The Big 12’s big three delivered blowout wins on Saturday. Unfortunately, the rest of the college football world didn’t cooperate, and the path to multiple Big 12 playoff teams is shrinking.

Here are my top five takeaways from the weekend. 

The Big 12 Has Three Playoff-Caliber Teams

BYU and Utah rolled TCU and Baylor on Saturday, giving us even more evidence that they’re playoff-worthy.

BYU led wire-to-wire against the Horned Frogs behind an offense so dominant it had 25 first downs in its first 50 plays. The Cougars scored on their first seven drives and didn’t punt until the fourth quarter. QB Bear Bachmeier piled up over 350 total yards and two touchdowns.

Utah scored on runs of 74, 67, and 64 yards against the Bears and added a 65-yard interception return for a touchdown for good measure. Backup QB Byrd Ficklin rushed for 166 yards on only six carries.

Every Big 12 win for Utah this season has come by at least 27 points. BYU controlled the Utes in a win in Provo earlier this year and is getting stronger as the season goes on. 

Yet Texas Tech beat both teams by a combined 46 points. 

As strong as the Cougars and Utes were, their performances taught us just as much about Texas Tech as they did about themselves. The Red Raiders, who made quick work of UCF on Saturday, are national championship-caliber if QB Behren Morton can make it through the rest of the season.

The good news on that front is that Morton didn’t even have to finish the first half against the Knights because Tech had built a 38-2 lead. Head coach Joey McGuire wisely bought him extra rest, which is huge as Morton deals with a hairline fracture in his fibula.

The game was so stress-free for the Red Raiders that McGuire got Heisman candidate LB Jacob Rodriguez, who started his college career at quarterback, a rushing touchdown. 

The Big 12 should be viewed as a league with three playoff-caliber teams and one legitimate national championship contender. 

I’m sure detractors would say BYU and Utah can’t be playoff-caliber because they don’t have what it takes to win the title. I don’t think that matters. There aren’t 12 teams in the country capable of winning four straight playoff games, but we have a 12-team playoff. Some of the field won’t be capable of winning it all. 

Before you get too excited, the Big 12 having three playoff-caliber teams doesn’t mean they’re all getting in. In fact…

Only One is Likely to Make It In

Right now, you have to squint to see the path to the Big 12 getting a second team into the field. Saturday wasn’t a good day for the at-large chances of BYU and Utah. 

Notre Dame’s dominant win over Pitt locked up an at-large spot for the Fighting Irish if they take care of business against a pair of three-win teams (Syracuse and Stanford) to end the season. Oklahoma’s upset win at Alabama put the Sooners in position to make the field, perhaps even if they lose one more to Missouri or LSU. USC’s comeback win over Iowa keeps the Trojans squarely in the at-large mix, and Miami’s blowout win over NC State will keep the Hurricanes in it. 

Here’s a good look at the overall playoff picture right now:

Don’t sleep on Michigan and Texas as potential Big 12 bid-stealers, either, if the Wolverines beat Ohio State or the Longhorns take down Texas A&M. 

The problem facing Utah is the lack of a needle-moving opponent left on the schedule. Beating K-State and Kansas, no matter the margin of victory, won’t do much for the committee, especially when the main at-large competition is a handful of high-profile Big Ten and SEC brands.

A more compelling Big 12 at-large case would be BYU. If the Cougars beat Cincinnati and UCF and play a more competitive game against Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game, how would the committee view them?

They aren’t supposed to punish a team for losing its conference championship game. That might be put to a real test in that BYU scenario. 

And what if the Cougars pull the upset of Tech in the Big 12 title game? The Red Raiders would likely be ranked in the top five before losing to BYU, so you’d think they would have to stay in the field. 

That should be the best-case scenario to get two teams in. 

Another thing to keep in mind is Texas Tech’s chase to finish as a top-four team and earn a first-round bye. The Red Raiders are likely to move up to fifth this week after Alabama’s loss. You could argue that it would be better for the Big 12 to have a team finish in the top four than to have two teams playing in the first round. 

It will be fascinating to see where the committee sits this week, especially after the abrupt Mack Rhoades departure as selection committee chairman.

Arizona is Legit

Arizona’s 30-24 win at #25 Cincinnati changed my view on the Wildcats this year.

It was easy to look at Arizona’s 6-3 record going into the game as inflated by beating up on below-average Big 12 teams, but the Bearcats aren’t that. This was a statement game for head coach Brent Brennan. 

My perspective on Arizona has now flipped to “What if?” What if the Wildcats had held on to a double-digit fourth-quarter lead against BYU? What if Houston didn’t hit a 41-yard field goal as time expired to beat them last month?

That’s how close this team is to being right in the thick of the Big 12 title race. 

Arizona QB Noah Fifita completely out-played Cincy QB Brendan Sorsby in a battle of the two best signal callers in the league this year. Fifita completed 74% of his passes for 294 yards and a touchdown, while Sorsby hovered just above 50% and threw two interceptions. 

If the Wildcats had executed better in the red zone, this game wouldn’t have even been close. 

It was a brutal loss for the Bearcats, who were in control of their own Big 12 championship and playoff destiny. They now need wins over BYU and TCU and a lot of help to make it to Arlington. 

