It would be premature, given the chaotic nature of the Big 12, to eliminate 75% of the teams from conference championship contention. But the cream has risen to the crop at this point. Plenty of entertaining games still await that lack championship stakes. But with the debut of the week 11 Big 12 power rankings, it is clear that only four teams are in the running for the two championship game spots.<\/p>\n
Last Word was letting the public know during the picks last week<\/a> that Oklahoma State was improving. They have made such strides that being spotted 24.5 points by Vegas was enough for the Cowboys to cover. They still lost decisively, but improvements are improvements. It leaves the door open for this team to avoid going winless in conference play.<\/p>\n Speaking of going winless in Big 12 play, it\u2019s a good thing Colorado caught a floundering Iowa State team at home because the Buffs look lifeless right now. They lost their last two games by a combined score of 105-24. Quite frankly, they haven\u2019t even been that close. They have turned the ball over six times in that same two-game stretch. With head coach Deion Sanders’ health issues remaining a prime concern, there is a good chance these will be the last three games he roams the sidelines in Boulder.<\/p>\n It turns out this Knights team that had been plucky at the start of conference play isn\u2019t very good after all. Even with them exploding for 45 points last week against West Virginia, they have only combined for 54 points in their other four conference games. They are one of only two Big 12 teams (Oklahoma State being the other) that have yet to score 100 points in conference play yet. The fact that Baylor\u2019s defense kept them out of the endzone is as ugly as it gets. If Scott Frost and company don\u2019t win against Houston this week, it\u2019s almost guaranteed they will miss bowl season.<\/p>\n Speaking of missing bowl season, that trip to Ireland for the Cyclones feels ages ago. They lost at home to a backup quarterback who only completed 13 passes. Rocco Becht has been out of sync for the last three games. And this team has a horrible habit of disappearing offensively in the second half of games. In their last three games against Colorado, BYU, and Arizona State, the Cyclones have combined for only 13 points in the second half. They still have Oklahoma State on the schedule to likely secure a bowl bid. But it would be comforting to see a full four-quarter effort from this offense before taking that to the bank.<\/p>\n Has Rich Rodriguez finally found his quarterback? Freshman Scotty Fox Jr<\/a>. certainly has brought some life to this Mountaineer offense. Even in a losing effort against TCU prior to the Houston game, he threw for 301 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions. Against Houston, it was his legs that sparked this offense with two touchdown rushes. The road win was aided heavily by winning the turnover margin 4-0. But there is a great opportunity for the Mountaineers to put together their first winning streak of the season this week, with Colorado coming to Morgantown.<\/p>\n The hot seat talk around Dave Aranda has quieted temporarily with a controlling victory over UCF. Baylor\u2019s much-maligned defense turned in its best showing of the season. The offense wasn\u2019t as explosive as it had been all year. However, they met little resistance moving the ball against the Knights all game. The Bears are going into the bye week needing one more win to secure a bowl game. However, their remaining three games are at home against Utah, a road trip to Arizona, and home against Houston. It is going to take their best effort to secure at least one more win before the season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n Arizona was on a bye week last week. They resume action this week against Kansas.<\/p>\n Lance Leipold was able to get his team to regroup nicely after a demoralizing 35-point defeat to their in-state rivals. It was a bit of a slow start as the Jayhawks were only up 10-7 at halftime. But a second-half surge put it away. The Jayhawks find themselves in the week 11 Big 12 power rankings, where the distinction between 7 and 11 is razor-thin. It\u2019s an area where no contenders are located, but very much could play spoiler down the last few weeks of the season.<\/p>\n For the first quarter of their game against Texas Tech, the upset script was unfolding. The Wildcats shut out the Red Raiders. Avery Johnson<\/a> appeared to pick up where he left off from his previous match-up against Texas Tech. \u00a0<\/strong>However, that\u2019s where the good feelings ended. The Wildcats were then outscored 43-13 over the last three quarters of the game. Despite the blow-out defeat, it is still clear this team has improved from its slow September start. Oklahoma State, Utah, and Colorado remain for this team to secure two more victories to make a bowl appearance. If Chris Klieman\u2019s squad continues to show up, they should win at least the next two of three.<\/p>\n Well, Houston, I hope you enjoyed the week of \u201cHey, Houston could do this now. The schedule sets up nicely. 11-1 is a real possibility.