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BKB's Big XII analysis

Buckeyeskickbuttocks

Z --> Z^2 + c
Staff member
BKB takes on the Big XII. Only partly in jest....

I’m Tired of The Big XII Hype
The recent visits of Oklahoma State fans to Buckeye Planet aside, I can’t take the Big XII any more. While I found the other OSU fans to be very good sports and a welcome addition to the planet, my respect for them can’t keep me from declaring that no Big XII team should ever be allowed to play for the National Championship again. Ever. Period. In fact, I’m very close to kicking them out of the BCS system entirely. It wouldn’t be so bad if their fans were mostly like the Oklahoma State fans have been. But, no… The average Big XII fan is like an OU fan.. A Texas fan.. A Kansas State fan. All with chips on their shoulders. I would normally put Nebraska on that list, but I’ve heard I’m too hard on their fans and that they generally do know what they’re talking about, and are at least respectful of opponents fans. Personally, I think Nebraska is a trumped up Kansas State, which made a living beating up schools like East-Northern Nobody State Community College and then cake-walking through the incredibly weak Big XII itself. In any case, I’ll leave that for another day.

Before diving headlong in to some analysis, let’s take a moment to review what we have in the Big XII. The Big XII was founded on February 25, 1994. The former Big 8 conference, and four schools in Texas joined up to become the most highly obnoxiously touted, relative to actual performance, conference in the history of the universe. Oh sure, people can argue convincingly that the Pac-10 is a bunch of defenseless nancy-boys. Granted, no one thinks the Big Least should still be given a BCS bid. It’s not disingenuous to say that the ACC, up until last season especially, was Florida State and a handful of toasted pastries. That’s the problem, these conferences have accurate reputations, and therefore do not fall under the moniker, “Highly regarded, under performing.” It is likely that the “new ACC” will reach this status in the near future, but at the moment, they must be given at least an opportunity to live up to their hype.

But the Big XII seems to always be regarded as a “real tough gauntlet to have to run” or words to that effect. Gosh oh golly, to have to play in the Big XII…. Whatever would a team like Ohio State do in the Big XII. No way Ohio State could even hope to sniff 3rd place in the North division. I mean, do you really think you want to play against the likes of Missouri, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Texas Tech every week? Hell no… Oh… Wait a second.. Bad example. If Ohio State did play these teams every week, they’d be undefeated (according to recent history, anyway)

2004 – Beat Oklahoma State 33 –7
2004 – Beat Kansas State 35-28
2002 – Beat Texas Tech 45-21
1998 – Beat Missouri 35-14
1999 – Beat Texas A&M 24-14
1997 – Beat Missouri 31-10

Indeed, as the data below will show, even a pee-wee football squad could run through the Big XII – and do so with better than good odds of ending up north of .500. But, that’s getting a bit ahead of myself for the moment.

The Big XII Champion!

While founded in 1994, the first Big XII football Championship game was played December 7, 1996 at the TWA Dome in St. Louis Mo. You may recall this barn burner. 10 – 1 (at the time) and highly ranked Nebraska lost to a 7 – 4 (at the time) Texas squad 37 – 27. As we’ll see, the theme of a crappy divisional representative beating the bigger foe is something of a tradition in the Big XII. Some might call that balance. I too might call it balance. But, I understand that “Balance” doesn’t mean all the teams are top notch. Imagine a conference with 11 different Baylor’s. Or, if you’d prefer, think of the big east. (lower case intentional) Sure, you’ve got balance. They ALL still stink on ice.

Conference Championship Results (Final season records in parentheses)
1996 Texas (8-5) defeats Nebraska (11-2) 37 – 27
1997 Nebraska (13-0) poleaxes Texas A&M (9-4) 54-15
1998 Texas A&M (11-3) exacts revenge on Nebraska by beating Kansas State (11-2) 36-33 in 2OT
1999 Nebraska (12 – 1) beats up on a Texas (9-5) squad that beat them earlier in the year 22-6
2000 Oklahoma (13-0) squeaks past Kansas State 27-24 (11-3)
2001 Colorado (10-3) beats Texas (11-2) 39 – 37 Nebraska goes on to play in BCS championship
2002 Oklahoma (12-2) beats Colorado (9-5) 29 – 7
2003 Kansas State (11-4) beats “the greatest team of all time” Oklahoma (12-2) 35 – 7 OU goes on to Title game anyway…. Loses. K State is punished by Ohio State.
2004 Oklahoma (12-1) crushes hapless Colorado (8-5) 42 – 3. Gets crushed in Title game to USC.

