Big 12 Football Power Rankings Week 13: Texas Holds Onto No. 1, But a New No. 2 Emerges
The 2023 college football season is underway with the Big 12 Conference having some wild games to highlight Week 11, including blowouts and upsets across the board.
So now it’s time for our Big 12 Power Rankings. Here’s a reminder of how I’ve done this for years: It’s about how your team looked and how it played, not always about if your team won or lost. Plus, last week’s rankings have little impact on this week’s. That’s what makes this fun. These are also not predictions for the way the season will end, just Power Rankings based on the most recent performances.
So with that being said, here are our Week 12 Big 12 football Power Rankings.
1. Texas Longhorns (Last Week: 1)
After beating Iowa State and maintaining sole possession of first place in the Big 12, there’s no doubt that Texas deserves the top spot in the Big 12 Conference right now. Their defensive line is a beast and held ISU to nine rushing yards. They have holes in the pass defense, but for now, it has not let them down… yet.
2. Kansas State Wildcats (Last Week: 3)
Kansas State moves up to No. 2 after a big Top 25 road win against Kansas. They were trailing by double digits in the second half and came back to keep them in contention to defend their Big 12 Championship.
3. Oklahoma State Cowboys (Last Week: 5)
The Oklahoma State Cowboys come in at No. 3. It wasn’t pretty for the first half against Houston, whom they trailed 14-0 after the first quarter, but they came back to take care of business and win the game. Oklahoma State now needs a Texas win and a win over BYU to guarantee a spot in the Big 12 Title game next week, which seemed improbable in September.
4. Oklahoma Sooners (Last Week: 2)
The Sooners struggled to beat BYU on the road and lost quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the process. That’s the main reason I bumped them down two spots. When you lose your QB and struggle against one of the worst teams in the league, that’s a tough weekend, even if a win is a win.
5. Iowa State Cyclones (Last Week: 4)
Iowa State wanted to crush Texas’ dreams of winning the Big 12 in their final season in the conference, but they could not get it done. Iowa State rushed for nine yards and the defense couldn’t keep Texas in check in the second half, despite only allowing six points in the first half. But Iowa State has a ton of young players getting important reps and had this team in the mix for a Big 12 title heading into Week 12. The future is bright under Matt Campbell.
6. Texas Tech Red Raiders (Last Week: 6)
Texas Tech is playing some of its best football of the season. They needed a break or two to get by UCF, but the Knights have been playing better themselves as of late. Tech is now bowl-eligible and has nothing to lose against Texas on Friday. I love the spot for Tech, even though UT is clearly the better team.
7. Kansas Jayhawks (Last Week: 7)
Kansas continues to compete with a third-string quarterback in Cole Ballard, who looked much better after a week of reps in practice with the first team. But he’s still a freshman trying to beat a very good Kansas State team. K-State locked down this KU offense down the stretch, which played a role in this loss, along with special teams errors.
8. West Virginia Mountaineers (Last Week: 9)
The Mountaineers bounced back from a bad loss to Oklahoma and crushed Cincinnati. This team needs to play from ahead and control the ground game to win. But heck, they’re 7-4, Neal Brown needs to beat Baylor to be 8-4, and he’s probably coasting to another season in Morgantown in 2024.
9. UCF Knights (Last Week: 8)
UCF’s season of close losses continued on Saturday against Texas Tech. They blew an early lead and then had special teams mistakes that led to this loss. UCF is learning that their talent that allowed for such mistakes in the AAC won’t work in the Big 12. This team has talent but needs to stay mentally in their games for four quarters starting next year to really make a dent in the league.
10. TCU Horned Frogs (Last Week: 10)
TCU beat Baylor in a battle of two teams who have underachieved this season. I won’t even call this game whatever corny nickname the league gave this team a couple of weeks ago. But now, TCU needs an upset over Oklahoma to get bowl-eligible. It won’t be easy, but it would be a feel-good way to end a disappointing season, one year after reaching the National Championship.
11. Houston Cougars (Last Week: 12)
Houston had itself a first-half lead against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, but then the Pokes turned it on and took this game over from the Cougars. But, Houston didn’t fold completely. They came ready to play, but once OSU started feeding Ollie Gordon, Houston couldn’t stop the top running back in the Big 12 Conference this season.
12. Cincinnati Bearcats (Last Week: 11)
Cincinnati was coming off its first Big 12 win of the season, but ended up going to Morgantown and getting blown out by the Mountaineers. They just don’t have the QB play, or offense for that matter, to keep up in this league. Scott Satterfield has his hands full trying to get this program to where it needs to be in the Big 12.
13. BYU Cougars (Last Week: 14)
BYU gets to move up a slot after taking Oklahoma down to the wire in a game they were underdogs in by 25 points. Yes, OU was missing Dillon Gabriel, but credit where its due considering the Cougars had been blown out in each of their last three games. I’m not big on moral victories, but BYU needed one.
14. Baylor Bears (Last Week: 13)
Baylor drops into the No. 14 slot after falling to 3-8 on the season with an ugly loss at TCU on Saturday. The Bears rank near the bottom of the Big 12 in most major categories and there’s no obvious path, other than a major transfer portal infusion, for this program to turn it around quickly under Dave Aranda.
