{"id":80254,"date":"2025-09-23T10:30:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=80254"},"modified":"2025-09-22T22:23:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:23:41","slug":"week-five-big-12-power-rankings-re-evaluating-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/09\/23\/week-five-big-12-power-rankings-re-evaluating-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Week Five Big 12 Power Rankings: Re-Evaluating Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over two-thirds of the Big 12 teams have played four games in the season. There is now enough data for us to bury any pre-season expectations we had<\/a> for any of these 16 teams. A few teams have clearly established themselves as contenders. A large group of teams remain on the fence between contender and pretender. There are also definitely two teams that are looking quite broken, even just four weeks into the season. So with the week five Big 12 power rankings hitting the presses, where do all of these teams find themselves?<\/p>\n

Week Five Big 12 Power Rankings<\/h2>\n

16. Oklahoma State<\/h3>\n

With the only possible exception being Billy Napier at Florida, there is no current head coach more fired\/being forced to resign than Mike Gundy. In three games, the Cowboys have been outscored 95-42. In their two losses, they have lost by a combined 73 points. Sprinkle in suffering a home loss to Tulsa for the first time since the 22nd amendment of the Constitution was ratified (1951), that the entire college football world got to see, and all the ingredients are heavily present for a change in Stillwater.<\/p>\n

15. Kansas State<\/h3>\n

This is a spiritually 0-4 football team. The Wildcats’ offense looks as smooth as gravel in a blender. Quarterback Avery Johnson<\/a> has not made any significant progress as a passer. And for the first time in his seven seasons as the head coach, Chris Klieman’s team looks defeated. All the hallmarks of the Kansas State program seem to be missing, and there isn’t a great reason why.<\/p>\n

14. Colorado<\/h3>\n

We now enter the portion of the week when five Big 12 power rankings, where teams still have time to make significant moves. But so far, Colorado hasn’t shown any reason to think they will be big movers. There has been quite the quarterback shuffling happening early in the season. The Buffaloes have looked non-competitive in their two losses against P4 opponents. With BYU on deck this week, they have a chance to prove they can compete with the better teams of the conference.<\/p>\n

13. West Virginia<\/h3>\n

It is looking like West Virginia fans will need to savor that Backyard Brawl victory as long as they can. While a letdown against Kansas was to be expected, the Jayhawks ended that game in the first half. This team has looked more like the team that lost to Ohio than the team that scored 31 against Pitt. Now they welcome a ticked-off Utah team that could bludgeon Rich Rodriguez’s team for another long Saturday.<\/p>\n

12. Baylor<\/h3>\n

This team has proven it has great offensive skill talent. They have also shown they have an excellent quarterback in Sawyer Robertson<\/a>. And yet, they are 1-2 against P4 teams. Their one win required a last-minute comeback. The defensive savant, Dave Aranda, has to figure out an answer for a defense that has been leaky all season. Starting conference play 0-1 makes the mountain that much harder to climb, but they should have a get-right game in Stillwater this week.<\/p>\n

11. Cincinnati<\/h3>\n

The Bearcats must be kicking themselves for not finishing off the Huskers in week one. They have handled their business for the last two weeks against lesser competition. But this week brings on a road trip to Kansas. This is an opportunity to prove this program is finally making a turn under Scott Satterfield. Or it could be further confirmation that Satterfield isn’t the man for this job.<\/p>\n

10. UCF<\/h3>\n

Expectations were very low for Scott Frost in his return for 2025. But here they are, 3-0 coming off a dismantling of the Tar Heels. The difference between UNC and Jax State might not be much, so the book on the Knights is still incomplete. They look to keep the momentum rolling as they travel to Kansas State this week.<\/p>\n

9. Arizona<\/h3>\n

Coming into 2025, Brent Brennan was on a toasty coaching seat. This program has looked uninspired in his first season. With the returning talent in 2024, they had combined with poor results, optimism wasn’t abundant in Tucson for this season. However, Arizona is sitting at 3-0, including a 1-0 record in conference play. We will find out just how real this team is this week with a road trip to Ames to take on Iowa State.<\/p>\n

8. BYU<\/h3>\n

Remember that elite defense BYU had in 2024? Most of those big-time playmakers on defense came back for this season, and they have picked up where they left off. In three games this year, they have only yielded a combined 16 points. Questions about the offense still exist in terms of a consistent ability to create explosive plays. But no one should apologize for playing ball-control offense and suffocating defense.<\/p>\n

