I’ve been warning you about this for a couple of weeks now. The Big 12 has a Boise problem. 

After BYU’s loss to Kansas, Boise State is now ranked higher in the College Football Playoff poll (#12) than the Cougars are (#14). That means if the season ended today, the Broncos would get the four seed and a first-round bye, and BYU would be heading to Columbus as a 12 seed to take on Ohio State in the first round. 

Even SMU is a spot higher than BYU despite losing at home to BYU and having the same record. The absurdity of the Mustangs being ahead of the Cougars is laid out succinctly here. 

Conveniently enough, K-State dropped out of the College Football Playoff rankings when teams like Missouri and Illinois, who have objectively worse resumes, made the cut. That takes away a ranked win for the Cougars and props up teams like Alabama and Penn State. 

Can BYU or #16 Colorado jump back in front of Boise by winning out? Probably so. But all bets are off if it’s a three-loss Colorado or two-loss BYU, Arizona State, or Iowa State that wins the league. 

The Big 12 is far from alone in its frustration. The committee found a way to make virtually everybody upset with the latest rankings reveal. 

The SEC is up in arms about Indiana being in the top five and potentially taking a spot away from a fifth SEC team. It’s so transparent that even big brand connoisseur Ari Wasserman saw through it in this brilliant takedown of the SEC. 

That’s why you’ve seen a media blitz from SEC-adjacent personalities in college football pushing the “SEC is the greatest conference” narrative HARD all over the place this week. 

Funny how there’s far less chatter about the fraudulent resume of #3 Texas, whose best wins are over Vandy and Arkansas. 

The bottom line is that the Big 12 needs BYU or Colorado to win out to keep Boise State at bay. Their games against Arizona State and Kansas this weekend are massive. 

By the way – for those looking for the next installment of the Big 12 basketball anonymous player survey, I’ll have that in your inbox Friday morning with the weekly primer for football.

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Big 12 Power Rankings

Here are your week thirteen Big 12 power rankings! Please note: these are rankings, not power ratings. That means they are primarily based on what a team has accomplished so far this year – not necessarily how good I think the team is. You’ll see their ranking from last week in parentheses.

1. BYU (LW: 1)

2. Colorado (LW: 2)

3. Iowa State (LW: 4)

4. Arizona State (LW: 5)

5. K-State (LW: 3)

6. Baylor (LW: 7)

7. Texas Tech (LW: 6)

8. TCU (LW: 9)

9. Kansas (LW: 12)

10. West Virginia (LW: 8)

11. Cincinnati (LW: 10)

12. Houston (LW: 11)

13. UCF (LW: 13)

14. Arizona (LW: 14)

15. Utah (LW: 15)

16. Oklahoma State (LW: 16)

• Colorado has been playing like the best team in the Big 12 for a couple of weeks now, and BYU’s loss should clear the way for them to be number one in my power rankings, right? That’s what I wanted to do, but if I obey the parameters I set at the beginning of the season, I have to give the top spot to the team with the best resume. That remains BYU. Their wins over K-State and SMU are better than the Buffs' accomplishments this year. 

• Iowa State vs. Arizona State is another tough debate. I went with the Cyclones because their blowout win over Baylor has aged very well, and they still have the victory at Iowa. Arizona State just picked up its only win of the season over a team with an above .500 record. 

• K-State might fall below Baylor if I were making this a true power rating instead of ranking, but the Wildcats still have the better resume with wins over Colorado and Tulane. I would take the Bears on a neutral field right now, though. 

• The strength of Kansas’ wins over BYU and Iowa State the last two weeks pushes them over a milquetoast West Virginia resume, even though the Jayhawks have one more loss than the Mountaineers. Nobody in the league has two conference wins better than what KU has in the last two weeks.