{"id":80932,"date":"2025-10-07T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=80932"},"modified":"2025-10-06T17:34:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:34:16","slug":"week-seven-big-12-power-rankings-new-team-on-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/10\/07\/week-seven-big-12-power-rankings-new-team-on-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Week Seven Big 12 Power Rankings: New Team On Top"},"content":{"rendered":"
After another full slate of games, the week seven Big 12 power rankings had quite a shakeup. While the bottom remains relatively unchanged from week six\u2019s rankings<\/a>, the top five teams shuffled around to new spots. Plenty of teams in the top half of the rankings are still in play for a chance to compete for a Big 12 crown. But there is one team that has been established as the favorite in the 2025 season.<\/div>\n

Week Seven Big 12 Power Rankings: New Team On Top<\/h2>\n

16. Oklahoma State (Last Week 16)<\/h3>\n
So much for any life left in this program for 2025. It was 38-6 before Oklahoma State scored a meaningless touchdown. 1-11 is on the table. Of course, 0-12 was within the realm of possibilities for UCLA before Penn State arrived. So, as JP from Angels in the Outfield said, \u201cHey, it could happen.\u201d<\/div>\n

15. West Virginia (Last Week 15)<\/h3>\n
The good news is that in a trick road spot on a Friday night, the Mountaineers\u2019 defense forced three BYU turnovers. The bad news is that when BYU wasn\u2019t coughing up the ball, they couldn\u2019t be stopped. BYU only punted one time. Now, they have another tricky road spot, having to travel down to UCF against a scrappy Knights team.<\/div>\n

14. Colorado (Last Week 14)<\/h3>\n
The Buffaloes stayed in the game as long as they could against a TCU team with a high-powered offense. The fact that it was 21-21 with 11:42 left in a game when Deion Sanders\u2019 team turned the ball over four times is incredible. With Iowa State, Utah, and Arizona State remaining on the schedule, things aren\u2019t looking good for the Buffs to make a bowl game.<\/div>\n

13. Kansas State (Last Week 12)<\/h3>\n
With 1:15 left in the third quarter, Kansas State went up 31-17 on Baylor. This was finally the turnaround moment this team needed to save its 2025 season. Avery Johnson<\/a> would finish the game with 411 total yards of offense and three touchdowns. But as much as the offensive struggles have been a talking point through five games, it has been the defense that has been the structural damage. They allowed Baylor to score 18 points in the fourth quarter. The last kick in the gut was having the potential game-winning field goal blocked as the Wildcats dropped to 2-4.<\/div>\n

12. UCF (Last Week 13)<\/h3>\n
UCF might be hanging out in the bottom third of the week seven Big 12 power rankings, but they could be a thorn in the side for many teams down the stretch. Scott Frost\u2019s crew did a nice job keeping Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels contained<\/a> all game. They were also on the Jayhawk one-yard line with under a minute to play with a chance to tie. But the Knights fell just short. UCF has one of the hardest remaining schedules in the Big 12, but it will eventually clip one of the top teams in the conference this year.<\/div>\n

11. Arizona (Last Week 11)<\/h3>\n
It looked like 2023 Noah Fifita<\/a> on the field against the lowly Cowboys from Oklahoma State. Other than that, there wasn\u2019t much to take away from Arizona beating up on a bad Big 12 team. This week, with a prime-time game against BYU, the \u2018Cats have an opportunity to show this Brent Brennan rebuild is moving in the right direction.<\/div>\n

10. Baylor (Last Week 10)<\/h3>\n
If we had to pick a non-contender (as of the week seven Big 12 power rankings) that is appointment television, Baylor is the slam dunk answer. Against P4 opponents, quarterback Sawyer Robertson<\/a> is averaging just under 370 passing yards and over 3 touchdowns a game. This team will always be in a game because of this offense. But this is one of the worst defensive units in the Big 12. Dave Aranda\u2019s club is trending along the lines of a fun team to watch, but can\u2019t compete for anything serious because of a Swiss-cheese defense.<\/div>\n

9. TCU (Last Week 9)<\/h3>\n
Much like the team we just discussed, TCU\u2019s offense will make them capable of beating anyone in the Big 12. Their defense is much better than Baylor\u2019s. But the TCU issue is having extended stretches in which the offense goes MIA. Winning the turnover margin 4-0 and only having 26 more yards of total offense is puzzling. If TCU wants to be taken seriously as a contender, it needs to see the offense fire on all cylinders for four quarters against Kansas State this coming Saturday.<\/div>\n

