Big 12 Power Rankings: Terrible Start to the Season for Big 12 Only Gets Worse

Sep 14, 2013; Austin, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator

before kick-off against the Mississippi Rebels at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports

It may be only three weeks, but the start of the college football season has not been kind to the Big 12.

Need scandal? You’ve got it. Oklahoma State is mired in a cheating scandal broken by Sports Illustrated over the past week. It includes accusations the University paid players, altered grades, and used sex to help recruit players. Even if nothing happens to OSU from this report, the distraction has been massive, and has done no favors to the conference’s image.

Need a high profile coach on the hot seat? You’ve got it. Mack Brown‘s Texas Longhorns are in free fall after back-to-back lopsided losses to BYU and Ole Miss. The seat was already warm coming into the season for Brown, and now it is on fire. Texas almost has to win out in order to save Brown’s job at this point, and even that may not be enough.

Need historically bad play? You’ve got it. Try to find a BCS conference with teams as bad as Kansas and Iowa State involved in it. The Toilet Bowl in Ames is going to be must see TV for masochists.

Last week, the Big 12 was 4-3 in non-conference games with losses to Rice, Iowa, and Ole Miss. The conference has no teams ranked in the Top 10 in either the AP or USA Today poll for the fourth-straight week in a row, a conference record.

Hopefully things will turn around for the Big 12 as the season progresses, but it is clear this has not be an ideal start to the 2013 football season.