Everyone circled November as the month we’d separate the men and the boys in the Big 12, and it has more or less delivered, but not in the way we anticipated: TCU, with two losses, is done, and Baylor, even with a loss, will need to slaughter the Frogs and Texas (and also for chaos to reign supreme) in order to sneak back into the top four.
So we instead shift our attention north: over the summer we thought both of these teams might take a leap. Oklahoma’s new OC Lincoln Riley inherited a pair of elite running backs in Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine, plus won the transfer lottery when Baker Mayfield came knocking.