Big 12 Conference should bask in its glory while it can
CHRIS DUFRESNE / ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL
It's the best week in the conference's history when the points that league schools received in the AP media poll are added up. But conference play cannibalism will soon wreak havoc with the top 25.
The Big 12 Conference should temporarily suspend the season and take a giant group photo, because there may never be a week like this again.
The conference has the nation's top-ranked team, Oklahoma, four schools ranked in the top seven, six teams ranked in the top 25, and nine quarterbacks ranked in the top 20 of this week's NCAA pass efficiency statistics.
Oklahoma on top is nothing new, as the Sooners ascended to No. 1 in the Associated Press media poll this week for a record 96th time.
Sooners' Coach Bob Stoops cautioned during today's Big 12 conference call that things can change quickly in the rankings game.
"Our guys know who's lost and how they've lost," Stoops said of a weekend in which four top-10 schools were defeated. "So in the end, we'll certainly discuss it to some degree, but they know. Everybody understands that if you're not at your best, and you don't play at your best, and play foolishly, you're going to lose."
The Big 12 has a few more days to bask in glory before cannibalism in conference play starts to wreak havoc with the top 25.
"It's where you end up in January," Gary Pinkel, coach of No. 4 Missouri, said. ". . . I just want to be somewhere in it at the end of the year."
This is the best overall week in the history of the Big 12 Conference, which was formed in 1996, when you add up the number of points that league schools received in the Associated Press poll.
And how about Big 12 quarterbacks?
A conference that was once dominated by run-option philosophies, with quarterbacks such as Scott Frost of Nebraska and Michael Bishop of Kansas State, has turned into a seven-on-seven passing league.
David Johnson of Tulsa, a Conference USA school, leads the nation in passing, but the next four positions are occupied by Big 12 quarterbacks: Colt McCoy (Texas), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma), Chase Daniel (Missouri) and Zac Robinson (Oklahoma State).
Josh Freeman of Kansas State checks in at No. 8 with Baylor's Robert Griffin at No. 10.
It's a tough crowd when you consider Graham Harrell, Texas Tech's record-setting quarterback, ranks 20th nationally but only ninth in his own conference.
"The best quarterbacks in the country, as a league, are in the Big 12 this year," Texas Coach Mack Brown said.
There were years the Pacific 10 could make that argument, but not in this one.
Texas' McCoy has completed 80 of 100 pass attempts this year, which is hard to do in a seven-on-seven scrimmage.
