Oklahoma State, representing the Big 12 sadness after yesterday's controversial loss to Central Michigan. Photo by Alonzo Adams—USA Today Sports
The Big 12 has spent a lot of money in the past year trying to figure out how to make the College Football Playoff. The league even bought into the fake math of an outside consultant to see how it can avoid being left out of the Playoff field.The inconvenient way is there's only one way to optimize your Playoff chances: get better teams. Unfortunately, the Big 12 appears to have forgotten about that part of the equation.Just two weeks into the 2016 season, the Big 12's Playoff chances are significantly worse than the chances of any other conference. No team is eliminated from the Playoff just yet, but the best teams in the conference have zero margin for error. For instance:
- Oklahoma, a 2015 Playoff participant, lost to a Houston team that has a chance to win out. It's unlikely OU could jump an undefeated Houston. Still, Oklahoma now has to win nine Big 12 games and beat Ohio State next week. Good luck.
- TCU looked like the second-best Big 12 team heading into the season. Then the Horned Frogs lost to Arkansas.
- Baylor is 2-0, but the Bears have only played cupcakes and got into a dogfight with SMU this week.
- Oklahoma State lost to Central Michigan this week.
- Kansas (lol) and Iowa State (lolol) aren't helping the strength of schedule.