So, what have we seen here. We see either a bad team beating a “good” one (i.e. Texas in 1996) or a “great” team beating the snot out of some sister of the poor (i.e. OU v. Colorado, Nebraska v. A&M) At least one of the Big XII championship game representatives WILL end up with a minimum of 3 loses. We see that a 5 loss squad was good enough to represent their division, 4 times in 9 years. Ladies and gentlemen, that is just under one half of the games. Toss in the 4 loss squads and we see that 6 of 9 games have involved these types of schools. You know what 4 losses gets you in the Big 10? Diddly, save for the same continual reminder from the media that you always get, “The Big 10 is down this year.”

What else? We see that in 2003 Oklahoma made the BCS title game despite no Big XII trophy. We see that in 2001 Nebraska failed to even win their division let alone the Big XII and still made the Title game. While it is true that the Big XII has produced 2 national champions since 1996 (Nebby in 1997 and OU in 2001) I will remind you that the Big 10 has done the same (Michigan 1997, Ohio State 2002)… Come to think of it, even the Pac 10 has 2 (both by USC). So, if I understand correctly, we’re continually being convinced by the football talking heads that, the Big XII is just a real tough conference, the Pac 10 is known for no defense, and the Big 10, with the possible exception of Michigan, will be “down” again. Interesting take on reality, boys.

Lets take a closer look at what the Big XII championship game has produced. What did those teams go on to achieve? Because it’s fun, I’ll pay some attention to non-champion 2001 Nebraska.
1996 Texas – Lost to Penn State 38 – 15 in the Fiesta Bowl
1996 Nebraska – beat Virginia Tech in Orange Bowl.
Record (1 – 1)

1997 Nebraska – Destroyed Tennessee 42 – 17 in Orange Bowl. Won share of National Championship.
1997 Texas A&M – went on to lose to UCLA in the Cotton Bowl
Record (1-1) Overall (2-2)

1998 Texas A&M – as mentioned, blasted by Ohio State 24-14.
1998 Kansas State – Lost to Purdue in Alamo bowl causing me to laugh hysterically for weeks.
Record (0-2) Overall (2-4)

1999 Nebraska – Beats Tennessee again, this time in Fiesta Bowl
1999 Texas – Beat to a pulp by OurKansas.. whoops, I mean Arkansas (8-4) score? 6 – 27.
Record (1-1) Overall (3-5) (uninspiring, aint it?)

2000 Oklahoma – Beats Free Shoes 13 to 2, wins Championship.
2000 Kansas State – Follows Nebraska’s lead and punishes Big XII whipping boy Tennessee.
Record (2-0) HOLY CRAP!!! Overall (5-5)

2001 Colorado – Lost to Oregon by the convincing score of 16-38, after attempting to drum up support for the notion that THEY should be playing in the Rose. (Joking aside, I will always give this team credit for exposing Nebraska 62-36. Thank you Buffs).
2001 Texas – Squeaks past Washington (8-4) in the Holiday bowl. Yeah!
*2001 Nebraska – demolished by Miami in Rose 37-14. Yes, That’s right the vaunted Nebraska “black shirts” gave up 99 points in 2 games. The program has not yet recovered. (note: I am including Nebby because they played for all the marbles.)

Record (1-2) Overall (6-7)

2002 Oklahoma – beat Washington State in Rose Bowl
2002 Colorado – Lost to Wisconsin in Alamo Bowl
Record (1-1) Overall (7-8)

2003 Oklahoma – lost to LSU in Sugar. Game no where near as close as the score
2003 Kansas State – Schooled by Ohio State. Game no where near as close as the score.
Record (0-2) Overall (7-10)

2004 Oklahoma – Embarrassed by the USC.
2004 Colorado – Barely beats UTEP (33-28)… Yes, UTEP… in the no gives a squirt of urine bowl.
Record (1-1) Overall (8-11)
Record in BCS championship games – 1-3

Ok, wait, wait, wait. No doubt some people are thinking, “Hey, BKB, that’s 4 BCS Title appearances. That’s nothing to sneeze at.” Yeah, I guess that’s true. But, I am comfortable representing to you that if you give Ohio State a typical Big XII schedule, Ohio State would have 4 rings right now. Hell, even Michigan might not choke playing the same scrubs the typical Big XII team schedules.

When we look at a conference, simply giving the overall records of a team is somewhat misleading. That is, you lose games to conference foes, that doesn’t really say much about your conference – in other words, for each game won, there is also a loss – zero sum game. It’s the out of conference stuff that matters. I won’t even get in to the huge number of I-AA opponents that a typical Big XII team plays. Below are each Big XII member’s record against other BCS conferences since the inception of the Big XII

