Big 12: Sooners on top, Jayhawks on bottom

After the final week of conference play, the Oklahoma Sooners are on their way to the Big 12 Championship game.

The 2017 regular season is over for the Big 12 Conference, and it ended fairly similar to how it was predicted to go. The Oklahoma Sooners are once again the crimson and cream of the crop. Their only loss on the year was to Iowa State, who also grabbed a win against the Sooners opponent in the Big 12 championship game, TCU.

Top tier

The Oklahoma Sooners were led all year by an enthusiastic Baker Mayfield, who should win the Heisman running away. Likely considered the best quarterback in the storied schools history, Mayfield has the Sooners playing superbly going into the playoffs. All the Sooners need to do to get in is win.

TCU looked as though they would be a powerhouse early on in the season until the hiccup against Iowa State and the loss to Oklahoma on November 11th. The Sooners beat the Horned Frogs 38-20 in Fort Worth. Gary Patterson continues to be successful year in and year out.

Another hopeful to get to the conference championship before the season included Oklahoma State, who also looked like a playoff contender early. A loss to TCU early on and another defeat in a barn burner vs the Sooners put the Cowboys on the outside looking in. Kansas State closed the blinds on the Cowboys season.

Mid tier

The aforementioned Cyclones of Iowa State were impressive and surprising, climbing deep into the top 25 before fading out at the end of the season. The Cyclones lost three of their last four.

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The West Virginia Mountaineers hung around the top 25 for much of the season but struggled to stay legitimate for weeks at a time. The Mountaineers lost their last two games of the season.

The Kansas State Wildcats became a curious team throughout the season, finishing 7-5 when their bowl lives seemed doomed with two weeks left. Two major upsets over Oklahoma State and Iowa State to end the season propelled them to postseason play behind freshman quarterback Skylar Thompson. Thompson was the third string quarterback to start the year. Four of the five losses were by seven points or less. Coach Snyder still has what it takes to keep the Wildcats competitive.

The Longhorns under-achieved by national media standards but finished right where they should according to Big 12 folks, in the middle.

Broken tier

Texas Tech was quietly mediocre this season but still qualified for a bowl game with a win against Texas in the final week of play.

Next: Eventual replacements for Snyder?

The Baylor Bears and the Kansas Jayhawks fought for the rights to dwell at the bottom in 2017. The reigning champion of horrid football, Kansas, had its arms full with the poor product of once powerful Baylor. The Bears made sure the Jayhawks kept the dunce crown by beating the brakes off them 38-9 on November 4th. The Jayhawks have lost 11 games in a row with nowhere to go but up. Perhaps saving the job of David Beaty? It can’t get much worse.