AP Top 25 Continues Troubling Trend for Big 12, Oklahoma State's Future
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The Big 12 is still having a rough time in the national landscape.
Over the weekend, the Big 12 had some interesting matchups as it secured an unbeaten record in nonconference games. While a couple of matchups between Big 12 teams on Friday kept the conference from having a perfect record, the 12 teams in action combined for a 10-2 mark, which is the best they could have achieved in Week 3.
However, that didn’t mean a whole lot for the Big 12 in the AP poll, which dropped on Sunday. The conference had only three teams in the top 25, with No. 12 Iowa State, No. 16 Utah and No. 17 Texas Tech representing the Big 12.
In terms of how bad that is for the Big 12, the conference’s most recent departures in Texas and Oklahoma came in at Nos. 8 and 11, respectively. Meanwhile, the other three power conferences have at least one team in the top four and multiple teams in the top seven.
Of course, the AP poll is only good for discussions, as evidenced by winless Notre Dame’s inclusion, with the independent program riding the coattails of last season’s runner-up performance. The real rankings won’t come until the final weeks of the year, with the College Football Playoff’s top 25 ultimately being all that matters in the end.
To put it simply, the AP poll is unlikely to have any impact on OSU this season. The Cowboys’ loss at Oregon will keep them from receiving a single vote for quite some time, even if they could somehow put together a sizeable winning streak starting with the Tulsa matchup.
Of course, if the Cowboys could find a way to put together any sort of streak, perhaps in a similar fashion to 2023’s winning streak, they might be able to break through anyway, given the Big 12’s status nationally. Sure, the Cowboys won’t be any sort of contender at the national level any time soon, but a 5-1 start would probably be good enough to get them into the polls and the Big 12 title conversation.
In terms of the long-term future, the Pokes might not even be saved by any type of resurgence. Considering the Big 12 is easily the laughing stock of the Power Four, it needs a program to essentially save it from becoming irrelevant in the national landscape.
With OSU being the laughing stock of the Big 12, there’s no reason to expect the Cowboys to be the saviors the conference desperately needs.
Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.