We’re halfway through the 2024 college football season and have had some incredible storylines from across the country so far.
While Quinn Ewers and Jalen Milroe were expected to be the darlings of the Heisman Trophy race, Ashton Jeanty and Dillon Gabriel have been the most impressive players to this point. The latest AP and coaches polls have Texas, Oregon, and Penn State in the top three spots—Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio State are nowhere to be found.
The chaos hasn’t skipped out on the Big 12, either, as the conference looks nearly like an inverse of what the media poll predicted in the preseason. There are dozens of crazy storylines to follow in this league, but what’s been the most captivating thing to happen in the Big 12 thus far?
The Heartland College Sports staff discusses in this week’s roundtable: What is the top Big 12 story of the season heading into Week 8?
Pete Mundo: The Inversed Big 12 Standings
The top storyline has to be the way the standings are flipped from the preseason polling. We all thought Oklahoma State would be right in the thick of this race, along with Utah. Heck, some thought their September meeting could be a preview for the Big 12 Championship Game. Both teams have different quarterbacks than how they started the season and are a combined 1-5 in conference play.
Meantime, raise your hand if you had BYU and Arizona State at a combined 5-1 in conference play. There’s no way you did. But here we are. The Big 12 was always going to be unpredictable, but we thought we could at least predict who would be in the top half of the league and who would be in the bottom half of the league, but that’s obviously not even close to being the case.
It’s the Big 12 being the Big 12, but even more Big 12-y than we even expected!
Bryan Clinton: The State of Utah
As Pete mentioned, the Big 12 has been pretty much the inverse of what the media poll suggested it would look like ahead of the season. The state of Utah is a perfect microcosm of that. Utah was picked to win the Big 12 and represent the league in the 12-team playoff. Meanwhile, BYU was picked to finish 14th and serve as an afterthought in the conference title race.
Fast forward to mid-October, and BYU is sitting at 6-0 (3-0 Big 12) and is favored to win five of its remaining six games, including their visit to Rice Eccles Stadium in early November. Meanwhile, Utah is 4-2 (1-2 Big 12) and is projected to be an underdog in four of its final six games.
BYU’s defense has been stifling, allowing a league-low 4.42 yards per play and leads the Big 12 with 14 turnovers forced (10 INT, 4 FUM). Meanwhile, Utah ranks 13th in the Big 12 in yards per play (5.81) and turnover margin (-0. 67) with 11 turnovers lost on the year.
Matthew Postins: A Wide-Open League at the Turn
The biggest storyline in the Big 12 so far this season is, I think, the story we sort of suspected – that the Big 12 is a wide-open conference. Consider this. Just one of the four teams most experts believed would be in contention for the title game is legitimately still in contention, and that’s Kansas State.
Going into the weekend, Iowa State, BYU, and Texas Tech are all undefeated in league play and have a chance to reach Arlington. The depth and the parity in this conference are what we thought going in, and the way it has shaken out reinforces that it’s the funnest conference in college football.
Joe Tillery: Oklahoma State…
It’s high time more people started focusing on Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State Cowboys‘ disastrous start. The team currently sits in a three-way tie with Kansas and Baylor for last place in the league, and it has a plethora of issues to resolve.
Quarterback play has been one of the significant issues in Stilwater, with Alan Bowman reverting back to his usual self. The offensive line is no good despite being one of the most experienced units in CFP, and what the hell happened to Ollie Gordon? The former Doak Walker award winner has fallen off a massive cliff in 2024, so much so that broadcasters calling Cowboys games openly mention that Gordon should sit out the rest of the season to preserve his draft stock best.
While Lance Leipold and the Kansas Jayhawks are a close second, Gundy’s group is the biggest story in the league so far.
Derek Duke: Two CFP-Caliber Teams
If I had to pick one thing, I would look at the big picture here for the Big 12. I talked about this a lot this week because it could end up happening, which, of course, is the conference possibly getting two teams into the College Football Playoff. Before the season started, I would have said there was no chance in hell that the Big 12 would get two teams in due to the depth of this conference and the fact that the playoff committee has zero respect for teams outside the Big Ten and SEC.
Well, here we are in mid-October, and we have two undefeated teams in Iowa State and BYU. And when you look at their remaining schedules, there is a good chance we could see two 12-0 teams in Arlington. Plus, they don’t play each other in the regular season, which sets things up nicely. If we have two undefeated teams in the Big 12 title game, then there is a 99.9% chance that the conference will get two teams into the playoff. The 0.01% is left for the playoff committee trying to put a two-loss SEC or Big Ten team in over a one-loss Big 12 team.