8. Kansas (Last Week 8)<\/h3>\n
One core principle for this Last Word correspondent is seeing teams win in different ways. That is something that stands out in separating good teams from \u201cpretending teams.\u201d Kansas\u2019 offense has been humming for this entire season until it got trapped in the Bounce House. Lance Leipold\u2019s quarterback did not score a touchdown. Outside of completions for 24, 38, and 46 yards, Daniels was only 15-for-23 for 127 yards passing. With the offense limited, they still found a way to escape a tricky road test with a victory.<\/div>\n

7. Houston (Last Week 5)<\/h3>\n
Credit to Willie Fritz\u2019s defense. They were the exact definition of \u201cbend but don\u2019t break\u201d against a very dangerous Texas Tech offense. However, the offense appeared to be overwhelmed all game against the Red Raiders\u2019 defense. So, the Coog defense was on the field for almost 16 more game minutes than Texas Tech\u2019s and eventually caved. Houston should bounce back nicely this week, traveling to Stillwater.<\/div>\n
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Photo Credit: Craig Strobeck-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

6. BYU (Last Week 6)<\/h3>\n
Quarterback Bear Bachmeier<\/a> has not been asked to do much through the air in the first four games of the season. But against West Virginia, he put on his best aerial performance with 351 yards on just 18 completions. His last three games passing are almost identical in terms of completions and attempts (18-for-25, 19-for-27, 18-for-25). This team still wants to control the ball on the ground and play excellent defense. Last Word will see how well this formula travels when they take on a tricky Arizona team Saturday night.<\/div>\n

5. Iowa State (Last Week 1)<\/h3>\n
Losing two starting cornerbacks for the season looks like it will loom very large for Matt Campbell\u2019s team. But the thing that was most surprising was how long it took Rocco Becht<\/a> and the passing offense to get going against a Cincy defense that hadn\u2019t been able to defend the pass well all season. The comeback effort came up just short in the second half as Iowa State dropped its first game of the season.<\/div>\n

4. Cincinnati (Last Week 7)<\/h3>\n
But now we shift our attention to the winning squad. Quarterback Brendan Sorsby<\/a> has figured some things out since that week one loss against Nebraska. Since that game, he has thrown 12 touchdowns and zero interceptions. This offense has scored no less than 37 points in its two Big 12 games. Again, the pass defense is still a concern, but this team has a very plausible path to a 4-0 Big 12 start with UCF and Oklahoma State as its next two opponents.<\/div>\n

3. Arizona State (Last Week 4)<\/h3>\n
Kenny Dillingham\u2019s team was on a bye week last week. They travel up to Utah to take on the Utes.<\/div>\n

2. Utah (Last Week 3)<\/h3>\n
Just like Arizona State, Utah was also on a bye week. Their game with the Sun Devils will establish who the second-best team in the Big 12 is.<\/div>\n

1. Texas Tech (Last Week 2)<\/h3>\n
Because the clear-cut best team in the Big 12 resides in Lubbock, Texas. The Red Raiders make their debut at the top spot in the week seven Big 12 power rankings after dispatching Houston without much resistance<\/a>. No Big 12 team has scored more points on offense this year. No Big 12 team has allowed fewer points on defense. Joey McGuire has this team firing on all cylinders. Can they continue this dominant run this week as they welcome Kansas to town for their homecoming game?<\/div>\n
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Main Photo: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After another full slate of games, the week seven Big 12 power rankings had quite a shakeup. While the bottom remains relatively unchanged from week six\u2019s rankings, the top five teams shuffled around to new spots. Plenty of teams in the top half of the rankings are still in play for a chance to compete […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3959,"featured_media":80943,"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":[6,35663,35657,35664,35660,35665,35669,2,35656,35655,35666,35671,17,35668,35661,35658,35662,35659,35667],"tags":[1671,8318,4653,9113,212,2484,2165],"class_list":["post-80932","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-houston-cougars","category-iowa-state-cyclones","category-kansas-jayhawks","category-kansas-state-wildcats","category-news","category-oklahoma-state-cowboys","category-tcu-horned-frogs","category-texas-tech-red-raiders","category-ucf-knights","category-utah-utes","category-west-virginia-mountaineers","tag-dave-aranda","tag-joey-mcguire","tag-kenny-dillingham","tag-lance-leipold","tag-matt-campbell","tag-scott-frost","tag-willie-fritz"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80932","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=80932"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80944,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80932\/revisions\/80944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}