POWER RANKINGS

Breaking down the Big 12

1. Baylor: Baylor doesn’t care about style points. The goal for the Bears is to reach the Big 12 title game and earn a victory. Baylor is the best defensive team in the conference.

2. Oklahoma: The Sooners had an open week to sulk over the loss to Kansas State. Oklahoma can prove it was a blip on the radar with a convincing win over Iowa State on Saturday.

3. Kansas State: Head coach Chris Klieman is coaching his tail off in Manhattan and is clearly the best first-year head coach in the Big 12.

4. Texas: Maybe the open week helped Texas get close to healthy and back to the team most of us expected in Austin against Kansas State. The wheels could fall off with another loss.

5. Oklahoma State: Oklahoma State is the bi-polar team of the Big 12. The Cowboys are capable of losing to Texas Tech, but is now on a two-game winning streak.

6. Iowa State: The Cyclones won’t live up to its preseason expectations, but they can still play spoiler starting this week with a trip to Oklahoma.

7. TCU: Horned Frogs fans can hold on to the victory over Texas because that’s about as good as it gets for Gary Patterson’s program in 2019.

8. West Virginia: The Mountaineers nearly pulled off an upset against Baylor last Thursday. Austin Kendall simply isn’t good enough to beat quality Big 12 opponents.

9. Kansas: K-State remains the football kings of the state by throttling the Jayhawks. Basketball season is here, so no one in Lawrence will notice.

10. Texas Tech: Tech can get out of the basement of the Big 12 Power Poll with a win over West Virginia this weekend. The Red Raiders defense is allowing 478 yards per game in 2019.