Big 12 North: Looking for one good team
In the preseason, I picked Colorado to win the Big 12 North. I thought the Buffs would be decent, they most definitely had the most favorable schedule and Dan Hawkins had to start doing something sometime, didn’t he? Then Colorado lost to Colorado State and got rolled by Toledo, and my pick looked silly.
Last week, I took another flier on Colorado. I decided to go with a daily double on my weekly Upset Special: Texas Tech to beat Nebraska straight up and Colorado to do the same to Kansas, straight up.
Darned if the Buffs didn’t pull it off. Under new starting quarterback Tyler Hansen, Colorado beat KU 34-30, and now look at the crazy North standings: Kansas State 2-1, Colorado 1-1, Nebraska 1-1, Kansas 1-1, Iowa State 1-2 and Missouri 0-2.
Suddenly, it’s not crazy to see Colorado winning the North. Kansas has the toughest schedule (OU, Texas and Tech). Missouri has a bad team. Nebraska has no offense. I can see Colorado winning at Iowa State and beating Texas A&M at Boulder. That’s three wins. CU also goes to Kansas State (this Saturday) and hosts Missouri. If the Buffs can split those two, that’s four wins. That means Colorado would host Nebraska on Thanksgiving Friday with a 4-3 record and perhaps the North Division title on the line.
Saturday night, someone asked me what’s the minimum number of wins for the division winner. The answer will startle you: three. The North champ conceivably could go 3-5.
Here’s how. If the North teams play as even as possible, you’d have three teams go 3-2 within the division and three teams go 2-3. Let’s say Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska are the three that go 3-2.
Kansas hosts OU and goes to Texas and Tech. That easily could be 3-5.
Nebraska hosts OU and goes to Baylor, plus already the Huskers have lost to Tech. It would be a huge upset if Nebraska lost to Robert Griffin-less Baylor, but with the way NU’s offense struggles, anything is possible.
And Missouri already has lost to OSU, hosts Texas this Saturday and hosts Baylor. So that’s a stretch. No way would Baylor win at Mizzou, I don’t think. So we might have to go to another team.
Colorado? If the Buffs get to 3-2 intradivision, they’re not a good candidate to be swept by the South, since the Buffs host A&M. Colorado also goes to OSU and has already lost to Texas.
Kansas State already has a victory over A&M and Iowa State already has a victory over Baylor.
So while it’s possible to have a North champ at 3-5, the only way it could happen is if Baylor pulls a big upset or A&M wins at Colorado.
Not likely. But the South clearly remains dominant over the North. OU and Texas routinely sweep the North; Tech and OSU are threats to do the same in 2009. Don’t count out 4-4 for the North champion.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Looking for one good team? Ha! Snyder and his gang showed why they are the “Mildcats” no more…The Jayhawks might as well be called the Mildhawks since they couldn’t even punch in a quarterback sneak for the last minute touchdown to win and stay undefeated…Looks like this year in the Big 12 its the year of the longtime underdogs like OSU and K-State!