Air MidwestCertainly, the North situation became a lot less opaque with K-State beating Kansas. The fact that Nebraska upset Oklahoma simply means there are two teams battling it out instead of one. However, before I crown the CornCats North Champion, I should point out that it is still possible to have a five-way tie for the top. Let’s see what the BCS poll has to say about breaking that tie!

Five teams could end 4-4. Here is how it could happen. K-State would, obviously, have to go 0-2 (losing to Missouri and Nebraska). That could happen. Nebraska’s win over K-State would mean they would have to lose their other two games (@Kansas and @Colorado). Ok, that could happen too.

Iowa State needs to go 2-0, so they would have to beat Colorado and Missouri. Not unreasonable. In this scenario, Colorado has to go 2-1. We already have them losing to Iowa State and beating Nebraska. That simply means they have to go into Stillwater and beat Oklahoma State. Ok, now we’re stretching it!

And, finally, Kansas has to go 3-0. We already have them beating Nebraska, but they would also have to beat Missouri. Finally, in order to complete the puzzle, they would have to go to Austin and beat Texas.

I think it is safe to say that CU is not going to win at OSU and KU is not going to win at Texas. So, that just leaves a three way tie between KSU, NU and ISU.

The three way tie could also be KSU, NU and MU if MU were to beat ISU and KU along with K-State.

Regardless of how it happens, a three-way tie is plausible.

VERSUS THE LINE

Kansas has now lost to the line six consecutive games. Kansas State has beaten the line five straight times.

11 LITTLE INDIANS

It’s clear that Texas is a legitimate national championship contender. There was some doubt early in the season – right up to three minutes to go in the first half against Colorado trailing 14-3. They outscored CU 35-0 the rest of that game. Since then, they have also beaten the second best Big 12 team (Oklahoma State) 41-14 on the road.

It’s clear they belong in their own class at this point. With either Alabama or Florida destined to lose, Texas controls their own destiny to the national championship.

Even though I’m a KU fan, I’m not going to be upset with Texas winning the game. I hope it will remain close, but a Texas loss will kill the Big 12’s credibility – which is in question anyway. What a difference a year can make!

SCORING IS DOWN - DEFENSE IS UP

I guess that’s the way it works. In any event, the Big 12 now has three teams in the NCAA top-10 in scoring defense. Last year, the best ranking any B12 team had was Texas (#18) and the second best was Oklahoma (#58)!

On offense, only two teams have higher scoring averages than 2008 – Colorado and Texas A&M. Keep in mind, those two teams were the worst (offensively) last year, so there was only one way to go. The more interesting comparison is on defense. All 12 are allowing fewer points than a year ago.

Shown are the teams and the DIFFERENTIAL between 2008 and 2009 for both offense and defense.

 OFFENSEDEFENSE
Baylor-3.7-4.6
Colorado+3.0-6.5
Iowa State-4.1-13.1
Kansas-2.6-4.6
Kansas State-8.8-13.3
Missouri-14.3-2.8
Nebraska-9.7-18.2
Oklahoma-21.3-12.2

Oklahoma St.

-6.7-7.1
Texas-1.4-6.4
Texas A&M+10.6-6.8
Texas Tech-3.6-4.4

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As you can see, A&M is scoring way more points than they did in 2008. Colorado is scoring slightly more. Otherwise, everyone is down – including Oklahoma who is down over 21 points per game on offense!

On defense, the numbers are even more amazing, led by Nebraska who is allowing 18 ppg less than they did a year ago.

This is an extraordinary shift from one season to the next. I’m not sure what explains it. Sure, the league lost Daniel and Bradford and Crabtree and Bryant and Maclin and Harrell, but I wouldn’t have thought it would have made that much difference. In any event, last year was probably just a fluke... unfortunately. It was sure a lot more fun to watch.