Each passing week provides more data that teams ranked 3-14 in the week eight Big 12 power rankings can win or lose to anyone. It also (sadly) means that the teams leaving are establishing more of a gap between them and the field. With that said, who were the biggest movers and shakers in the power rankings at the official halfway point of the college football regular season?
Week Eight Big 12 Power Rankings
14. Cincinnati
It has been a long, long time since December 31st, 2021 for Bearcat Nation. Their first season in the Big 12 has been nothing but struggles since week two of the season. With their latest loss to Iowa State, they are in the midst of a four-game losing streak. A 20-point defeat at home and coming off a bye week leaves very little room for hope for the rest of this season.
13. UCF
Another new member of the Big 12 is also in the midst of its own losing skid. Gus Malzahn had the Knights 3-0 heading into conference play. However, they are still searching for their first Big 12 victory. They looked mostly non-competitive against the Kansas schools and blew a 25-point 4th quarter lead at home to a bad Baylor team. The schedule provides zero relief as they travel to Norman this week.
12. Baylor
The Bears were on a much-needed bye week last week. They did move up one spot in the week eight Big 12 power rankings, but only because of failures in front of them. In fact, Cincy, UCF, and Baylor all have good claims to the basement in the power rankings. However, in the pillow fight of the week, Baylor takes on Cincinnati.
11. BYU
What happened to BYU? A 4-1 start with a respectable loss to Kansas gave the illusion the Cougars were ready to compete in the Big 12. A road trip to Fort Worth to take on a TCU team playing a redshirt freshman quarterback named Josh Hoover appeared to be a low-threat environment. However, after a demoralizing 44-11 defeat at the hands of the Horned Frogs, BYU took a bit of a tumble in the week eight Big 12 power rankings. The good news for BYU is they come back to the friendly confines of Provo and take on a wounded and underperforming Texas Tech team on Saturday.
10. Houston
Dana Holgorsen got to experience the true lowest of lows and highest of highs in 12 seconds of football. After surrendering what appeared to be the game-winning touchdown with only 12 seconds remaining, Houston then took two plays to get down the field and connect on a last-second Hail Mary for a victory of West Virginia. Now, this week brings on what is best described as Houston’s Super Bowl with the hated Longhorns coming to visit on Saturday. Can they pull off the upset of the season? Last Word has been giving everyone plenty of warning about this one.
9. Texas Tech
There is a much larger conversation about keeping the same quarterback healthy all season for the Red Raiders. The last quarterback to start and finish all 12 games in a season was Patrick Mahomes. So while having Behren Morton go down with an injury, the coaches failed to have a functioning game plan in place. The largest failure was ignoring their best player. It seems as if the wheels are falling off for the Red Raiders after getting thumped by Kansas State. A loss to BYU this week will all but end any bowl hopes for Texas Tech.
8. TCU
Questions began to mount for TCU’s offense after consecutive losses to West Virginia and Iowa State. The prognosis didn’t look good with BYU coming to town with Chandler Morris getting injured the week before. However, redshirt freshman quarterback Josh Hoover looked very un-freshman-like in his debut. He completed 37-of-58 passes for 439 yards and four touchdowns in a 44-11 route of BYU. With Morris out for a few weeks, is Hoover going to grab the job for good?
7. West Virginia
It was all going so well for Neal Brown. They were playing the same game they had played the last four weeks against Houston. The Mountaineers even made the “winning” play that had proved to be the difference in all of their victories this season. However, Houston signed up for 60 minutes of ball and made the Mountaineers pay. They need to pick themselves up quickly to avoid a mid-season slide as they take on a suddenly surging Oklahoma State team.
6. Kansas
Well, it’s time to move on past the quarterback situation with the Jayhawks. Yes, the offense is better with Jalon Daniels. But it is pretty clear at this point that they can still very much move the ball with Jason Bean at quarterback. So while they did ultimately drop a back-and-forth affair to Oklahoma State, the offense still put up 500 yards of offense and 32 points. It’s clear Kansas is a team that has an offense to keep it in the top half of the standings for the rest of the year. How far the offense takes them remains to be seen.
5. Oklahoma State
It was less than a month ago that Mike Gundy and his Cowboys found themselves at the bottom of the power rankings. They got routed at home 33-7 by what is now a 4-3 South Alabama team. The rest of the season looked bleak. But then, Gundy finally decided on a quarterback and things started to click. They lost a closely contested road game against Iowa State (more on them shortly). But since have rattled off two consecutive wins and are now the Kansas state champions for 2023. Is Gundy going to pull a Gundy and get this team to finish with nine wins?
4. Iowa State
Another team that was left for dead after losing to a MAC team, the Cyclones are one of two teams currently with three Big 12 victories. With the momentum Iowa State has built in the last few weeks, the bye week for them comes at a time when they would probably like to keep playing. However, getting rested and resuming play against Baylor suggests they won’t lose any momentum any time soon.
3. Kansas State
A single win over a down Texas Tech team is not the reason Kansas State jumped all the way back up to the third spot in the week eight Big 12 power rankings. They leaped all the way back because it appears Chris Klieman has found a true game-breaking weapon in Avery Johnson. Klieman did state that they plan to still use Johnson and Will Howard moving forward. But if that dominant offensive line continues to play like it did Saturday night in Lubbock, there won’t be many teams to slow the defending Big 12 champs down.
SIGNIFICANT GAP
2. Texas
Steve Sarkisian’s team was on bye week last week. They travel over to Houston this week to take on a Cougar team feeling pretty good after last week’s incredible victory over West Virginia.
1. Oklahoma
Like their Red River rivals, the Sooners also had the week off last week. Brent Venables’ team looks to start their second-half push to the playoff with a visit from the reeling Knights of UCF.
