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Six days out of the week, the Big 12 conference is mired in negative headlines, draped in rampant realignment rumors, and drowning in an endless stream of finger-pointing and dismissive "Who, me?" shrugs.
On Saturdays, though? Well, on Saturdays this fall, there’s been no conference more dominant than the dysfunctional, held-together-by-a-lone-piece-of-scotch-tape Big 12.
A once-proud conference that’s reportedly hanging by a thread, the misnamed Big 12 currently has three teams in the top 10, eight teams without losses, and zero teams with records of .500 or worse through three weeks of college football action. If the 2011 season is going to end up serving as the Big 12’s swan song, the conference certainly is going out with a bang.
It’s not just Oklahoma strolling into Tallahassee and walking out with a 10-point win over the 5th-ranked team in the country or a rebuilding Texas squad waxing UCLA's team of seniors in front of a packed house in Pasadena. It’s Oklahoma State embarrassing a strong Arizona team on national television. It’s Baylor topping the 2010 Rose Bowl champion TCU Horned Frogs in a Friday night thriller on ESPN. It’s unbeaten Kansas State giving up a total of 7 points in two games. Perhaps more surprising (and impressive) than anything, though, has been the team no one expected anything from this season — those guys up in Ames.
The Iowa State Cyclones, picked by most writers to finish in last place in the 10-team Big 12 this season, are off to a surprising undefeated start, with fourth-quarter comeback victories in all three of their contests. In back-to-back weeks, they've beaten Iowa and Connecticut in dramatic fashion. "I don't think anyone picked us to win three," coach Paul Rhoads said after Saturday’s 24-20 win over UConn. "Confidence continues to build as we find ways to win football games."
And winning is what the Big 12 is doing. Across the board — from the top of the standings to the bottom, from the teams with one foot out to the teams who’ll be left in the lurch — the wobbly conference that everyone seems to want to leave behind is playing a stellar brand of pigskin.
In the backdrop of the Big 12’s on-field dominance this year, has been pure and utter chaos. Longtime conference mainstays Colorado and Nebraska left for greener pastures last spring, the launch of ESPN’s Texas-only Longhorn Network caused ripples of frustration across the Midwest, and in the last four weeks, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma have each been linked to the Pac-12, Texas A&M has announced its intention to join the SEC, and Texas has been attached to the Big East, the ACC, the Pac-12, the world of independent football, and Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Leonard DeCaprio and Tom Sizemore, as well.
At the same time, the quartet of Big 12 leftovers — Missouri, Kansas State, Baylor, and Iowa State — have been hovering in the shadows of all of these burnt orange and crimson and cream conversations, linked by speculators to some new-look version of The Big East. A foursome of non-AQ schools — Houston, Air Force, SMU and BYU — meanwhile, have all been tied to some bourgeois new-age version of the Big 12. Following all that? An episode of Breaking Bad has less twists and turns.
Off the field, it’s been a grandiose game of Pin the Tail on the Conference — blindfolds, laughing bystanders, leaps of faith, and all.
And yet, on the field, it’s been a series of sweet symphonies of offense and brutal rock concerts of punishing defense for the conference.
Over the weekend, a group of deep-pocketed businessmen and politicians ran full-page ads in the majority of Texas’s largest newspapers to plead for the Big 12 to stay together. "It is time for the boards and administrations of all the institutions in the Big 12 to call a truce ... what we have is a conference not only worth fighting for, it's worth waging peace for," read the ad from Drayton McLane, owner of the Houston Astros, "Red" McCombs, former owner of the Minnesota Vikings and San Antonio Spurs, former Texas Gov. Mark White and former San Antonio mayor Phil Hardeberger.
On Monday afternoon, the boards of regents at both Texas and Oklahoma are scheduled to meet and discuss the potential flood of universities leaving the Big XII. Tuesday through Friday will likely be filled with similar closed-door meetings and news headlines. Mizzou could be rumored to be joining the SEC, Notre Dame could once again be tied to one of the BCS’s six leagues, and the ACC could be 30 schools deep by Friday.
But when Saturday comes, a scrappy Kansas State squad will undoubtedly be giving Miami a game in Coral Gables, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M are going to square off in the most entertaining aerial shootout of the weekend, and Oklahoma and Mizzou will take center stage on FX in a Gus Johnson/Charles Davis-sized battle out in Norman.
The Big 12’s alive and well, folks.
For now.
