Since the inception of the College Football Playoff, no conference gets skewered more often than the Big 12. Due to the league only having ten teams and no championship game to this point, criticism of the conference seemingly never ends. Naturally, Kansas is one of the league’s charter members. The Jayhawks’ lack competitiveness, even in the current Big 12, but that’s actually understandable.
Down Year for Big 12 So Far
The Big 12 is under fire early this season due to its generally poor national rankings. There are no Big 12 team that rank in the top 15 of the AP Poll for the first time since the conference’s founding. The best teams in the conference aren’t the only ones catching flak. In actuality, the conference as a whole is subject to criticism and scrutiny this year.
It may be too soon to tell yet, but it appears as if this could be a down year for the Big 12. As such, certain followers of Kansas football believe that this is a year in which the program could make huge strides in terms of conference positioning. Through three games, it seems like that’s not the case, and frankly that should be the expectation.
Jayhawks Lacking
Frankly, it should come as no surprise that the Jayhawks are not ready to “take advantage” of a Big 12 that is weaker than usual. The team still isn’t rostering a full 85 scholarship players, and the team’s talent level is not comparable to the majority of teams in the Big 12.
Coach David Beaty is in his second year at the helm of the program. Many starters, 13 to be exact, return from last year’s team, bringing more experience to the field. These factors should contribute to noticeable improvements for KU this season compared to last, but it’s understandable if the team doesn’t suddenly start contending for a bowl game appearance.
Unrealistic Expectations
Knee-jerk reactions are commonplace in the world of sports. Fans and media members see even slight improvements, and suddenly a team’s recent misery is forgotten. Rather, instead of forgotten, the cause of said misery is conveniently ignored for the sake of building unproductive hype. That hype may be fun to bask in for fans, but it rarely reflects a team’s actual season outlook. Such is the case with Kansas in 2016.
Everyone knows how bad Kansas was in 2015, that’s not news. It’s important to remember the team was ravaged by a reckless and directionless coaching regime that predates Beaty. Teams as bad as Kansas was in 2015 don’t immediately bounce back, regardless of the perceived strength of their conference.
Program Histories
From 1996-2014, there were seven winless seasons completed by Power Five conference programs. The best record by any team following a winless season over this stretch was 8-4 by the 2000 South Carolina Gamecocks, coached by former national champion Lou Holtz. The 2009 Washington Huskies followed a winless season with a 5-7 campaign. The other five teams followed winless seasons with a combined 8-49 record (Duke actually had back-to-back losing seasons in 2000-01).
Needless to say, it’s hard to bounce back from historically miserable seasons. That applies to this year’s Kansas Jayhawks, just as it has for many teams throughout history.
In the End
Cognitive dissonance comes into play if the overall quality of teams in a conference declining instantly means to you that the worst team in said conference should be competitive. It’s not as if there was a sudden shift in talent for each Big 12 team relative to one another. A down year for Oklahoma, TCU, etc. does not automatically mean that Kansas has the ability to compete with them; those teams still have a distinct advantage, even if they are not quite as powerful on a national stage.
The Big 12 may not be as strong as it was in 2014 or 2015. That may indicate a down year for the conference’s premier teams. However, that shouldn’t subsequently mean that the league’s perennial bottom dweller suddenly returns to a consistently competitive level.
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