The 2024 college football season is underway and the Big 12 starts a new era with 16 teams in the conference. Week 9 saw all 14 teams in action playing Big 12 games, with two teams, Iowa State and Arizona State on bye weeks.
Here’s a reminder on how I’ve done this for year or for those of you who are new at Heartland College Sports: It’s about how your team looked and how it played, not always about if your team won or lost. And last week’s rankings have little impact on this week’s. That’s what makes this fun. These are also not predictions for the way the season will end, just a Power Rankings based on performances by a team to date.
1. BYU Cougars (Last Week: 2)
BYU gets to move into the No. 1 spot after a dominant road win over UCF, where they were somehow underdogs going into the game. BYU is 8-0 on the season, has better wins than Iowa State, one more win overall, and is rolling into the month of November.
2. Iowa State Cyclones (Last Week: 1)
Iowa State had a bye week, but falls one spot. Their most recent common opponent is UCF, and BYU dominated UCF on the road, while Iowa State needed a late drive to avoid a home upset.
3. Kansas State Wildcats (Last Week: 3)
Kansas State struggled with a Big 12 bottom feeder in Kansas. However, KU may be the best 2-6 team in history (more below), it was a rivalry game, and the Cats have a recent head-to-head win over Colorado, so I can’t justify moving them down below the Buffaloes, at this point.
4. Colorado Buffaloes (Last Week: 4)
Colorado holds steady at No. 4, this time after rolling past a team that was also 3-1 in league play going into the weekend in Cincinnati. And it was clear from the get-go that Colorado was the more talented and better team. Colorado keeps improving, which is a testament to what Deion Sanders keeps building in Boulder this season.
Related: Big 12 Football Week 9: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
5. Baylor Bears (Last Week: 6)
Baylor is moving up the rankings, and quickly, based on their recent success, including a win over Texas Tech and then beating Oklahoma State on Saturday. They’ve played great offense under Sawyer Robertson’s leadership and the defense remains aggressive and is making plays. Dave Aranda‘s seat is cooling off, which is deserved.
6. Cincinnati Bearcats (Last Week: 5)
Cincinnati hit the road and lost to Colorado in a game that they needed to stay in contention for the Big 12 race in the final month of the season. That now seems incredibly unlikely, but this season has still been a huge step in the right direction for Scott Satterfield‘s program in Year 2 in the Big 12.
7. TCU Horned Frogs (Last Week: 11)
TCU was down three scores, but came back to beat Texas Tech at home on Saturday. They basically gave Texas Tech the same treatment they received vs. UCF last month. TCU has come out of the bye week with two solid wins vs. Utah and Texas Tech to get fans off the back of Sonny Dykes, at least for the time being.
8. West Virginia Mountaineers (Last Week: 8)
West Virginia: The perfect No. 8 team. They beat who they are supposed to beat, and lose to who they are supposed to lose to. Yes, they were underdogs against Arizona, but that was also a bizarre line. WVU was the better team, which says just as much about Arizona.
Related: Five Biggest Takeaways From Week 9 of the Big 12 Football Season
9. Texas Tech Red Raiders (Last Week: 7)
Texas Tech has now lost two-straight games after a 3-0 start in conference play. These are two games that they could have won, and they should look back on both as winnable games, especially TCU, who they led by three scores before blowing it. I put the loss squarely on the defense, who gave up three-straight touchdown drives of nine, six and two plays.
10. Arizona State Sun Devils (Last Week: 9)
Arizona State moves down one week after a bye week. The only reason for this is I could not justify keeping them at No. 9, because they have a head-to-head loss to Texas Tech. So I moved them down one slot.
11. Kansas Jayhawks (Last Week: 12)
I have no problem moving Kansas up here. They had another lead against a very good team, they just blew it. An unfortunate fumble late resulted in the Jayhawks losing a fifth game this season where they had a fourth quarter lead, with their other loss vs. TCU coming when they had a lead late in the third quarter. It’s been a disastrous season in Lawrence.
12. UCF Knights (Last Week: 10)
UCF, yikes. This is ugly after five-straight losses. And on Monday it was announced that they were making major staff changes. For a season that began with so much promise, things are totally lost right now at UCF, which is not a good sign for the program taking the next step in the Big 12.
13. Houston Cougars (Last Week: 16)
Houston picks up a win against Utah. Who saw Houston with a better record in Big 12 play than Utah at this point in the season? No one. Willie Fritz is working with what he has, and clearly showing that if he gets this thing going, Houston can be a formidable force in the Big 12.
14. Arizona Wildcats (Last Week: 14)
Arizona keeps struggling after a bad loss to West Virginia. Once again, Arizona was completely overmatched, despite WVU being down multiple key players. The final score (31-26) makes the game look much more competitive than it was.
15. Utah Utes (Last Week: 15)
Utah has now lost four games in a row after losing to Houston this past weekend. They don’t do anything all that well. The offense is inept, and the season has completely spiraled on this team as it will now fight for bowl eligibility the rest of the way.
16. Oklahoma State Cowboys (Last Week: 13)
What a mess in Stillwater. 0-5 in the Big 12 after a loss to Baylor. This program is in disarray on both sides. Kasey Dunn gets a lot of flack for the offense, but Bryan Nardo is overseeing a defense that is giving up 307 rushing yards per game in conference play. That’s horrific.
