The new recipe

Fact: Half of every major conference is made up of bottom feeders. Another 25% barely bat .600.

Fact: 75% the teams on the schedules of the perennial national Top 15 teams are as week as a saltine poot. Every year.

Fact: It don’t make a shit if the bottom 75% of the Big12 sucks canal water. Its the same everywhere.

Good write-up.

“With the ill-conceived, singular goal of beating Texas, A&M has wandered the wilderness for long enough to get lost.”

We’re lost, but that is a bit of an oversimplified reach.

My only other qualm is I think one could argue that the “capable” and “strong” teams could be swapped straight up.

You could make the case of bumping both Kansas State and Oklahoma State up a level, their perceived success wasn’t that long ago it seems. Also, you seem to really like putting team names in team colors.

Disagree on some of these. Turner Gill will get KS to 8 wins by 2012, Snyder and KSU are frauds that won’t upset us again (but Iowa State will) and I’d bump your capables to strong. Though I should never underestimate the Ag’s ability to choke outside of Thanksgiving.

Hate to stick up for the raiders here, but I would call them “good” over the last few years. Their final AP rankings have been:
09 – 21
08 – 12
07 – 22
06 – NR
05 – 20
04 – 18

kstate hasn’t won 8 games since 2003. While it’s true that they are, as you say “Longhorn kryptonite”, I don’t think I’d consider them strong.

Obviously, it would be nice to run down the other BCS conferences using the same categories.

This is the old Big Eight reborn, with UT/OU replacing NU/ OU.

While it lasts, it will have the same strength (one team poised to play for it all) and weakness (national skepticism about the quality of the league).

Thanks for the write-up.

Big xii lite has no middle class. OSU is more of an underachiever than A&M if you look at talent. Gundy hasn’t’ beaten anybody.

Yeah, I’d say Tech has definitely been between Good and Strong, with a lean more towards Good. Even if this is based on future performance, Tuberville seems to be doing pretty well on the recruiting trail.

I’d put OSU as a solid Strong team. May take a step back this year, but have secured pretty good commits in Sims and Walsh for the future.

I think A&M reaches Strong status this year.

Missouri having to play Texas, OU, Tech, OSU and A&M every year probably pushes them down to Capable.

Tech might be the only program in the country to play .500 ball against UT and OU in the last two years.

Tech can make a good argument at Good, but they just lost the best coahc in the history of the program. I think they get downgraded for that no matter how well Tubbs recruits.

with CU being gone from the north KU, MU and KSU lost an easy win and heck so did ISU. CU was a definitive bottom dweller the last 5 years. NU would’ve filled the good team slot.

I agree that Tech can be considered in the good category and I believe that Tuberville will keep them in that category. He isn’t the Pirate, but he had experience at building a very solid program in the other school in the state.

Here is my issue with Tech…..

I recognize their recent success and also think Tuberville is a good Coach. My problem is that his style & Leach’s players could not be more opposite. Tuberville teams typically feature strong line play, a powerful ground game and stingy defense. I don’t think what he’ll find in the cupboard fits what he wants to do.

The real question is whether he adapts for a year or two while recruiting his players, or if he shoehorns.

when do we get a summer 7 on 7 report fro inside the bubble?

The difference now is, even if we’re unbeaten, an unbeaten Big 10 team likely goes ahead of us as they’re perceived as a stronger league and now will have a championship game.

Any unbeaten PAC 10 team now has a good shot at going ahead of us as well (before it was just USC).

Also, a 1-loss SEC team (or two of them)may well jump ahead of us now as the gap in the two leagues, at least perception wise, has grown larger(an unbeaten SEC team always would have gone ahead of us).

Before I believe an unbeaten USC and an unbeaten SEC team were the only ones that could stay ahead of an unbeaten UT, and both would have to happen in the same year to keep us out of the game. Now the above gives several more scenarios where we could be left out, even if the likelihood of any one scenario is small, it still increases the chance we get hosed.

Let me help you out.

Great teams – Oklahoma & Texas

Good teams – Texas Tech

Strong teams – Missouri

Capable teams – Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Texas A&M, & Kansas

Preservatives – Baylor, Iowa State

Good stuff, Matt.
 
I think you see K-State on the rise where I don’t. The near future for Oklahoma State also looks pretty grim.
 
Texas Tech does have some pre-Tuberville precedent for great defense carrying bad or average offense. Specifically, the Zach Thomas era. Like you, I think they’re fully capable of returning to that, but it may take a year or two.
 
Your overall point is one I agree with – the solid middle of the Big 12 is Charmin soft.

One of Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, A&M, KSU or MU can be a 9-3 team and still be pretty mediocre. The next three years is a major opportunity for all of them.

I trust Snyder & KSU to take advantage of that.

Synder loses one of his guaranteed wins against the directional schools he pads the schedule with and replaces it with a game against a south team and he can only play Baylor once a year.

That is not going to help his win loss record.

Right. I agree. 9 wins doesn’t really what is used to.
 
If you schedule four out of conference scrubs, go 4-4 in league play (with four wins all against average or bad teams, you never have to beat anyone good) and then win a sorry bowl (we now have 35 bowls), you’re 9-4. Successful year! Ticker tape parades.
 
Somehow saying you won 9 games sounds impressive. It’s like we don’t adjust mentally to the 12-13 game schedules or factor in the actual schedule. We remember back when being 9-2 – in the early 80s, late 70s – meant you had a pretty damn good team.

I’m with you that there is a chance for KSU to step it up, mostly b/c despite his age and past scheduling style, he used to put some pretty good defenses on the field. I see KSU heading that way again. Then, should they get the next Michael Bishop or something similar, they could really pretty good season. Not national championship season, but a 11-2, 10-3 season pretty easily.

And put me down as thinking you sold Tech a litte short. I would call them “good” or at least “strong” category. While their recent history stands for itself, put me down in the camp of thinking that Tubs will do well there. He’s had a great deal of sucess coaching at Alabama’s “little brother” school (I still think Auburn screwed up by firing him) and with his prior connections to this state, I seem him continuing that at Tech.

Mack Brown has won at least 9 games 67 straight seasons. Bill Little told me.

The K-State pick reads like an anti-hex pick, which I appreciate more than most.