The committee did it again. They grossly overvalued the seasons that two Group of Five schools are having at the expense of the Big 12. 

#11 Boise State and #17 Tulane are serious threats to the Big 12’s chances to earn a bye in the playoff – or even get into the playoff at all. 

The committee’s treatment of the Big 12 is so egregiously poor that SEC-based college football voice Josh Pate, who spent the last month campaigning for the SEC, spoke up about it during the first two minutes of his show. 

(Pate is an SEC homer, but a reasonable one. I love his show and highly recommend checking it out)

The closest Big 12 team to Boise State is Arizona State at #16. The Sun Devils have two ranked wins that are vastly better than anything on Boise State’s resume (BYU and K-State), and their strength of schedule is better (66 to 81). 

The same can be said for BYU’s wins over #9 SMU and #24 K-State and their strength of schedule (40 to 81). 

Thankfully, somebody asked College Football Playoff Selection Committee Chair Warde Manuel why the committee didn’t dock Boise State for trailing deep into the fourth quarter in a four-point win over 2-9 Wyoming. The answer he gave might be the most pathetic thing to come from the college football world all year. 

People said it was tough to play in Laramie?!?! Josh Allen isn’t walking through that door. This isn’t your older brother’s Wyoming Cowboys, coached by Craig Bohl. They’re 2-9, Warde. 

How about a comparison of #24 K-State and #17 Tulane? The Wildcats have two ranked road wins, while the Green Wave have zero ranked wins. K-State leads in strength of schedule (48 to 100) and strength of record (23 to 28). Oh yeah, the Wildcats also won head-to-head at Tulane in September. 

What are we doing here?

Boise State and Tulane aren’t the real enemies here. The committee and the SEC/Big Ten have forced the Big 12 and Group of Five to fight over whatever scraps are left. 

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t point out BS when we see it. Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark did that this week in this must-read piece with Yahoo!’s Ross Dellenger. 

You should definitely be rooting for Memphis to take down Tulane on Thursday and Oregon State to knock out Boise State on Friday.

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Big 12 Power Rankings

Here are your 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. Arizona State (LW: 4)

2. BYU (LW: 1)

3. Iowa State (LW: 3)

4. K-State (LW: 5)

5. Colorado (LW: 2)

6. Baylor (LW: 6)

7. Texas Tech (LW: 7)

8. TCU (LW: 8)

9. Kansas (LW: 9)

10. West Virginia (LW: 10) 

11. Cincinnati (LW: 11)

12. Houston (LW: 12)

13. UCF (LW: 13)

14. Arizona (LW: 14)

15. Utah (LW: 15)

16. Oklahoma State (LW: 16)

• Welcome to the penthouse, Arizona State. Back-to-back wins over K-State and BYU give ASU the top spot over the other two-loss Big 12 teams. It would be hard not to take the Sun Devils to beat anyone in the conference – except maybe Kansas – right now. 

• K-State gets the nod over Colorado due to a head-to-head win in Boulder and two wins that are stronger than anything on the Buffs’ resume. The Wildcats’ problem is that all three losses have come in conference play, leaving them further out of Big 12 title contention than Coach Prime’s squad. 

• Tech’s win in Ames and a win over Arizona State, which has aged very well, will keep them just ahead of TCU. It’s honestly tempting to push Kansas above the Horned Frogs, too, after a third straight ranked win. I can’t in good conscience do that and follow my rule of basing this on the entire body of work – especially when TCU beat KU at Arrowhead earlier this year. 

• Cincinnati-Houston is a coin flip. Do you value Cincy having a win over the top team in the league (when they were missing their starting QB) or Houston having wins over K-State and TCU? I’m leaving them in the same spots as last week after they both lost as underdogs on Saturday.