Baylor's Over/Under 8.5 Wins in 2022 Feels Just Right
Baylor football under Dave Aranda took a massive leap in 2021 to win a Big 12 championship and take home a Sugar Bowl victory over Ole Miss. That's great and all, but was the success so rapid that regression is inevitable in 2022? BetOnline.ag has released its estimated win totals for next fall, and Baylor is tied with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas atop the Big 12 with an over/under of 8.5 wins. Four teams tied at the top of the league is some wild parity, and it may just mean that Baylor's odds at another double-digit win regular season are low.
Drake, who is joined on today's episode by Phillip Slaven of the Ten 12 Network, then opens up the ever-looming question about pods, divisions and protected rivals. As college football expands, it's worth noting that the Big 12 will have to keep up with the sport's trend of reinventing conference makeup. Rather than having two 7-team divisions with Oklahoma and Texas around or even two 6-team divisions after they exit, the conference must decide what trend to follow with splitting teams into geographically convenient pods or established rivals.
And the guys round out today's show by revisiting Drake's favorite topic — the death of the Big 12 championship game. Sure, it's all about creating the path of least resistance to put a team in the playoff, but doing away with the Big 12 title game would only hurt the league's revenue — and that is not something to test with the two biggest budgets in the conference leaving. Moreover, Phillip stands by the idea that the Big 12 will not craft its schedule each season to benefit its best teams. That just wouldn't be logistical.