Big 12 Power Rankings: Baylor’s Offense Proves Ready for Big 12 Schedule

Oct 5, 2013; Waco, TX, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Dana Holgorsen comes off the field after the game against the Baylor Bears at Floyd Casey Stadium. The Bears defeated the Mountaineers 73-42. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Good news: The Big 12 has an ascending nation title threat and a team in the top 10 in one of the major polls for the first time this season.

Bad news: The Big 12 may be worse now than it was last week.

Baylor has proven itself to be one of the best teams in the country, and Vegas agrees. The Bears opened the season with 200-1 odds to win the national championship. Those odds now sit at 6-1.

The reason why those odds are improving so much is because the Big 12 is awful, Baylor’s offense is ridiculously good, and the BCS is a flawed system. The only chance Baylor has to lose a game this year is to Oklahoma, and that game is at home. Other than that, Baylor should run the table for a perfect season. Finding another BCS team that will finish undefeated is very difficult, let alone two teams – which is what it would take to knock out Baylor from the title game.

But if there were to be three undefeated teams, Baylor would likely be the odd team out. The Big 12 has proven to be awful this season and may be getting worse.

Texas Tech lost their starting quarterback Baker Mayfield to a knee injury, Oklahoma needed a late touchdown to beat TCU, and the conference has zero teams ranked in the top 11 of the AP poll (though USA Today has Oklahoma 10th). Six schools in the conference are not even receiving votes in either poll. A lack of depth and almost no valuable non-conference wins could keep Baylor or Oklahoma out of the national title game.

Oh, and Big 12 replay officials have no idea what a fumble is or is not. To the power rankings…