Baylor (Big 12 = 6-66)
ACC 1-0
Big East 0-2
Big 10 0-2
Pac 10 1-2
SEC 0-0
Overall 2-6
Colorado (Big 12 = 44-31)
ACC 0-1
Big East 1-0
Big 10 0-3
Pac 10 6-6
SEC 0-0
Overall 7-10
Iowa State (Big 12 = 21-51)
ACC 0-1
Big East 1-0
Big 10 5-5
Pac 10 0-0
SEC 0-1
Overall 6-6
Kansas (Big 12 = 17 –55)
ACC 0-1
Big East 0-0
Big 10 0-2
Pac 10 0-1
SEC 0-0
Overall 0-4
Kansas State (Big 12 = 52-23)
ACC 0-0
Big East 2-1
Big 10 1-2
Pac 10 5-5
SEC 1-0
Overall 9-8
Missouri (Big 12 = 28-44)
ACC 1-0
Big East 1-1
Big 10 2-4
Pac 10 0-0
SEC 0-1
Overall 4-6
Nebraska (Big 12 = 54-21)
ACC 0-0
Big East 2-1
Big 10 6-1 (Curiously, the combined record of Big 10 teams NU beat = 29-43)
Pac 10 5-2 (Combined Pac10 Opponents record? 31-29)
SEC 2-1
Overall 15-5 (OK, great, You’ve proven Nebby can beat up on the nobodies. Go shuck some corn)
Oklahoma (Big 12 = 52-24)
ACC 2-0
Big East 1- 0
Big 10 0-1
Pac 10 3-3
SEC 3-2
Overall 9-6
Oklahoma State (Big 12 = 30-42)
ACC 0-0
Big East 0-0
Big 10 0-2
Pac 10 1-1
SEC 1-2
Overall 2-5
Texas (Big 12 = 55-20)
ACC 2-2
Big East 2-0
Big 10 1-1
Pac 10 2-5
SEC 3-2
Overall 10-10
Texas A&M (Big 12 =42-32)
ACC 1-1
Big East 1-3
Big 10 0-2
Pac 10 0-1
SEC 0-2
Overall 2-9
Texas Tech (Big 12 = 40-32)
ACC 1-2
Big East 0-0
Big 10 0-3
Pac 10 1-1
SEC 2-3
Overall 4-9

All Big XII Schools (Big XII 441-441)
ACC 8-8
Big East 11-8
Big 10 15-28 (9-27 if you take away Nebraska’s “pity fucks” as outlined above)
Pac 10 24-27 (Axe the Pac 10 also-rans from Nebraska’s schedule? 19-25)
SEC 12-14
Overall 70 – 85 (taking away Nebraska’s creampuff shenanigans = 59 – 82)

The Big XII has a winning record against one BCS conference. That conference is the Big East for God’s sake. I don’t want to hear about how great these Big XII teams are, top to bottom. Fact is, they flat out stink. If it were not for Nebraska kicking the living hell out of the likes of 1999 Iowa (1 win, 10 losses) the Big XII would be laughed at unmercifully. Can we please stop the madness of allowing the media schmucks to hype up how great the Big XII is? The Big XII is Oklahoma and, only occasionally, Texas. That’s it. The league is no where near competitive. The same 6 teams, OU, Nebraska, Kansas State, Texas, Texas A&M and Colorado are the only teams that EVER make any noise. Ever. Nebraska hasn’t been very good of late, so you can pretty well take them off that short list. A&M had a brief run in the late 90’s, and has since been average at best. Kansas State is.. well.. Kansas State. As soon as Snyder is gone, you can forget all about KSU. Hell, we may not even have to wait that long. Colorado is the best in a very BAD division. Spare me. Texas is at least OK, but can’t be depended on to win the big games. Oklahoma, at least for the moment, is clearly at the head of this miserable list.
That, of course, stands a good chance of changing next season as OU breaks in a great many young players. Bring on Texas, I guess. Nebraska is still recovering, OU may need a year or two off. Must be Texas’ turn to dominate the “so called” Big XII. Whoopie. Maybe Texas will lose to Ohio State in September, run the table in the Big XII and get their asses handed to them in whatever bowl they end up in, like OU and Nebraska have been so good at doing. Screw the Big XII
 
Nice read and some interesting facts to consider. I did find one mistake though. After 2002 bowls you have the Big XII's record at 7-8, then they went 0-2 in 2003 against Ohio State and LSU, but you improved their record to 8-9 instead of 7-10. So in all actuality you gave them more credit than they deserve with a 9-10 overall bowl record when it actually was 8-11. Other than that little detail it was good and obviously took some time.
 
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May want to add that Ohio State is 28-3-1 all-time against current Big 12 teams. That's exactly four 8-game conference schedules, in which we'd average 7-1 each year aside from one 7-0-1 year (if ties were still allowed). Yeah, the Big 12 fans are right...we couldn't compete. :roll1:

Nice thorough article.
 
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Please don't let Craig James see this post...and the so-called nancy boys of the Pac-10 haven't had a very difficult time with the Big-10 in recent years..

Just thought i'd add that for reading pleasure..
 
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How they "work the officials" in the Big XII:

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