma State game (8 PM ET, ABC) will be the showcase game of the week. And why not? The Bears are ranked #4, undefeated and still hoping to slip into the BCS National Championship Game. The Cowboys are #10, and in strong position to make it into the major bowls regardless of what happens on Saturday.
Baylor can’t just think about the national picture though, because there in the midst of a hot race for what would be their first conference championship since 1980, when the program was still in the old Southwest Conference. The Big 12 also has a good shot at gaining a second bid into the major bowls, and finally there’s a race for the league’s top non-BCS game, the Cotton Bowl, which offers the opportunity to play a high-level SEC opponent.
…let’s keep in mind that Texas is still 2-0 in conference play, just as OU is. If the Longhorns’ competitive wins over Kansas State and Iowa State don’t inspire you, can you really say the Sooners’ hard-fought victories over West Virginia and TCU are something that suggests dominance.
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
TheSportsNotebook.com’s college football coverage has updated its BCS bowl projections following Week 4, with a special look at the chances of Fresno State rising out of the Mountain West. Here’s a look at the Big 12…
Texas & Oklahoma are the powers-that-be in Big 12 football. Their programs have brand-name power and from 2002 to 2010 it was either the Longhorns or Sooners winning the conference championship in every year but one—and in the “out” year of 2003, Oklahoma was still ranked high enough to make the BCS National Championship Game.
But the last two years have been different, with Oklahoma State and Kansas State coming in and winning outright league championships. Is there more rebellion lurking in 2013, or is the Establishment ready to reassert themselves? That’s the focus of today’s college football coverage