Sixth-ranked TCU is preparing for another Top 10 matchup, this time at home against No. 9 Kansas State.
Defending Big 12 champion Baylor, having rebounded from its only loss to get back in the Top 10, is headed to No. 16 Oklahoma.
Those are two big games Saturday that will have a definite impact on the top half of the conference standings. And don’t forget those new playoff implications this season.
“With the new recruiting rules and geographical locations and such, the teams in this league are going to beat each other up like what they’ve doing in the SEC for the last five or six years,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said Monday on the weekly Big 12 coaches’ teleconference. “I think you’re going to see that from now on in the Big 12.”
There are six games Saturday matching Top 25 teams. The Big 12 is the only league with two such games, and that includes the only top 10 matchup.
Kansas State (7-1, 5-0 Big 12, No. 9 CFP) and TCU (7-1, 4-1, No. 7 CFP) were the only Big 12 teams in the top 10 of the first College Football Playoff rankings that will determine the final four teams. The new poll comes out Tuesday night.
Since a 20-14 home loss to No. 3 Auburn in September, the Wildcats have won five games in a row — all Big 12 games. Before the last two at home, they won 31-30 at Oklahoma.
K-State coach Bill Snyder expects his veteran squad to continue to work to get better and be prepared for another tough road game.
“They’ve experienced it,” Snyder said. “But you still have to do it, and the fact is TCU, in all likelihood, will be the best football team we’ve played up to this point in time.”
The Horned Frogs were No. 9 in the AP poll four weeks ago when they went to then-No. 5 Baylor and had a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter. Baylor wiped out that deficit in the final 11 minutes and won 61-58 with a field goal on the last play.
Baylor (7-1, 4-1, No. 13 CFP) followed that with a 41-27 loss at West Virginia, and then an open date before bouncing back big as expected against Kansas last weekend.
Now the Bears go to eight-time Big 12 champion Oklahoma (6-2, 3-2, No. 18 CFP), which has lost two of its last three games by a combined four points (they also lost 37-33 at TCU). While they need a lot of help ton win another Big 12 title, at least one league coach isn’t ready to write off the Sooners for a playoff spot.
“We knew they were an outstanding football team in preseason, and they were ranked in the top five the first part of the season for good reason,” said Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads, whose team is coming off a 59-14 home loss to the Sooners on Saturday. “They haven’t gone anywhere, the two teams that they’ve lost to are top 10 teams and are great football teams. … There’s a lot of football left to be won and lost that’s going to affect a lot of teams, and whoever survives our league and lands at the top certainly belongs in the final five, whoever that may end up being.”
Before Heisman Trophy quarterback Robert Griffin III led Baylor to a home win over Oklahoma in 2011, the Sooners were 20-0 in the series dating back to 1901. That changed the tone of the series, with Oklahoma holding on for a 42-34 home win in 2012 before the Bears won 41-12 at home last year on way to their first Big 12 title.
“We’re just glad to be a part of it,” Baylor coach Art Briles said. “They dominated for so long that we’re glad that we’re a formidable foe, and that we’re getting to where we’re gaining a little more respect in the series.”
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