\u201d It is hard to win any game turning the ball over four times. With the loss to West Virginia, any Big 12 title hopes are spiritually eliminated. Willie Fritz has already succeeded this season. A seven-win campaign coming into 2025 would have shown tremendous growth. But this team still has plenty of opportunity to improve on this season. They will look to rebound on the road against UCF on Friday night.<\/p>\n The Horned Frogs were off last week. Sonny Dykes\u2019 team welcomes a reeling Iowa State team to Fort Worth this week.<\/p>\n There is a good chance that what Jeff Sims did last week in a win over Iowa State isn\u2019t sustainable. He carried the ball 29 times for 228 yards and two touchdowns. The Sun Devils will have to find an answer in the passing game. But Kenny Dillinghams will have two weeks to try and find it before they welcome West Virginia to town. The Sun Devils still have an outside shot to defend their title. But the way they won last week, while admirable, isn\u2019t the most convincing brand of football.<\/p>\n Generally, when a team gets run over in a 31-point loss, they would have fallen further in the week 11 Big 12 power rankings. But this was Scott Satterfield\u2019s first loss of Big 12 play. The offense still moved the ball well against a physical Utah defense to the tune of 427 yards. But three turnovers doomed this team in the end. Everything is still in front of the Bearcats. A much-needed bye week comes as they prepare for a stretch of Arizona, BYU, and TCU to close out the season.<\/p>\n This very well could be one of the better Kyle Whittingham teams in his historic tenure with the Utes. Even with losses to the top-ranked teams in the conference, the Utes still have a plus-116-point differential in Big 12 play. It will only help the Big 12\u2019s case to get multiple big into the playoff if they continue to smash the last three remaining opponents (Baylor, Kansas State, Kansas) and finish at 10-2. However, they still need significant help from the rest of the conference due to the head-to-head losses to the only two teams sitting in front of them in the week 11 Big 12 power rankings.<\/p>\n While it was important to get quarterback Behren Morton<\/a> back (whose play got better as the game progressed against Kansas State), the defense shone, causing five turnovers in a 23-point road victory<\/a>. Joey McGuire\u2019s team is doing its best to prove that the loss to Arizona State with its backup quarterback was an abnormality in an otherwise dominant 2025 season. However, this week they face the biggest test this program has yet to embark on. Can the Red Raiders not let the moment of College Gameday and the eyes of the country watching overwhelm them against BYU?<\/p>\n Kalani Sitake\u2019s team was off last week. It couldn\u2019t have come at a better time as they embark on their toughest stretch of the season, starting with the road trip to Lubbock on Saturday.<\/p>\n Main Image: Reese Strickland-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It would be premature, given the chaotic nature of the Big 12, to eliminate 75% of the teams from conference championship contention. But the cream has risen to the crop at this point. Plenty of entertaining games still await that lack championship stakes. But with the debut of the week 11 Big 12 power rankings, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3959,"featured_media":82023,"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":[6,35663,35657,35664,35660,35665,35669,2,35656,35655,35666,35671,17,35668,35661,35658,35662,35667],"tags":[2956,1671,5954,4653,2832,1948,2098,2753],"class_list":["post-82011","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-west-virginia-mountaineers","tag-chris-klieman","tag-dave-aranda","tag-kalani-sitake","tag-kenny-dillingham","tag-kyle-whittingham","tag-rich-rodriguez","tag-scott-satterfield","tag-sonny-dykes"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82011","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=82011"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82024,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82011\/revisions\/82024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}15. Colorado (Last Week 14)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
14. UCF (Last Week 12)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
13. Iowa State (Last Week 9)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
12. West Virginia (Last Week 15)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
11. Baylor (Last Week 13)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
10. Arizona (Last Week 11)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
9. Kansas (Last Week 10)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
8. Kansas State (Last Week 6)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
7. Houston (Last Week 4)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
6. TCU (Last Week 8)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. Arizona State (Last Week 7)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
ONLY CONTENDERS REMAINING<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. Cincinnati (Last Week 3)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Utah (Last Week 5)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Texas Tech (Last Week 2)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
1. BYU (Last Week 1)<\/strong><\/h3>\n