With a little over half of the Big 12 teams being two games into conference play, the league still has two teams solidly in the national top 25 polls and a handful of teams vying for spots in the back end of those rankings. Let’s take a look at the AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches poll for Week 6 to see how the Big 12 is stacking up.
In the AP Poll, Texas Tech rose a single spot to No. 11, still unable to break into the top ten despite teams like No. 7 Penn State and No. 9 Texas somehow not having a better single win than Tech’s 34-10 win at Utah. Poll inertia and brand value continue to carry the day, what else is new?
In the back end of the AP Poll, BYU moved up from No. 25 to No. 23, and Arizona State moved back into the top 25, taking that final spot at No. 25. That is a five-spot jump for the Sun Devils after a pair of nervy 27-24 wins over Baylor and TCU to start Big 12 play.
Utah and TCU received votes in the AP, leaving those teams at the hypothetical No. 27 and No. 34 positions, respectively.
As for the Coaches Poll, Iowa State stayed above Texas Tech with the Cyclones moving up one spot to No. 12 while the Red Raiders stood pat at No. 14. BYU and ASU came in at No. 23 and No. 24 in this poll with Utah joining the party at No. 25. Once again TCU received a small handful of votes to land them at No. 39 and Houston received a single vote to make it to No. 43.
Keeping up to date with Baylor non-conference opponents, SMU is still completely out of the polls, while Auburn’s loss to Texas A&M dropped them completely out of the AP Poll. The Tigers sit at No. 32 in the Coaches poll with just 12 points.
Perhaps a Baylor win over Kansas State could see the Bears return to the receiving votes section. While Dave Aranda’s team likely needs to win both that game and the rivalry matchup at TCU after the open week to get back into the top 25 conversation, only time will tell how the Bears perform and the pollsters perceive the team. So check in next week to see how things have shifted for the Big 12 and the Bears in the polls.