7. Houston<\/h3>\n

Willie Fritz has his team playing at a high level. They avenged a 2024 loss to city rival Rice emphatically. The Cougs also notched their first conference win with a decisive victory over Colorado. Will they overlook this trip to Oregon State this week with a home game against Texas Tech on deck?<\/p>\n

6. Kansas<\/h3>\n

Is Jalon Daniels<\/a> finally “back”? He has 12 touchdown passes to just two interceptions. Daniels is also adding an average of 40 yards rushing per game. The Jayhawks let the game slip away against Missouri, but the team everyone saw in the first half has been the team we have seen most of the season. With the Jayhawks now entering the heart of the conference schedule, can they continue to surge to the top?<\/p>\n

5. Arizona State<\/h3>\n

The top five of the week five Big 12 power rankings have all done enough to earn the title of contender for the conference title. Kenny Dillingham’s team played a sloppy game on the road against an improved Mississippi State team. The offense has not had a breakout game yet despite having one of the best receivers and quarterbacks in the conference. Even with all of that, the Sun Devils still find themselves 1-0 in conference play, and the defense has looked solid. Will they be able to hold onto their contender status after this week, squaring off against TCU?<\/p>\n

4. Utah<\/h3>\n

\u201cI never would\u2019ve believed if you would\u2019ve said we would lose the line of scrimmage. Never would\u2019ve believed that in a million years. But we did. We didn\u2019t win the line of scrimmage,\u201d Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said after suffering a 24-point loss to Texas Tech.<\/a> The elite talent along Utah’s offensive line is still in place. The Utes should still bully most teams they play in the Big 12. But can they find consistent answers in the passing game?<\/p>\n

3. TCU<\/h3>\n

The college football landscape is starting to take notice of quarterback Josh Hoover<\/a>. In three games, Hoover has already thrown for 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns. According to FanDuel, he currently has the seventh-best odds of winning the Heisman trophy. Last Word told everyone back in August<\/a>, Hoover was worth paying attention to for Heisman conversations. His Heisman odds could increase with a big performance and victory on the road against Arizona State this week.<\/p>\n

2. Texas Tech<\/h3>\n

No team had a better week four than Joey McGuire’s Texas Tech squad. This was a “return on investment” measuring game, and the dividends paid out 10-fold. While the defensive performance was a highlight, this game proved that the Red Raiders have something 95% of teams lack. That is quality quarterback depth. All signs point to Behren Morton<\/a> being QB1 against Houston in two weeks. But it is hard to ignore just how much better the offense looked against Utah when Will Hammond<\/a> entered the game in the second half.<\/p>\n

1. Iowa State<\/h3>\n

No team has done more in the Big 12 in 2025 than the Iowa State Cyclones. While the Farmegedon victory over Kansas State is aging like wine that was never corked, the rest of their performances have been solid. They beat the currently ranked #16 FCS South Dakota Coyotes by 48 and knocked off their other rival for consecutive seasons for the first time since 2010-’11. The only question that remains is whether the Cyclones finish off the job that fell short in 2024.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Nirmalendu Majumdar\/Ames Tribune \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over two-thirds of the Big 12 teams have played four games in the season. There is now enough data for us to bury any pre-season expectations we had for any of these 16 teams. A few teams have clearly established themselves as contenders. A large group of teams remain on the fence between contender and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3959,"featured_media":80315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,35663,35657,35664,35660,35665,35669,2,35572,35656,35655,35666,35671,35668,35661,35658,35662,35659,35667],"tags":[7159,32926,2956,1671,8318,4653,1008,1948,2484,2098],"class_list":["post-80254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big12","category-arizona-state-sun-devils","category-arizona-wildcats","category-baylor-bears","category-byu-cougars","category-cincinnati-bearcats","category-colorado-buffaloes","category-featured","category-heisman","category-houston-cougars","category-iowa-state-cyclones","category-kansas-jayhawks","category-kansas-state-wildcats","category-oklahoma-state-cowboys","category-tcu-horned-frogs","category-texas-tech-red-raiders","category-ucf-knights","category-utah-utes","category-west-virginia-mountaineers","tag-billy-napier","tag-brent-brennan","tag-chris-klieman","tag-dave-aranda","tag-joey-mcguire","tag-kenny-dillingham","tag-mike-gundy","tag-rich-rodriguez","tag-scott-frost","tag-scott-satterfield"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80254"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80316,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80254\/revisions\/80316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}