In the ever-shifting landscape of college athletics, one distinction trumps all others in regard to conference realignment. That distinction is football dominance, and it drives the cash--and therefore the decisions--in that sphere. In the past few years, the Big 12 Conference has often been neglected as a football power, or at least designated to the "second tier" of football conferences.
Yes, the SEC and Big 10 believe that they are the kings of college athletics, but if we take a look at each conference's body of work from the opening week of the season, it's not hard to see that the "Power 2" narrative between those two bodies may be a bit misguided.
Sure, in this week's AP Poll, the top 10 is stuffed full of schools from those conferences (and Notre Dame), but at this point in the season, the rankings are never as accurate as you may be led to believe.
Picking which teams are greater and which are lesser during the preseason is much like Emperor Kuzco picking a bride by walking down the line and declaring each team's value by appearances alone. Hate your hair, not likely, yikes, yikes, yikes, and let me guess, DJ Uiagalelei has a great personality.
Sure, Georgia looked very strong against Clemson, but beating up on this year's Swinney Special is probably much less impressive than it would have been several years ago. Yeah, Oregon was a top-3 team, but they nearly dropped their season opener to the University of Idaho--an FCS school with almost half of Oregon's enrollment.
My point is this: we can't use these rankings as a tangible measure of greatness. There's a reason the College Football Playoff Rankings don't come out until November. At this point in the season, we don't know who these teams are. But by taking an entire conference's resume into account, we may learn something about the whole, rather than numbering the league by the sum of its parts.
Big 12 Week One Stats
The Big 12 was 14-2 on the week, which ranked second in winning percentage among all conferences. That 87.5% winning percentage is its highest all-time for week one, and indicates that the Big 12 is still a strong football league, even after the Red River Rivals skipped town for the seemingly greener pastures of the SEC.
Do you like quarterback play? I love it, and that's what you get in the Big 12. Big 12 QBs averaged 290.4 passing yards per game, which was #1 among all conferences. In addition to that, the conference is home to super athletes at wide receiver, as 11 players collected 100+ receiving yards, with Arizona's Tetairoa McMillan stockpiling 304 yards against New Mexico.
And that's all great, but what good does that do if no one is even watching the games (you know, the whole "trees falling in forests" thing)? Well, Colorado's matchup against FCS opponent North Dakota State averaged 4.8 million viewers and peaked at 5.6 million--the highest-rated Thursday opener in seven years and a 49% increase in viewership from last season.
I won't say the Big 12 was the best conference in College Football last week, but I'll let you take a look at those numbers and let you gather your own conclusion.