In two straight losses to Utah and Arizona, Sorsby has completed just 42% of his passes and has four turnovers. Cincinnati can’t lean on its defense to beat good teams. The Bearcats need more from QB1. 

It’s crazy how quickly the pendulum can swing in college football. Jon Wilner, who covers West Coast college football as well as anyone, was wondering out loud this weekend if UCLA will pursue Brennan to be its next head coach.

Just months ago, Brennan was considered to be on a relatively hot seat after a disastrous year one. 

Kenny Dillingham is a Gem

Arizona State survived a wild finish in Tempe to beat West Virginia 25-23. 

The Sun Devils blew a 12-point second-half lead by giving up two fourth-quarter touchdowns to the Mountaineers, including a 90-yard touchdown on 3rd-and-27. 

Somehow, some way, ASU is still alive for a trip to the Big 12 championship game. If BYU slips up and loses at Cincinnati this weekend, the Sun Devils have a real shot. 

They continue to find ways to win without QB Sam Leavitt and WR Jordyn Tyson, which speaks to the coaching chops of head coach Kenny Dillingham.

He’s finding a way to win Big 12 games with journeyman college quarterback Jeff Sims, who was cast aside at both Georgia Tech and Nebraska. Sims had 31 career touchdown passes and 29 interceptions before he came to Tempe. He now sports a 5-to-1 TD/INT ratio. 

It shouldn’t surprise us that Dillingham seems to be a quarterback whisperer. He resurrected Bo Nix’s career at Oregon and turned him into an NFL starter.

The best news of all? Dillingham is in it for the long haul. He shot down rumors of him leaving for open college jobs like Auburn, Penn State, and LSU after Saturday’s win. 

Pay attention to what he says about the alignment at Arizona State from the top down. Every Big 12 school needs to be thinking this way. At this critical juncture in the college sports landscape, every Big 12 athletic department has to be all-in on getting football the resources it needs to compete at the highest level. 

It’s not the time to just hope and pray that NIL deals above the revenue-sharing cap get struck down. You need to prepare to fund a roster beyond simply revenue sharing, or you’re going to get left behind fast. Dillingham wouldn’t be sticking around if ASU weren’t all-in on that front. 

Kudos to Dillingham for pushing for it and to Arizona State’s leadership for keeping him happy. 

K-State Has Major Problems

Is it a coincidence that I’m writing about K-State immediately after those last three paragraphs about staying on top of funding in this era of college football?

No, no it is not. 

There are significant problems in Manhattan that go far beyond just a disappointing football season. Hope isn’t a strategy, and too much hope was placed in the College Sports Commission cracking down on pay-for-play NIL deals that go above the revenue-sharing cap. While I understand schools' desire for roster spending to essentially end at the cap, it was naive to believe that would actually happen. 

There is still technically time for K-State to get its financial ducks in a row to field a competitive roster in 2026, but the groundwork has to start immediately. 

K-State’s effort on the field at Oklahoma State on Saturday didn’t inspire much confidence in the future, either. 

Yes, the Wildcats’ 14-6 win was just the third K-State win in Stillwater in 26 years, but these are not your older brother’s Cowboys. Oklahoma State has lost 16 straight Big 12 games, and the Cowboys haven’t won a Big 12 home game in 723 days. 

OSU has given up at least 38 points to every Power Four team it has faced this season. K-State scored 14. 

Even Tulsa, which is 0-6 in the AAC, beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater this year.

It’s what made this postgame quote from Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman endlessly frustrating for K-State fans. 

It’s not wise to constantly read too far into comments made by coaches in postgame press conferences, but I’ll make an exception here. 

From the top down in the athletic department, through the football program, there is far too much complacency at K-State during the most crucial time in the history of college athletics. Complacency will bury you when the existential threat of being left behind in major college sports is brutally real. 

Oklahoma State is a perfect example. It took less than two full seasons for OSU to go from playing in the Big 12 championship game to losing 16 straight Big 12 games. A program that had been as steady as they come for two decades got complacent and didn’t stay on top of funding a competitive roster. It buried them quickly.

Texas Tech is all-in. Arizona State is all-in. BYU is all-in. Kansas just secured a $300 million donation from a billionaire donor. K-State has a billionaire alum, so there’s no excuse not to be selling a vision and a plan to those with the deepest pockets. 

KSU basketball head coach Jerome Tang took it upon himself to sell donors on his vision enough to get top-five NIL money for last season’s roster. It can be done with creativity, effort, and a plan. 

The threat of K-State becoming Oregon State or Washington State by the end of the decade exists here today, and it’s not one to be taken lightly.

What You Need to Know

• Texas Tech and BYU both moved up in the AP football top 25, and another Big 12 team jumped into the rankings at #25.

• The latest On3 College Football Playoff bracketology lists three Big 12 teams, but not all of them are actually in the field.  

• Brett Yormark worked his magic to get the Big 12 mentioned in a hit TV show. 

• The Big 12 has three teams in the top ten of the latest AP men’s basketball poll. 

• KU basketball star Darryn Peterson’s injury saga took another turn this weekend. Here’s what head coach Bill Self had to say.

Enjoying Open For Business? It would mean the world to me if you could share the newsletter with three of your friends who want Big 12 news without SEC or Big Ten bias. Tell them to sign up at OFBNews.com and get started today!