Week 9 is already here, and the Big 12 has several storylines to follow as the race to Arlington heats up.
There are just five weeks left in the regular season and the margin of error is as thin as ever. There are a half dozen teams that look capable of making a run to the Big 12 Championship, but maintaining that level of play consistently week in and week out has proven difficult.
This week, we have seven games on tap as Iowa State and Arizona State both have a bye – and all of them are jam-packed into the afternoon and evening windows on Saturday.
Here are the top storylines from around the league that you’ll want to follow along with during the action.
Is BYU on Upset Alert?
I opened up last week’s biggest storylines with the same question as BYU (7-0, 4-0) was playing host to Oklahoma State, who was coming off a bye week with a new quarterback. The Cowboys were seconds away from pulling off a massive upset, too. However, a go-ahead touchdown with 10 seconds left gave the Cougars a 38-35 win and moved them to 7-0. It’s not often that we see a fringe top-ten team close as an underdog to a team with a losing record, but it appears that will be the case this weekend as BYU is +2.5 points vs. How worried should Cougar fans be about this one? Traveling across two time zones to play a game is never easy, and the Knights desperately need a win here. The offense looked as good as we’ve seen it in a few weeks with Jucarri Brown at the controls, but now there’s some film on him in Malzahn’s system.
BYU has been a different animal at home, but they’ve seemed a little more vulnerable on the road. If they don’t play a clean game this week, it might cost them their first contest of the season.
A Critical Late-Night Game in Boulder
Excluding die-hard Colorado and Cincinnati fans, there wasn’t anyone following Big 12 football that had the Bearcats and Buffaloes’ Week 9 tilt circled as must-see TV. However, that’s exactly what it is, and it could be the week’s most pivotal game in terms of Big 12 Championship implications. While neither is ranked, both teams carry 5-2 overall records and, more importantly, 3-1 records in Big 12 play into this week. That means the winner of this game will enter the month of November with a 4-1 record in league play and will be no worse than third in the Big 12 standings. On top of that, the winner of this game will officially be bowl-eligible through eight games, which would be a huge accomplishment for either team, considering the expectations coming into the year. Deion Sanders’ team appears to be finding itself along the lines of scrimmage, while Scott Satterfield’s team has found a playmaker in Brendan Sorsby and has a defense that is rounding into form.
With a 9:15 p.m. CT kick, the environment in Boulder should be electric. Who will make the plays needed to win the game?
A Sunflower Showdown Snoozer?
Kansas vs. Kansas State was supposed to be one of the biggest games of the year coming into this season. The Jayhawks had several playmakers back – none bigger than QB Jalon Daniels – while K-State was an exciting prospect given the emergence of Avery Johnson. The Wildcats have done their part and enter the game at 6-1 (3-1 Big 12) and ranked 16th in the country. Kansas, on the other hand, just won its first game since the month of August and is 2-5 (1-3 Big 12) heading into the weekend. K-State is a 10-point favorite as of Friday morning and has won 15 consecutive games in the series, dating back to November 1, 2008. To add insult to injury, the game is in Manhattan this year and it’s set for a 7:00 p.m. CT kick. Wabash Cannonball will be played and Wildcats fans will be chomping at the bit.
Can Kansas pull off the major upset and turn their season around, or will K-State make it one step closer to a Big 12 title game appearance?
Several Must-Win Situations for 3-4 Teams
This week is pivotal for several teams, but not just the ones that are front and center in the Big 12 title race. Five Big 12 teams enter this week with 3-4 overall records and are at a turning point in their season: West Virginia (3-4, 2-2), Arizona (3-4, 1-3), Baylor (3-4, 1-3), UCF (3-4, 1-3), and Oklahoma State (3-4, 0-4). A win this week will get any one of these teams to 4-4 and back to .500. Why is that especially important right now? A loss this week drops you to 3-5 on the year, but it also leaves teams with just one loss to give before missing a bowl game. That means those teams would have to suddenly win three of their last four games to get to a bowl game. However, at 4-4, teams have four games left in the season and must win just two of their last four to get to that magical six-win mark.
UCF has a tall task with BYU on deck, but the other four teams 3-4 play one another this week. West Virginia is at Arizona, while Oklahoma State is at Baylor. Both the Mountaineers and Bears have coaches on hot seats, and OSU has one of the longest active bowl streaks in the country on the line. There are storylines abound for these teams in Week 9, and that makes for some high-intensity matchups.
